Pristina is home to a decent selection of affordable eateries that dish out anything from tasty pizzas to flaky bureks, and a bit more. While it is not a destination I would recommend travelling for food alone, it nevertheless delivers enough diversity for even a longer than usual stay for a city of its size. As I picked Pristina to be the hub of my travels around Kosovo, I had a chance to get pretty intimate with its dining scene. The following is a summary of my experience with eateries around Pristina, one that I hope could be of some use for those who wish to travel that way in their own upcoming journey.
Destan Burektore – https://maps.app.goo.gl/TjC7UCX2uEq91KU77
Some of the finest pastries in the known universe can be found in the Balkans, and Pristina is an excellent spot to put this theory to test! While the city is full of bakeries left and right, which are often known in Albanian as fürre büke, not all are created equally. I am sure there are some other superb bakeries out there, but the best one I had the pleasure of visiting was Destan Burektore. The burek here is out of this world. Out of this world I say! It is the crispiest and flakiest burek I had anywhere. The cheese melts in your mouth, and it just kind of melts all over the plate as well, given how plentiful of it is in there. All of this, with a yoghurt on the side, barely breaks the 1 Euro barrier. This is peak burek experience in my humble opinion. A must go in Pristina.
Mama Mantia – https://maps.app.goo.gl/G6PpaDKLHZMw2i7K7
While Destan Burektore is the best place to enjoy bureks in their purest form, it does not really provide much of a selection to its clientele. This is where Mama Mantia excels. While I did eat better bureks elsewhere in the Balkans, and even in Turkey, they offer some very good sweet and savory options, and these all go perfectly with some freshly brewed Turkish tea on the side.
They recently branched out, opening a second location close to the Cathedral of Saint Mother Teresa. It seems that this second place is more like a proper café, whereas the first one remains an all-day breakfast place, to put it bluntly. While the food in both places is good, I have to say that the original spot seems to have better service. In any case, certainly well worth a visit!
Liburnia – https://maps.app.goo.gl/dARbKtBxsrPt7uP7A
While burek is quintessential Balkan food, there is much more to explore here in this part of the world than just that flaky goodness. Liburnia is one of the most recommended spots to try the remainder of the local cuisine. Now, let me be very frank here. As a pescetarian, I do not eat beef, pork, or chicken for that matter. That means, I do not even eat 99% percent of what most would consider Balkan cuisine, by choice. Therefore, perhaps it is not the very fair for me to comment on this establishment. What I could order here, some baked potatoes with egg and cheese, as well as the excellent Kosovar salad was, to be fair, great. However, the service was not the best, and my mother was not a fan of her meatballs, which came extremely late, pretty cold, and served alongside a mountain of very salty and creamy cheese sauce. The atmosphere was decent, though the staff did seem overworked and at times a bit annoyed. In any case, they do have a huge menu that offers something for everyone. Besides, the prices are reasonable. I suppose it is well worth a visit for most people.
Jana Napoletana Pizza – https://maps.app.goo.gl/UhJiqoHi9HUT79vk9
I adore pizza, which must be clear by now to the few people who may be following up on my adventures here on this website. I love it so much so that it makes up most of my diet when I am traveling abroad. It also saves the day in places where locals are known to enjoy an extremely carnivorous diet. There is pizza everywhere, and when there is pizza, there are meatless varieties of it to enjoy. Thankfully, Kosovo has an excellent pizzeria scene. The best pizza in Pristina, if you ask me, can be found in Jana Napoletana Pizza. The staff is professional, and the owner is friendly, and their pizza pies come with an exorbitant amount of tasty tomato sauce, and with massive chunks of mozzarella on top. This is a pizza lover’s paradise to say the least!
Proper Pizza – https://properpizza.com/
Kosovo has a few international brands, but it did not surprise me to see that one of those brands (with a branch in New York no less) is none other than a pizza chain. They may not make the best pizza in the world, but they have an excellent gimmick for all sesame lovers out there. All of their pizzas come with a sesame seed crust by default. I love sesame, almost as much as I love pizza, so this union is a most welcome one for me. The pricing of this spot is also as insane as their crust, in a good way. You can get a massive pie that can feed a family for less than 10 Euros, which is nothing short of amazing. They also serve all their pizzas with some excellent pickled peppers and olives, which too is a winner move in my book. This is certainly a unique chain to explore if you visit Kosovo.
Baba Ganoush Meze – https://maps.app.goo.gl/S1sAEgCxCKkRaZSC6
I am not ashamed to say this but the best dining experience I had in Pristina took place in a Lebanese establishment. Well, I mean, I am pretty sure some locals own and operate it, but they serve vegetarian Lebanese cuisine, nothing local. All the mezzes we had here tasted divine, though the batatas bravas and the hummus excelled in every imaginable way. They also serve the best beer I had in the region, which was some local craft beer that I wish I noted down the name of somewhere. The only weak link in this otherwise perfect chain was the falafel wrap. It was still good, but definitely not perfect like the rest of the dishes we ordered. It was a bit drier than I expected. Regardless, a must visit spot in Pristina, and a much needed one at that for all vegetarians and vegans heading that way!
Lily’s Pejton – https://maps.app.goo.gl/X9mPNbahQrvWJpS6A
While Baba Ganoush blew my mind away, Lily’s Pejton was a close second in terms of quality and quantity. Their shrimp burger was, in fact, full of shrimps. These were no tiny shrimps as well, but massive ones. These juicy sea bugs were served in a fresh bun with a lot of other goodies, mostly made in house. Their fries were tasty, and the service was impeccable. The coffee and the Spanish omelet my mother ordered both turned out to be up to her standards as well. They have an amazing little backyard that is just perfect for hot summer days too!
Taste of America – https://maps.app.goo.gl/vM78qHPUEMR912jJ8
While I stick to savory stuff almost exclusively, I cannot deny myself some sweets when I exert myself a bit too much. In this 18-day trip I took across the middle of the Balkans in the summer of 2024, I ended up walking for almost 300 kilometers. This was no easy feat, and my stomach started to make certain noises that only a proper sweet could fix. I ended up enjoying the Taste of America a bit more than imagined, a small café excelling in American desserts, and being the best at it according to its many Americans patrons. After all, there being so many Americans in Pristina should mean that there must be some spots that are fitting for them, and I was not wrong. The pecan pie I had here was one of the best I had so far, and the apple pie was a close second to its nutty excellence. While these pies were already godsent, it was their exceptional cookies that made us come back to this place, so that we could stock up on some of those sweet goodies for our journey down south. This is surely the best spot to visit if you have a sweet tooth to fix!
Burger King
Burger what? Well, I am not going to recommend you to go a global fast-food chain that everyone already knows about. It is the last thing a pescetarian would want to do anyways. However, this was the first Burger King that I could find the mysterious vegan patty, as we did not have it in any place I lived in since its introduction in the USA a few years ago. The patty was, to put it simply, very meaty… Suspiciously so. I was lucky to have my mother there with me, who ordered a “normal” burger. I was happy to see that while my patty did taste meaty and sort of looked meaty, it was not exactly like a real meat patty. That one looked differently. In any case, while this sodium filled fake burger did satisfy my cravings for an actual burger, it was far from ideal. Down the road in this trip of mine, unbeknownst to me at that time, I would encounter an exceptional vegetarian burger in the very heart of Skopje. More on that in a few weeks!
In short, while I know that Pristina is far from being a dream destination for a foodie, for a city of its size, it certainly surprised me for the better with the selection and quality of the food that it offers to its visitors. If you like Italian food and baked goods, you will especially like this lovely city.