Cevapi and Beyond: Where to Eat in Sarajevo

I came to Sarajevo for the history and spent most of my time thinking about the food. The old town smells of charcoal from late morning, and once you catch that smell it is hard to think about anything else. If you are working out where to eat in Sarajevo, the short answer is that you follow your nose into Bascarsija and let the grill houses do the rest.

Sarajevo sits where a lot of things meet, and you taste it. There is Ottoman influence in the grilled meat and the coffee, Austro Hungarian influence in the pastries and cafes, and a local stubbornness that keeps it all simple and unfussy. Nobody here is trying to reinvent the food. They are just making the same handful of dishes very well.

Sarajevo cevapi: get this right first

Cevapi are the thing to eat first, and probably second. They are small beef sausages, hand rolled and grilled over charcoal, served inside a warm flatbread called somun that soaks up the fat. You order by the piece, usually five or ten, with raw onion and a spoon of kajmak, a soft cream that melts into the bread.

It is simple food, but the difference between a good plate and a great one is real. The best versions have a proper char on the outside and stay juicy in the middle, and the somun is fresh and puffy rather than tired. Most grill houses in the old town do cevapi and almost nothing else, which is exactly how I like it. Go where there is a queue of locals and a lot of smoke.

Beyond the grill: burek, pita and soup

Once you have your cevapi fix, the rest of Bosnian food opens up. Burek is the next must try. In Bosnia the word means specifically the meat version, rolled into a long coil of thin pastry and cut into pieces, heavy and greasy in the best way. If it is filled with cheese, potato or spinach, locals call it pita instead, so ask for what you want by name.

Then there is begova corba, a thick soup of chicken, okra and vegetables that is a meal on its own, and dolma, vegetables stuffed with rice and meat. Look out for stuffed onions and peppers in the little spots that do home cooking. This is the food people actually eat at home, slow and filling, and it is worth sitting down for rather than grabbing on the move.

Bosnian coffee and the sweet stuff

Bosnian coffee is a ritual, not a caffeine run. It comes in a small copper pot called a dzezva with a tiny cup, a glass of water and a cube or two of rahat lokum, the local Turkish delight. You pour it yourself, let the grounds settle, and sip it slowly. Rushing it misses the point.

For something sweeter, the old town bakeries do baklava and other syrupy pastries, and the Austro Hungarian side of the city shows up in proper cake cafes. Sit, order a coffee, have a sweet, and watch Bascarsija go by. Some of my favourite hours in the city were spent doing exactly that.

Where to eat in Sarajevo

Bascarsija, the old Ottoman bazaar, is the obvious place to start and it earns the hype. The lanes around the pigeon square are packed with grill houses, coffee spots and sweet shops, and you can eat your way through a whole day without walking far. It gets busy, but the food holds up.

For a change of pace, walk west along the main drag into the Austro Hungarian part of town, where the cafes feel more European and the pace slows down. The spots a street or two off the main route tend to be cheaper and quieter, with the same food. Wherever you end up, busy and local is the rule I trust.

What it costs

Sarajevo is kind to your wallet. A full plate of cevapi with bread is a few euros, a burek costs pocket change, and a proper sit down dinner with drinks rarely stings. Bosnian coffee is cheap everywhere, which is dangerous, because you will want to sit for an hour every time.

A few practical tips

Go to the grill houses hungry and early for lunch, since the best ones get busy. Carry a bit of cash, as smaller places may not take cards. Portions are generous, so order less than you think and add more if you are still going. And leave room for coffee, because turning down a dzezva in Sarajevo feels like turning down the city itself.

Planning the wider trip? My Bosnia guides cover Sarajevo, Mostar and the road between them, with the places I liked and the practical bits that made it easier.