Snacks – All our local tips

I am quite happy to announce this bar, which has opened a few months ago. Why the excitement? In my opinion, it has almost everything a bar should offer. Let me start with the goodies. Do you feel like jamming? They have a jam stage waiting for you. You can also rent a bike for free! With all this goodies, free Internet doesn’t really sound much, but still I need to mention it.

A really big attraction is also a very cheap beer. You get it for € 1.50 if you order it between 17:00 and 19:00. A small tip: Show up at a bar a few minutes before 19h and order beers for all night, you will get the next one served cold when you will have drunk the previous. But don’t tell this to everyone! When you get hungry, there are panini waiting for you.

The bar with a really nice atmosphere is located in a hidden corner of Ljubljana centre. This summer was really lively there, with small gigs and DJs performing often.

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bar CONESTOGA | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | 0,5 l beer € 2.20
Trubarjeva 43 | Center
08:00 – 01:00 daily

Supposedly one of the biggest commerce centers in Europe, it’s located in the northeast part of Ljubljana. The easiest way there is to take local bus (LPP) nb. 27. Alternatives which will also bring you close are number 2, 7 and 12. You can also take a train from the main station, but I’ve never done that. Once you’re there, you can go around on foot or jump on a free shuttle.

This place used to be a big storage space, but today numerous halls offer a great variety of merchandise products: from fancy dressings to simple gifts and food.

The second reason for visiting the place would be entertainment options: sport events, cinema, cultural shows, etc. The slogan of the place is “This is my city!” and they definitely do a good job making the visitors happy and create possibilities to find everything in one place.

Simply said: a city inside of the city.

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BTC | Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks
Šmartinska 152 | Moste | +38615851100
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 20:00 (shopping)

This out and in-door central market place is best address when it comes to food. Here you will find all and everything. Most of it is home made, from veggies to fish, flowers, meat, cheese, spices and so on. Mostly traditional Slovenian products, together with architecture of the place, give the market special charm in my opinion.

I love to eat breakfast here – a few different sheep and goat cheeses and still a bit warm home made bread are like a small private feast. Sitting on a stairs, eating and observing people moving around like little ants with flower bouquets, big bags of fruit and fresh fish is my favorite ‘city center’ sport.

If you don’t mind eating with plastic fork you can also enjoy nice lunch here – in the kiosk near Zmajski bridge they offer fresh grilled fishes and calamari for low prices.

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Centralna Trznica | Shopping, Snacks | 1 kg of apples € 1
Vodnikov trg, Pogacarjev trg | Center | +38613001230
Mon – Fri 06.00 – 18.00, Sat 06.00 – 16.00

If I’m honest, I’m not 100% sure if this bar is called Cupiterija or Hijo de puta, I think that they use both names. The bar opened a few months ago, so it really is fresh stuff! Before that, the place used to be a really minimalist bar in white. Now you wouldn’t recognize it anymore, because Cupiterija is the absolute opposite. It’s a mixture of different colors and styles. You can say that it’s one of those Gaudi style Spanish bars that every European city must have.

There are a lot of reasons why you should visit this place, but the most important one is definitely the relaxed atmosphere. The staff is so kind and relaxed, that you can think in the middle of fall, that you are somewhere on the beach of Barcelona.

They also have some quite amazing drinks. You have to order lots of chupitos! Small drinks, pure alcohol, with different flavors like chocolate, honey, chilly, weed etc.

Because the place is so great you will probably stay there longer than you expected and you will start to feel hungry. They took care of that and you can order some really nice snacks.

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Čupiterija | Bars, Snacks | chupitos € 3.00
Mestni trg 4 | Center
09:00 – 01:00 daily

This newly renovated and polished deli in -1 floor of Maximarket shop is now quite a sight; I was positively surprised when I set foot inside for the first time after the reincarnation from just an ordinary food market, crowded in the weekends with youngsters buying alcohol for parties, to definitely the no.1 gourmet place in Ljubljana.

They have a huge range of Slovenian wines, oils and meat products proudly promote our culinary culture. Yeah, we surely know how to eat good; it is not just Italians and French who kick ass. What you definitely won’t find in these two countries is great pumpkin oil, that comes from our North East flat region.

An almost black thick liquid, known just in some parts of Austria and Hungary, is tradition in our little country; a bowl of salad can hardly manage without it. Small „fancy desert” recipe, hard to believe or with other words „don’t judge just try”, is to sprinkle few drops of oil on vanilla ice cream – it tastes fantastic!

When it comes to top five things to bring home, you have to include this oil, Karst prosciutto, Karst sheep cheese, Teran liqueur and few bottles of Slovenian wines.

When hunger unexpectedly strikes and you are looking for something fast and cheap, it is also worth to stop here. Fresh pizza slices, sandwiches, pastries, cakes and fruits can manage you to survive on a very low budget.

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Delikatesa Maximarket | Shopping, Snacks | Slice of pizza € 1.00
Trg republike 1 | Center | +386614766800
Mon – Fri 09:00 – 21:00, Sat 08:00 – 17:00

All meat lovers unite! You will love this place. The only vegetable they use in this restaurant is onion (and yet only for the sake of better meat digestion), so it is not really vegetarian friendly. Also don’t expect fancy wine card or French desserts – here the only drink is beer and as a desert you get strong traditionally cooked Turkish coffee together with ‘old school’ Drina cigarette, packed with nicotine. Healthy food is for pussies anyway.

The menu is simple: grilled meat (cevapcici and/or sudzukice – a kind of sausages), home made bread, also a bit grilled, onion and kajmak – a special sort of cheese that you melt over meat.

And that’s it – that’s the whole magic. If you will try & eat everything you will have successfully passed the basic introduction course of traditional Balkan food. Congratulations!

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Harambasa | Snacks, Restaurants (Balkan) | Cevapcici € 5.00
Vrtna ulica 8 | Vic | +38641843106
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 22:00, Sat 12:00 – 22:00, Sun 12:00 – 18:00

One of those shops that I can’t really believe still exists is situated on the main pedestrian street, Čopova ulica, named after the  important Slovenian linguist Čop. It has confronted all the system changes and is a monument of the fraternal country we used to have.

If you share the adoration for chocolate with me, you should visit this shop in between haunting for the main tourist attractions in the city centre. Try “bajadera” or “ledene kocke” (directly translated as ice cubes) to gain some strength. Both have been well known sweets around here for a long time.

The shop that we refer to with the French word bonbonnière has goodies from KRAS, a Croatian company that’s been in my life since childhood. Their main chocolate brand is called Dorina, and comes in a variety of flavours. They also have a Toblerone-kind-of chocolate called Kolumbo.

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KRAS shop | Shopping, Snacks | Free
Copova ulica 3 | Center | +38614262205
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 19:30, Sat 08:00 – 13:00

This place is not so petit (small) as the name describes, but it’s a really nice “French” spot near the famous concert place Krizanke (check the Krizanke article)

I simply love the atmosphere: great decoration on the walls, cozy chairs by the windows and great terrace outside, great vibes in the air of people coming for a snack or just having a quick look at daily paper. Not to mention their breakfasts and the house coffee – really good!

Recently they renovated it, and changed into a two storey place, but honestly, I haven’t check what’s the deal yet… maybe they will make a restaurant too? mmm, sounds good to me

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Le petit café | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Le Petit coffee € 2.10
Trg francoske revolucije 4 | Center | +38612512575
Mon – Fri 07:30 – 23:00, Sat – Sun 09:00 – 23:00

Do you know the feeling when you are hungry and just want to get something quick, good and not too expensive to eat? Then you start to think about places that meet these criteria and you find out that you’ve already been in the Thai restaurant this week, you are not in the mood for Spanish, and you have had enough of pizza…In short you have no idea where to go.

This is why Lunch café is ideal! It’s not too expensive - a meal costs € 5.00 – and you have several new menu choices every day. It’s also quick and located in the old town center! The prices for a la carte can get above € 10,=, but this is still quite normal considering the place is in the old center.

They also have some really nice desserts like tiramisu and cheesecake. You should also try ginger soup… it’s absolutely delicious!

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Lunch café | Snacks, Restaurants (Lunch) | Light meal € 5.00
Stari trg 9 | Center | +38614250118
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 23:00, Sun 12:00 – 23:00

Burek is a food, a very good one. Fast food actually, fatty and salty and totally unhealthy but it feels like sent from above when you need some energy refill in the middle of the night…or in the early morning before you head towards your bed.

Nobel burek is a place where they have the best burek in town and it is usually the last stop before going home after heavy night of partying. It is quite generally known that burek together with yogurt kills (or at least reduces) hangover the next day, that is why it is so popular. In my opinion it beats kebab and hamburger big time, and because of its “balkan” roots, it feels more authentic as well.

My advice is to stick with the traditional meat or cheese burek and please forget about diet because you will miss all the joy. You will find Nobel by following Miklosiceva street from Preseren square towards Central station; when you are stopped by big kitschy green yellow sign and (specially during night hours) a bunch of people, you willl know you’re there.

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Nobel Burek | Snacks | Burek € 2.00
Miklosiceva 30 | Center | +38612323392
24 hours daily

Paninoteka is a tiny sandwich bar with a nice chill out atmosphere and great, really great, sandwiches.

I like it because they used imagination when they created the sandwich menu. You won’t get bored by their offer even if you eat there ten days in a row. They upgraded classics or created totally new combinations, such as Popay, fresh spinach+different cheeses sandwich.

It is a perfect place for a strong breakfast before starting a “tour de Ljubljana” or a light quick lunch where you can combine sandwiches with daily soups that they offer.

The only minus is they don’t have large beers, which is why I’d rather go somewhere else in the evening. But if you are not beer person, you won’t mind this detail.

To find your breakfast follow Ljubljanica river in direction from Preseren square towards old Ljubljana; it is located near Cevljarski bridge. Bon appetit!

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Paninoteka | Bars, Snacks | Sandwich € 2.50
Jurcicev trg 3 | Center
Mon – Sat 08:00 – 01:00, Sun 09:00 – 23:00

I am well aware of the fact that you can find an Irish pub literally everywhere on this planet, but the true beer lovers know that an Irish pub in all those places is always a mixture. A mixture of Irishness and local atmosphere.

For all the beer lovers it is really important to know that they are offering 38 different beers! Not to forget whiskeys are there speciality also. I was told they have more than 30 different kinds.

They serve lunch Thursday to Saturday from 11:00 – 16:00 and have live, Irish style, music every Thursday after 9 p.m. with no entrance fee. This bar is also a good option if you are a sport lover, since they have a big screen TV for watching sports, like rugby, football, ice hockey, cricket and many more.

Their lovely slogan is: There are no strangers here, only friends who haven’t met!

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Patrick’s Pub | Bars, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (Fish & chips) | Lunch € 5.50
Prečna ulica 6 | Center | +38612301768
Mon – Wed 16:00 – 01:00, Thu – Sat 11:00 – 01:00, Sun 16:00 – 00:00

This little shop of Pekarna Pečjak offers you to try out our way of making French pastries.

Everybody know „čokoladni navihanček”, unprofessionally translated by me into „kinky chocolate pocket”, their most famous product, which you can also buy in frozen version and bake it yourself at home. I bet every Slovenian housewife did it at least once and introduced it to her husband as her own masterpiece. Pretty smart, in my opinion.

They are also creating some „healthy” versions such as whole-wheat croissant with diet marmalade, which is very good for those, who prefer „not so sweet” sweets…or not so caloric ones – as you like to interpret it. But it tastes good, so don’t worry – you wont get “tastes like wood, looks like plastic” snack. Their latest product is crispy strudel filled with tarragon and mmmmmmmmmm that is yummy!

I recommend it for breakfast or daily snack, but don’t be too late, because all the good things will be sold out. Since it is located on Ljubljana’s main street, you really don’t have any excuse, to peek in and be tempted by something. Warning: watch out for chocolate spiral – it is very hard to resist her!

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Pekarna Pečjak | Shopping, Snacks | Chocolate pocket € 0.70
Čopova ulica 5 | Center | +38612515337
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 19:00, Sat 07:00 – 13:00

A few years ago I went to France for 2 weeks, I nearly always bought my lunch or snack in bakeries – boulangeries. When I left the country I knew I would miss those bakeries, but then I remembered that we also have one of those in Ljubljana!

Bakery Žak (Jaques) is located near Slovenska street in a bulding called Metalka and there you can buy some of those French pleasures. Early in the morning you can get different kinds of croissants, pain au chocolat etc and also great baguettes and sandwiches…

It’s best to go here before noon because later you may find 2 leftover croissants and one sandwich, because it’s quite a popular spot among locals.

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Pekarna Žak | Snacks
Dalmatinova ulica 2 | Center
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 17:00, Sat 07:00 – 13:00

What do you get if you combine location in the undiscovered part of old town, cool furniture, tables made of timber, a library with books in Serbo-Croatian and lots of cocktails with absinth? You get one of the greatest places to hang out in Ljubljana – a cozy living-room feeling café at daytime and a great party place at nighttime! You are going to worship their cocktails based on absinth.

Don’t get scared when you come to the bar and see their doors. They make you think the bar has been closed since the last millennium. Just open it and order a Supreme tonic .

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Pri Zelenem zajcu | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Supreme tonic € 4.00
Rožna ulica 3 | Center
Mon – Wed 09:00 – 00:00, Thu – Sat 09:00 – 01:00

When you enter this place, close your eyes and breathe in once or twice. What you will smell is the smell of heaven. Pure chocolate – everywhere and in everything. The chocolate oriented sweetshop Rustika is the best when it comes to this brown gold. Cakes, pralines and ice creams – what a joy!

A word of advice: when you will start brainstorming what to bring home from holidays, don’t bother with kitschy T-shirt nobody wants to wear, but choose some dark chocolate truffles that are first: eatable, and second: not just eatable but damn good. You will definitely gain your popularity among your friends and family!

It is true what they say: chocolate makes you happy…and brown around your mouth.

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Rustika | Shopping, Snacks | Chocolate cake € 2.30
Trubarjeva cesta 44 | Center | +38659935730
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 21:00, Sat 09:00 – 14:00

The lazy Ljubljanica River strolls through the city, but before it enters it, the river’s path is divided. The artificial channel dug more than 200 years ago makes a shortcut, avoiding the city center where the natural stream flows. Where the river is divided there are some simple barges serving as bars. There are three bars, but we call this place altogether ‘Spica’, which means spike and if seen from above it actually looks like a land spike that points into the water.

I’ve known this place since forever and was always visiting it because this green oasis makes a perfect getaway from the urban hustle and bustle. The short ten minute walk from the center is really beautiful as well, no matter which side of the river you take.

The three bars are offering mainly simple drinks you can drink either on the wooden benches on the shore or on the boat. Special view and fresh breeze you experience on deck chairs on the top of one of the barges. This bar also serves one typical dish from the Balkans, called ‘cevapcici’ that are thumb shaped grilled minced meat served on a plate with flatbread (lepinja), chopped fresh onions, kaymak and ajvar, which is a relish made mainly with red peppers, eggplant, garlic and chili. They serve it during the day for only € 5.00

I would recommend this place to everyone who likes nature and doesn’t mind simplicity. Here you can get a good portion of sun and a pristine smile. At Spica you won’t meet any big shot name, just regular people enjoying the atmosphere and some ducks passing by even in winter.

It looks like this winter is the last that we have this place since the renovating and making it more posh place has already started. Run there!

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Spica | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | Beer € 2.00
Privoz | Rudnik
11:00 – 21:00 daily

Every local has his favorite bakery. Well mine is definitely the old bakery, located in Siska. It’s really old-older than my grandpa, but was recently renovated. Since the renovation it’s bigger and it’s really hard to choose, because everything looks so tasty.

If you ask me, you have to buy the hedgehog – something sweet with a lot of chocolate and called “jezek” in Slovene.

Another great thing about the old bakery is, that it’s not located in the center, so it’s cheaper. Here you can buy burek (see this article) for just € 1.50!

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Stara Pekarna | Snacks | hedgehog € 1.00
Celovska cesta 68 | Siska
07:00 – 22:00 daily

Sweetshop Zvezda is the right address for those who want to lick the best ice cream in town.

The cookie and roche flavours rock, that’s for sure, but I am not an expert in the fruity flavours – you will just have to follow your own intuition. Their latest “invention” is rice milk ice cream and 100% fruit ice cream, which is great for those, who are looking for sweet but yet refreshing dessert. If your blood sugar is still low after that, switching to the cake department is smart option – they are all gorgeous!

A small tip: the pear and chocolate combination is the winning one. They are also good in sandwich making, coffee cooking and tea preparing so take your time and read a magazine or two while enjoying your afternoon. Now that winter is coming and we need to store some extra energy in our hips, hot chocolate is great choice too- it is soo thick that the spoon almost stands straight in it!

Forget the spa, this is the place where you should treat yourself and allow yourself to sin once in a while.

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Sweetshop Zvezda | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Ice cream € 1.20
Wolfova ul. 14 | Center | +38614219090
Mon – Sun 07:00 – 23:00, Sat 10:00 – 20:00

Another remnant of the past is a small shop near the main fruit and vegetable market.  It is marked with a sign that says: Grajske pekarne. You will find it situated at the back of the statue of Valentin Vodnik on the opposite side of the street.

At first look this is small and crowded shop but at another glimpse you realize that it offers you a great deal if you are a chocolate addict, chocolate lover or you just like to sweeten your tongue every once in a while. You can get a kilo of chocolate for as low as € 4.00!

Mainly all the products are from the Slovenian Company Zito. You can check also other Slovenian products, such as bread (generally we have really tasty bread in Slovenia), snacks, candies, different flakes and similar. The most recognized brand is definitely Gorenjka, Slovenian chocolate pride.

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Zito | Shopping, Snacks
Vodnikov trg 5 | Center | +38615876100
Mon – Fri 06:00 – 18:00, Sat 06:00 – 13:00

Bar that brought freshness into Ljubljana, one could easily say it is the first ethno club around here.

Its name Zlati Zob or Golden Tooth as would be direct translation refers to the often seen golden teeth in Gypsy smiles. Founders of the club are also part of well known band Sukar, which is the Slovenian tamburitza ensemble, a music band, that plays mostly gypsy music, which origins mainly from eastern and south-eastern Europe”.

The carefully selected decorations are from all over the Balkan Peninsula and the music played here is also orientated towards the south-east. That means one can hear a lot of folk and gypsy songs, sometimes only from records, but often there is live program.

Usually there are concerts on Thursdays, Ethno jams on Mondays and DJ programs on Wednesdays and Fridays. Sometimes travelers give lectures about their travels.

Dancing nights are also organized. First you can enjoy professional and amateur dancers perform, and then you should join them on the dance floor. Another positive thing about that place is that they serve very good Czech draft beer.

Another interesting thing of this place is also the building itself, which is part of Selo, 18th century mansion used for different purposes during the history.

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Zlati Zob | Bars, Music, Snacks | Beer € 2.20
Zaloka cesta 69 | Moste | +38659139552
Mon – Thu 19:00 – 01:00, Fri – Sat 19:00 – 03:00, Sun 12:00 – 01:00