🇸🇮Slovenia: what to eat

The dishes

Štruklji

Everywhere, especially central Slovenia

Rolled dough filled with anything from tarragon and cottage cheese to walnut or buckwheat, boiled or baked. There are dozens of recorded varieties, sweet and savoury, and it is the dish most Slovenians would call their own.

sweet štruklji · young shanahan CC BY 2.0

Idrijski žlikrofi

Idrija

Small hat-shaped dumplings of potato, onion and herbs, traditionally served with a lamb or rabbit sauce called bakalca. An EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, and only properly made around Idrija.

žlikrofi with goulash · Yerpo CC BY-SA 3.0

Kranjska klobasa

Everywhere

The Carniolan sausage: coarse pork and bacon with garlic and pepper, smoked, and tied with a wooden peg. EU-protected as a geographical indication since 2015. Eat it with mustard, fresh horseradish and bread.

Kranjska klobasa · Andrejj CC BY-SA 4.0

Jota

The Karst and the coast

A sour stew of sauerkraut or sour turnip, beans, potatoes and smoked pork. Winter food, and the thing to order on a cold day in a Karst village.

a bowl of jota · Jernej Furman CC BY 2.0

Bograč

Prekmurje

A paprika stew of several meats, cooked in a cauldron over an open fire. Slovenia's answer to goulash, from the region on the Hungarian border.

bograč · Silar CC BY-SA 4.0

Prekmurska gibanica

Prekmurje

Layered pastry with poppy seed, curd cheese, walnut and apple fillings. Also an EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, so the recipe itself is protected.

Prekmurska gibanica · Sl-Ziga Public domain

Potica

Everywhere, at every holiday

A rolled yeast cake, usually walnut, sometimes tarragon or poppy seed. Every family has its own and will tell you theirs is the right one.

potica · Michael R Perry CC BY 2.0

Blejska kremšnita

Bled

The Bled cream cake: vanilla custard and whipped cream between layers of puff pastry. First made at the Hotel Park in 1953, and still made there.

Bled cream cake · F_A CC BY 2.0

Also look for

• Kraški pršut. Karst ham, dry-cured for at least a year in the cold bora wind. Order it with a glass of teran.
• Žganci. Buckwheat or corn spoon-bread, the old farmhouse breakfast, often topped with cracklings.
• Ričet. Barley and bean stew, the mountain hut classic after a long walk.
• Pumpkin seed oil. Dark green and nutty, from the east. On salad, on vanilla ice cream, or bought by the bottle at the market.

What to drink

• Orange wine from Brda and Vipava. Long skin-contact whites from rebula and local grapes like zelen and pinela. The west of Slovenia is one of the homes of the style, and the growers are small enough to visit.
• Teran. The Karst's deep red, from the refošk grape grown on red soil. Traditionally drunk with pršut.
• Šipon. Crisp furmint from Štajerska in the east, around Jeruzalem and Ormož.
• Cviček. A light, low-alcohol pink blend from Dolenjska. Local, cheap and very much of its place.
• Rakija. Fruit brandy, often offered at the end of a meal in a gostilna. Borovničke, the blueberry version, is the gentle one.

Eat your way through the 4-day route

The “First time here” itinerary from our Slovenia travel guide, with somewhere good to eat at every stop.

Where to eat in Slovenia

22 places, from a Friday street-food market to a three-star kitchen, by region. Stars and Bib Gourmands are from the current Michelin guide; every place was checked on 26 September 2026. Menus and hours change, so check before you go.

€ casual, under about €25€€ a proper meal, €25-60€€€ tasting menu

Every table on one map

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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors

Markets and food experiences

• Ljubljana Central Market. Plečnik's riverside colonnade: cheese, honey, pumpkin seed oil and whatever is in season. Mornings, Monday to Saturday.
• Friday at Odprta kuhna. The Open Kitchen food market, spring to October. Go hungry and graze.
• A cellar visit in Brda. Small family wineries. Phone ahead rather than turning up, and ask for the rebula that spent time on its skins.
• Osmice in the Karst. Farm pop-up taverns that open for a few days at a time to sell their own wine, ham and cheese. Look for a leafy branch hung at a crossroads.

Other people worth reading

• The MICHELIN Guide Slovenia 2026guide.michelin.comThe full current selection. Every star and Bib Gourmand on this page is from it.
• Taste Sloveniatasteslovenia.siThe tourist board's food pages, good on regional dishes and events.
• Odprta kuhnaodprtakuhna.siDates and cancellations for the Friday market.

Nobody paid to be on this page and we earn nothing from these links. We pick, we check, and we date it.

Common questions