Gadling

One of the most frustrating things in Tirana is simply finding a good place to eat. The problem isn’t one of quality, however, but of quantity. Tirana must have the fewest restaurants per capita of any city in Europe.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem to be the case. The Bllok area is crammed with people sitting at cafes and watching the world go by. But when I looked closer, I noticed none of them were eating.

I spent hours wandering the Blloku, and greater Tirana in search of restaurants and found less than half-a-dozen of them. I even had two guidebooks to help me out but nearly every suggestion was closed when I eventually found it. The reality is that Albanians don’t go out to eat very often and the city doesn’t have enough tourists to maintain the few restaurants that try to survive in this climate. As a result, I found myself at the same three restaurants over and over again.

Bacchus (Vaso Pasha). Italian food is king in Albania and this is one of the better places to enjoy it. Pizzas are decent, the capresse is excellent and full meals come to less than $10.

Era (Ismail Qemali) . Also Italian based, but they do have a small section of Albanian food in the (English) menu. The chicken dishes were very tough, but the stuffed eggplant more than made up for it. Also, very affordable with dishes $5-6 dollars.

Serenata (Mihal Duri 7). At last! True Albanian food and man was it good! The baked feta brought tears to my eyes, the fresh bread was delicious, and the entrées outstanding. The main waiter speaks a little bit of English, which is good since the menu is only in Albanian. I always took his suggestions for the best items and was never disappointed-even when I ended up with some type of innards. I normally hate any type of innards but these, whatever they were, were prepared with enough spice and marinade to actually make it rather tasty. In addition to the great food, the interior is designed as an old ottoman house. The only problem was the lack of diners. There was never more than two other tables filled when I ate. I have a sad feeling that Serenata will soon disappear like so many other “great” restaurants recommended in my guidebooks.

Over the course of my travels in Albania, I came to rely in two main staples: bread and cheese. This sounds rather Spartan, but both were consistently the best thing I had no matter where I ate. The cheese is fantastic. The feta is creamier than the Greek version and remarkably rich. The bread, baked fresh every day, is airy and tasty–far better than anything I can find back home in Los Angeles. Everything else I ate in Albania had various degree of quality. Most of the meat was stringy and had I not brought dental floss, I would have been very uncomfortable. I wish there were more places like Serenata throughout the country, but this simply wasn’t the case. All too often I found myself digging into pizza. I didn’t travel all the way to Albania to eat Italian food, but often times I had no other choice.

Yesterday’s Post: Drinking in Tirana
Tomorrow’s Post: Tirana Accommodations

Tirana is not the place to go if you want to cut loose and go a little crazy. Nightlife here, which really didn’t exist under communism, is calm and relaxed and very mellow. Dancing on tabletops and getting visibly drunk is just not done.

That’s not to say there is nothing to do in Tirana. An entire section of town is basically dedicated to nightlife. The Bllok (The Block) is crawling with bars and cafes. What makes this part of town utterly unique, however, is that this is the neighborhood where the communist elite lived prior to their downfall. Ordinary citizens were not allowed to step foot in this part of town; armed guards were posted at the entrances and the whole area was blocked off, thus the name which still sticks today.

The arrival of capitalism and western-style decadence (albeit low key) is particularly ironic in this former communist hotbed. Nowhere is this more apparent than the street of Ismail Qemali. On one side is the former home of dictator Enver Hoxha–a dictator so paranoid about the outside world that he severed all train lines that crossed the Albanian border. On the other side, directly across the street, sits dozens of cafes and bars. There is something irresistibly pleasing about lounging on the outside patio of Insomnia–an American owned bar–with a cold Heineken in hand, gazing across the street at Hoxha’s old house.

There are other great watering holes as well. My favorite, Capriccio, is a just a couple of blocks away on Brigada e VIII (see above photo). It is modern, swank, and oozing with a great atmosphere. I would never have guessed I was in Tirana had you blindfolded me and dropped me off there.

Flex, on Dëshmorët E 4 Shkurtit, is similar in style and feeling and also worth a visit. Slightly more pretentious, with artwork on the walls and dour-faced posers sipping coffee, is Quo Vadis (Ismail Qemali 27). My favorite place to hang out during the day was the top floor of Bar Select. This rooftop café is nestled amongst pine tree three stories above the busy streets and is a wonderful place to slowly sip your drink and watch Tirana pass you by.

Certainly the bar with the very best aerial view is the Sky Club Café (Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit 5). Capping the top of Tirana’s tallest building, the Sky Club has amazing views of the Blloku as well as the surrounding city. Like building-top bars of similar ilk throughout the world, the ambience is cheesy and the drinks expensive. Go for the view and then duck out.

Lastly, I can’t write about nightlife in Tirana without mention the Living Room (Punëtorët e Rilindjes 16). Everything I read before going to Tirana mentioned how this was the hottest bar in the entire city. I stopped by twice and it was as dead as Tirana circa 1974. The interior is really quite cool, modeled after a very nice living room complete with stuffed sofas and bookshelves, but for whatever reason the bar seems to have fallen way off the “What’s Hot in Tirana” list.

Although I was the Ugly American who drank lots of Coca Cola in the Bllok, the resounding drink of choice in Tirana is coffee. Tiny espresso cups litter tables everywhere I went. For those wanting something a little harder, most of the upscale bars serve a variety of imported drinks, but not much else. There is very little domestically produced alcohol in Albania. Be sure, however, to try the local beer, Birra Tirana, which is light, hoppy and decently tolerable. And don’t leave Albania without ingesting a shot of raki. If you like swigging kerosene or other types of fuel normally poured into small motors, this is the drink for you.

Yesterday’s Post: What to see in Tirana
Tomorrow’s Post: Eating in Tirana