If you’re a foodie spending next week in Slovenia, you can count yourself lucky—the Restaurant Week is an excellent opportunity to explore the country with your taste buds. A hundred carefully selected restaurants from all parts of Slovenia will open their doors to all lovers of good food between October 11th and October 20th. For ten days, you can explore everything that Slovenia has to offer in terms of food and wine.
Header image by Simon Koležnik.
What is the Restaurant Week?
The idea behind Restaurant Week is simple—since 2012, this annual event, organised by Vivi Šola okusov, has been trying to present the best of Slovenian gastronomy to both locals and foreign visitors. This year’s Restaurant Week also serves as preparation for 2021 when Slovenia will be the European Region of Gastronomy. The restaurants participating in the Restaurant Week are expected to bear the brunt of the international attention in two years.
Who is participating?
This year’s Restaurant Week has a hundred participants, and while hundred may sound like a very specific number, it wasn’t predetermined. It is the quality that decides which establishments get included. Restaurants need to receive a high enough rating from the critics of Vivi Šola okusov. Eight new restaurants were added to the list of participants this year, and the best to ratings altogether were given to two chefs who have yet to turn 30.
A list of all participating restaurants can be found on Vivi’s website. To make your choice easier, they can be sorted according to region and rating. Vivi also divided them into further categories that are meant to describe the story of each place.
These include:
restaurants offering traditional flavours,
restaurants that are worth taking a day trip,
restaurants that are, in principle, farms and homesteads,
restaurants that serve meat above all else,
restaurants with the best sea-food in Slovenia,
restaurants that serve traditional dishes with a modern twist,
restaurants that combine everything modern, cosmopolitan, and popular,
fine-dining restaurants for special occasions,
restaurants with a particularly excellent selection of wine.
Where to eat around Maribor?
Eight restaurants from Maribor have made it to the list. If you’re staying in the area, here are the places you can explore.
Steakhouse Rožmarin
Steakhouse is a quirky restaurant with a heavy focus on burgers and steaks, a number of side dishes to share, and a typical depiction of beef cuts on the wall.
Burgers and beer are all well and good, but Steakhouse prepared a special treat this week. Photo: Špela Debenjak.
Restavracija Sedem
Restavracija Sedem is the restaurant of the College of Hospitality and Tourism Maribor and offers an excellent seven-course meal and a highly aesthetically pleasing experience.
A little inspiration is enough to turn simple ingredients into magic.
Gostilna Maribor
Located at the site of an 18th century brewery and the famous restaurant Koper, Gostilna Maribor focuses on traditional local cuisine that presents Slovenia to the world and reminds locals of the food their grandmothers used to put on the table.
Fudo
Fudo is a modern mishmash of different tastes and styles without limits and rules right in the centre of town.
No two plates are the same–let yourself be surprised.
City Terasa
Dubbed the house of Mediterranean cuisine by Vivi, City Terasa is a restaurant with a magnificent view and a combination of traditional and modern Mediterranean flavours.
A taste of sea inland.
Rožmarin
Rožmarin emphasises everything Mediterranean and boasts with an excellent wine cellar to boot.
Fermented rhubarb, lardo, pumpkin mousse, and seeds … We're sure you've never tried this combination before. Photo: Špela Debenjak.
Gostilna Lešnik
Gostilna Lešnik is located at the edges of Maribor and combines typical Slovenian food with a taste of the countryside caught in their herb and vegetable gardens.
Restavracija Mak
Restavracija Mak is one of the three best-rated restaurants in the eastern parts of Slovenia and combines fine dining with a large measure of creativity.
Meet David Vračko, the mastermind behind your dishes in Mak.
Who is behind all this?
The main organiser of the event is Vivi Šola okusov (Vivi School of taste), who has made it its mission to inform people about good food and wine, high quality restaurants and vineries, and interesting recipes. They offer various cooking courses, but they also teach how to truly enjoy every culinary experience. This year, STO (Slovenian Tourist Organisation) is also a partner of the event. They see gastronomy as a driving force of tourism in Slovenia in the future and are trying to promote the Restaurant Week abroad.