Restaurants and cafés in Bosnia

One of Sarajevo’s best-known ćevapi names, on Kundurdžiluk street in the middle of Baščaršija, named after the Željezničar football club. The menu is short: ćevapi in somun bread with onion and kajmak, and you choose how many pieces.

What to order: A “desetka” of ćevapi with kajmak

★★★★★ 4.5 (12,000+) Review sites · October 2026

Visitors praise the meat mix with kajmak

No alcohol served

On Bravadžiluk, the grill street of the old bazaar. It has been grilling Sarajevo ćevapi for more than twenty years; orders come with salad, onion and warm somun.

What to order: Ćevapi in somun bread

★★★★★ 4.6 Review sites · October 2026

Visitors mention quick service and friendly staff

No alcohol served

Opened on Bravadžiluk in 1963 and now has branches around the city. A good choice for ćevapi or pljeskavica without a long queue.

What to order: Ćevapi and pljeskavica

★★★★★ 4.5 Review sites · October 2026

An old name locals have known since the sixties

No alcohol served

Run by Sarajevo’s well-known Ferhatović family and opened in 1984, the year of the Winter Olympics. Many locals call it their favourite of the bazaar’s three famous ćevapi houses.

What to order: A “petica”: five ćevapi

★★★★★ 4.6 (5,700+) Review sites · October 2026

Many praise the meat and the ćevapi with kajmak

No alcohol served

The best-known burek shop in Baščaršija, on Bravadžiluk. Pies come out of the oven all day and are sold by weight: meat (burek), cheese (sirnica), spinach (zeljanica) and potato (krompiruša).

What to order: Burek and sirnica baked under the sač, by weight

★★★★★ 4.5 (4,850+) Review sites · October 2026

Visitors recommend the mixed plate with four fillings

No alcohol served

A small shop in a lane off Bravadžiluk that bakes its pies “under the sač” — an iron lid covered with embers. Slightly smoky, crisp pastry, eaten with yoghurt.

What to order: Pies from under the sač with yoghurt

★★★★★ 4.5 (6,400+) Review sites · October 2026

Visitors praise the crisp pastry and generous filling

No alcohol served

An aščinica is a Bosnian cook-shop of slow-cooked dishes, and this is among the oldest in Sarajevo. You choose from the pots — begova čorba, dolma, bosanski lonac — and tables are shared.

What to order: Dolma and bosanski lonac

Visitors suggest the mixed plate to taste several dishes

No alcohol served

An aščinica in the lanes of Baščaršija where the food sits in the counter and you choose by eye: stuffed vegetables, stews, soups and rice. Good for a quick, inexpensive lunch.

What to order: Cooked dishes you choose by eye

Home-style Bosnian food, cheaper than most and with no wait

No alcohol served

The name means “grandma’s kitchen”: Bosnian home cooking in the old bazaar. Try klepe (meat dumplings with yoghurt and garlic) or dolma.

What to order: Bosnian home cooking

★★★★★ 4.5 Review sites · October 2026

Visitors mention warm hospitality and traditional dishes

A tiny restaurant tucked into a lane near Baščaršija, with a courtyard of flowers and hanging garlic. It bakes its own bread and serves slow-cooked stews and meats. Few tables — book ahead.

What to order: Lonac and house bread

Cosy and small, with a flowered courtyard

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

The “House of Spite”: when Austria-Hungary planned the City Hall in the 1890s the owner refused to sell until his house was moved, stone by stone, to the opposite bank. Today it is a riverside restaurant of Bosnian dishes.

What to order: Traditional Bosnian dishes opposite the City Hall

★★★★★ 4.5 Review sites · October 2026

The story and historic atmosphere are what visitors mention most

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

A hillside restaurant above the old town, looking down on the City Hall, the minarets and the rooftops. People choose it for dinner at sunset; a taxi from Baščaršija takes minutes.

What to order: A Bosnian dinner with the best view

Many visitors call its view the best over Sarajevo

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

An old Bosnian house in the Vratnik quarter above Sarajevo, with a panoramic view of the city. Known for spit-roast lamb and traditional dishes.

What to order: Spit-roast lamb

★★★★★ 4.7 Review sites · October 2026

The panoramic view is the first thing visitors mention

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

A small coffee house in the lanes of Baščaršija whose name means “the scent of quinces”. Bosnian coffee comes in a copper džezva with a cube of rahat lokum and a glass of water.

What to order: Bosnian coffee in a džezva

Visitors love the old-Sarajevo spirit, the coffee and the tea

No alcohol served

A café in the courtyard of Morića Han, the only Ottoman caravanserai still standing in Sarajevo, from the sixteenth century. You sit under the wooden galleries, away from the bazaar crowd.

What to order: Coffee in the Ottoman caravanserai courtyard

A cool place to sit even in the heat, with an authentic atmosphere

A small specialty coffee shop on the Kovači slope above Baščaršija. “Ćejf” is the Bosnian word for unhurried pleasure. Bosnian coffee, specialty coffee and cakes.

What to order: Specialty coffee

Well placed for a break while sightseeing in the old town

One small room on a cobbled lane in Kovači, pouring tea and coffee since 1997. Dozens of teas you can smell before choosing, plus Bosnian coffee, salep and homemade juices.

What to order: Tea and salep

★★★★★ 4.8 Review sites · October 2026

The owner welcomes guests and tells the story of the place

No alcohol served

A shop of handmade Bosnian sweets in the old bazaar. Bosnian baklava is less sweet and crunchier than Turkish baklava; there are walnut, rolled and other varieties.

What to order: Walnut baklava

★★★★★ 4.7 (510+) Review sites · October 2026

Visitors praise the walnut baklava and staff who explain each kind

No alcohol served

One of the oldest sweet shops in the old bazaar. Try tufahija (a poached apple filled with walnuts) or hurmašica with Bosnian coffee.

What to order: Traditional Bosnian sweets

★★★★★ 4.4 (220+) Review sites · October 2026

Known for walnut kadaif and tufahija made the local way

No alcohol served

A sweet shop on the Ferhadija pedestrian street, open since 1949. Its ice cream is something Sarajevans remember from childhood; traditional Bosnian sweets too.

What to order: Ice cream

★★★★★ 4.5 Review sites · October 2026

A caramel-tinged ice cream locals remember from childhood

No alcohol served

A restaurant with a shaded garden a few steps from Mostar’s Old Bridge. The mixed Bosnian platter puts dolma, ćevapi, japrak and more on one plate.

What to order: A mixed Bosnian platter

Minutes from the Old Bridge

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

A small family grill in Mostar’s old town. Platters are large and come with salads and grilled vegetables; expect a queue at peak hours.

What to order: Ćevapi and mixed grill

★★★★★ 4.8 Review sites · October 2026

A family restaurant for more than thirty years

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

An old stone house with a wooden terrace above the Radobolja stream, beside Mostar’s Crooked Bridge. Fish, grills and local dishes.

What to order: Fish and grills by the Crooked Bridge

Generous portions and low prices

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

The only café in Mostar’s old bazaar that roasts and grinds its beans on site, in a quiet lane behind the Tabačica mosque. They walk you through the Bosnian coffee ritual.

What to order: Bosnian coffee roasted on site

★★★★★ 4.9 (350+) Review sites · October 2026

Visitors love the explanation of how Bosnian coffee is drunk

No alcohol served

Travnik’s best-known ćevapi house. Travnik ćevapi differ from Sarajevo’s: the bread is dipped in meat broth before serving. There is a back terrace by a stream.

What to order: Travnik ćevapi with broth-dipped bread

Busy, but the service is quick

No alcohol served

An old coffee house at the Plava voda (“blue water”) spring in Travnik, mentioned by Ivo Andrić in his novel “Travnik Chronicle”. You sit beside running water under the trees.

What to order: Coffee at Plava voda

Known as one of the oldest coffee houses in Bosnia

No alcohol served

The roast-lamb stop on the Sarajevo–Mostar road in Jablanica. Lambs turn on spits out front; you order by the kilo with potatoes and salad, on a terrace over the Neretva.

What to order: Roast lamb by the kilo

Visitors praise the lamb, the potatoes and the river view

May serve alcohol — ask when booking

A local-food restaurant in Jajce, close to the waterfall and the old town — a good lunch after the fortress and the falls.

What to order: Local dishes inside a historic gate

Tables inside the historic Travnik Gate