In Albanian, “Let’s go eat rice” is said “Let’s go eat bread”. As you can see by their use of the word “bread”, bread is to Albanians what white rice is to us Japanese, a food that is the center of the meal.
There are bakeries everywhere when you walk around the city, though not as many as there are cafes. (The number of cafes in Albania is astonishing.) If you order soup, it always comes with bread.
Of course, there was plenty of good food besides bread. I’ve compiled a list of the meals we actually went and ate by region.
By the way, here in Albania, unlike Turkey and Egypt, many people don’t like to have a camera pointed at them. It’s not that they get angry, but they wave their hands and faces to the side as if to say “no thanks” and get out of the frame of the camera. The better the restaurant, the more customers there are, so you can’t take the pictures you want to take. Some of the photos may look like stolen photos (lol). Please understand.
Tirana version : 7 stores Berat version : 1 store Shkodar version : 1 store
Tirana, the capital city
Byrek Special “Luani”?
This is Blek’s shop.
Burek is a kind of pie made of several layers of dough made of cereal flour and baked in the oven with cheese, minced meat and vegetables such as spinach and onions in between.
Burek is widely loved in Middle East Asia, including Turkey, and Eastern Europe, such as here in Albania and Romania.
The name seems to vary from country to country and region to region, but in Albania it is written byrek and reads Burek.
This is just the royal way with cheese.
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to eat it. The cheese is delicious, but the texture of the layers of dough reminds me of the dumpling skin, and the flavor is just right, not too thin, not too thick, just the right amount of salt.
I don’t remember the price, but it was less than 100 yen. This will fill you up.
It was crowded with people of all ages, from the young to the middle-aged.
Laguna?
This place specializes in take-out. They sell pizza and ice cream.
There are queues at certain times of the day.
There were people in line behind me and I couldn’t instantly understand the Albanian signage, so I just pointed and bought a freshly baked pizza. It’s hard to believe that it’s only 120 yen a slice, but it’s quality! The queue was understandable. There is no space for eating and drinking in the shop, but since the park is right behind it, people were sitting on the benches here to eat their purchases. On a sunny day, it makes for a great lunch!
Le BON?
This shop, which I entered casually, is a cake shop that has several shops in Tirana. Cakes are the main attraction, but you can also have a meal here as well.
It has a simple and stylish appearance that would not look out of place in Japan.
Anyway, there are a wide variety of cakes. Whole cakes cost on average around 1,200 yen!
Individual cakes are also cheaper than in Japan, ranging from 100 to 300 yen.
It looks colorful and bright. Even those who don’t like sweets can enjoy just looking at them.
We bought lemon cake and tiramisu. The two together cost less than 400 yen. The sweetness was a bit too much for my taste buds, but it would be perfect with a cup of strong tea or a cup of black coffee. I think it’s a must-try for any sweets lover!
SHYQI?
We found a delicious restaurant that is not on Google Maps.
It is across the street from this bazaar.
It is run by an uncle waiter who speaks English and an uncle chef.
The choftes here are the best I’ve ever had.
Chofte, or meatballs. They were well flavored and went great with rice. You can eat them for 50 yen each. We also had them in Turkey, but they were called köfte in Turkey. It’s interesting to see how the names, appearance and flavoring of the meatballs change slightly depending on the country or region.
I asked for grilled veggies because I was craving veggies. A simple dish of grilled eggplant, zucchini and bell peppers topped with cheese and balsamic. Simple but good. Even if you don’t like balsamic, it’s not too sour and should be easy to eat.
The soup seems to vary from day to day, and today it was chicken soup. (I went on another day but it was chicken soup that day too lol) It is well seasoned and has just the right thickness when eaten with bread.
Albanian rice is basically seasoned, but it’s delicious with any dish. It was about 630 yen for these 4 dishes. The price is cheaper than other restaurants. Even so, the taste is as good as it gets, so there’s nothing to say.
Old Villa?
This restaurant was recommended by a local.
You enter through a stylish passageway. A place we would never have found on our own.
Once inside, it was very peaceful, with people enjoying their food, young people drinking coffee, and couples spending time together over a glass of wine. I wanted to take pictures of the stylish atmosphere inside the restaurant, but as I mentioned, it’s hard to take pictures when there are a lot of people in Albania.
It is Muslim, but I got it. Pork. Simple pork ribs. The salt and pepper is a little bit too much, which is typical of Albania, but it’s cooked just right and tastes good enough to make beer go down your throat. I didn’t drink it though.
Albania also has great pizza.
It’s basically cold in Albania, even inside, so I end up ordering this soup. This is vegetable soup. I think it’s potato based, but it tasted rich and delicious. The bread you can see in the back is one or two of the best breads I’ve eaten since this trip started! I wasn’t expecting it, so I was surprised.
Qofte Tradita Met Kodra?
This is a restaurant specializing in chofte, which I was told by a local.
There were already a few people in line at the shop. When we followed them, they started to line up further back. It seems to be a popular restaurant among the locals.
When we visited, the uncle was working hard all by himself, baking, adding choftes from the back, taking orders and paying the bill.
Many people bought choftes and bread and brought their own beer and other drinks. I like the feeling of freedom.
How do you like this far from Instagram-worthy look? But it’s just a single chofte, so there’s no way it can’t be delicious. You can faintly taste the lamb, but it doesn’t have any of the smell that I’ve felt when I’ve eaten it elsewhere. The flavor of the meat, the simple salt and pepper seasoning, and the char-grilled flavor, it was the best flavor I’ve ever tasted.
The price is 30 lek per chofte and 10 lek for bread. A sandwich with four choftes costs 130 lek. That’s about 139 yen. Amazingly cheap.
Flower’s?
I’m not sure of the name of the restaurant. Probably, yes. But it shows up on Google Maps under a completely different name.
This is a so-called “common people’s diner”.
At lunchtime, there were male customers who ate quickly and left the restaurant while working, and elderly men who ate while chatting with two or three others. There were also women ordering take-out for their co-workers and other local customers.
Stuffed eggplant stuffed with minced meat. The eggplant was very delicious.
I still order chicken soup. It was delicious with a deep taste and some grape leaves in it.
Berat ed.
Restaurant Bar Çuçi?
The first restaurant we went to when we arrived in Berat. This place was a bonanza.
The restaurant itself isn’t big, but it’s almost full of locals.
This is chicken fillet. Seasoning is simple salt and pepper with simple herbs. If this were served as a lunch set meal in Japan, it would be popular with a wide range of people, from businessmen to women with a high level of female power.
This is Chofte. I also had it in Berat. The choftes here were also superb. The herbs are doing a good job.
This one was called rice, but it was seasoned instead of simple rice. On the side, there is a tender chicken. If your appetite is thin, this is enough for you.
This is vegetable soup. It tastes so good that you want to ask where they get that depth of flavor from with vegetable soup. It tastes even better with the bread that comes with it.
All this for 800 yen. It’s hard to believe it’s in Europe.
In fact, we went back the next day for lunch again. Then the restaurant gave us a dessert.
One of the Albanian desserts I’ve been dying to try, ashleh! This dessert is called sweet porridge with wheat and other grains, fruits and nuts. Porridge is a dessert? You might think that, but this is surprisingly delicious. The top is lightly sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and the texture of the grains and nuts accent the thicker texture of the pudding. It’s been a while since I’ve been away from home (or maybe the first time…) that I’ve encountered a dessert with less sweetness. I felt as happy as when I meet Japanese people in a foreign country (lol).One of the Albanian desserts I’ve been dying to try, ashleh! This dessert is called sweet porridge with wheat and other grains, fruits and nuts. Porridge is a dessert? You might think that, but this is surprisingly delicious. The top is lightly sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and the texture of the grains and nuts accent the thicker texture of the pudding. It’s been a while since I’ve been away from home (or maybe the first time…) that I’ve encountered a dessert with less sweetness. I felt as happy as when I meet Japanese people in a foreign country (lol).
シュコダル編
Restaurant PURI?
This is a popular restaurant where locals gather.
It was so good that I visited two days in a row lol. On the first day, this is what I ordered because it was recommended.
It had a dubious name, Father’s rice (Best seller), but it was rice served with meat and vegetables. This meat was delicious and tender.
Along with it came a free beef hamburger steak. It also comes with cheese and vegetables. Chef, did you train in Japan? It tasted so nostalgic that I wanted to ask them.
The chicken soup was also delicious.
This is the first time in Albania that it is covered with sour cream. It’s a big portion with pasta in it too.
Here’s what I ordered on the second day.
At the back is Chofte, an Albanian specialty. In the front is a sausage. I didn’t get to ask what’s inside, but it might be pork. It’s what we eat in Japan, so called “delicious sausage”. It’s been a long time since I had it, so it was very tasty.
It may look out of place in a Japanese restaurant (lol), but it’s delicious with a gravy-like sauce on the rice. Most of the local customers ordered this.
And here is a salad. It may be hard to tell, but it weighs 300 grams. Salad is pretty filling, isn’t it? I’ve never eaten this much in one sitting, so my stomach was surprised.
By the way, the first day was the menu in English Euro. On the second day, I ordered from the menu written in Albanian. Probably, Euro is for tourists and Lek is for locals. I can’t say because the menu was different, but I think the price was higher in Euro. I think all the food is good, but I personally recommend the Albanian menu because it has more items and the price is cheaper.
—————————————- Restaurants in Albania are basically good. If you go in with low expectations, you’ll be right. The food is generally very well seasoned, so water may be essential.