Review: Belgrade Food Tour

Thanks Tiffany.

Lovely pictures & nice places to visit.

The food seems very good too.

That's great you write a post about your tour.

Thanks again.

Have you read "The Fortress", by Selimovic? One of my personal favorites, highly recommend.
Seems like you managed to get quite a lot covered in such a short time in Belgrade. I'd add a few things, but that requires a longer stay 🙂

On a side note, if your trips bring you to the Balkans again, Bosnia in particular, I'll be happy to show around 🙂

Good report. Thanks. I wish I had been aware of this tour when I was in Belgrade in May. I did stumble across that quirky bar - fun place to have a drink - and several nice restaurants on my own though. Belgrade is not nearly as pretty as any of the other places I visited in the former Yugoslavia, but I may have enjoyed my time and the people there more than elsewhere.

@ Ismar -- I haven't, but will add it to my list, thank you!!

Thanks for a review of the food tour! I hope to see more reviews like this in the future as well as activities you guys did during your trip! It's nice to read about other things once in awhile =)

I am happy to see a post about getting outside the hotel that doesn't involve a taxi scandal. 😉

But seriously, food is a big part of travel and the above adds much to the repertoire of the site.

I do love pictures of caviar, but also of local and street food.

You should make plans to do food tours on all your trips.

Tiffany,

Thank you for sharing this...I lived in Belgrade for 2 1/2 years, so it was nice to take a stroll down "Memory Lane".

- Nick

That's awesome. Serbian food is not for the faint of heart.
Ajvar is one of my favorite things EVER, but it's not easy to find in the US. You can find it, just not easily. However, Trader Joe's sells a knockoff (I'd say 96% of the original), they call it Red Pepper spread. Who knew?

@ Jules -- Really?!?! I will be buying some today.

Yes to a virtual book club! 🙂

Finally some culture in luckys bland of luxurious life 🙂

Great review!!!! Thanks

I'm in for the Travel related book club.

One of my favourite parts of trip preparation is the pre-reading list! We are off to St Petersburg next year, so I have set myself to read the Robert K Massie trilogy of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and a re-read of Nicholas and Alexandra.

This is excellent. I love food tours, they are to me the best way to get to know a new city, and I try to do one on my first day there. I mostly travel for the food anyway, but the walking part gives you the lay of the land, and you usually come away with some additional places to visit on your own time.

Food tour amateurs! 😉 You ate too much too early and didn't have room later. But you've written this post in a way that makes me want to visit Belgrade. It's a great gift you have, Tiffany.

Great post, and I wish I had read it before I visited Belgrade about two months ago. Unfortunately, my wife and I didn't have such a great time in Serbia. We have toured Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia, and I spent 6 weeks in Macedonia a few years ago. Serbia is the only country in the world where I encountered unfriendly people, was cheated multiple times by taxi drivers, called a f**king American a**hole and threatened with physical harm if I didn't pay the grossly inflated meter charges. I'm glad that you had a much better time with a local guide, but I must say I found the cultural offerings in Belgrade to be underwhelming. We were only there for two days and booked some restaurants in advance. We enjoyed Ambar, along the riverfront, which has an eclectic menu. Sadly, I won't be returning to Serbia. It's a totally different and disappointing experience when compared to its neighboring countries.

Thanks for a great post, Tiffany. I buy ajvar from my local Big Lots store in Arizona. It's usually in stock. It is a 540 gram jar made by Konex Foods in Bulgaria. The ingredients are red peppers, eggplant and garlic. Only $3.00, and has no preservatives, so it should be consumed within 3 days of opening... but that sounds like it wouldn't be a problem for most of us to eat it all up!

I did my first food tour last month in Melbourne and LOVED it. I am not a foodie, but my cousin is and I did it for her. It was ridiculously fun. And, a great way to see the city from a local's perspective.

We did the food tours in Paris, Milan and Venice earlier this year and all are highly recommended, lovely mix of a little history, culture and some great food and drinks. On each one our guide was fantastic, interested, interesting and fun. We are complete converts of food walking tours as a great way to gain a little knowledge and some of the atmosphere of a city.

Wow, I am so happy you liked your Belgrade tour. Next time, you should taste sarma, and more sweets! 🙂 Ajvar is pure delight, I eat it almost every day when it gets chilly outside. It's actually pretty easy to make.

I'm a Belgrade native, and although I love and enjoy my hometown with all it's quirks and imperfections, this whole "Belgrade experience" (AirSerbia Lounge/Business class/Hotel) feels too much like an advertisement paid for by some Serbian tourism lobby. I've been fortunate enough to be able to sample many different business class products, stay at nice hotels and lounges, so I believe my point of reference is quite healthy. Don't get me wrong, Belgrade can be a lot of fun (when you know where to look for it), but come on, lets be real. I've been an avid follower of this blog, you're gonna make me second-guess every recommendation from now on :(.

To Jerry, the taxi-victim. Cab drivers are a vicious breed (not just in Serbia), and I myself have been swindled numerous times. When in Europe, make sure to always use legitimate taxi services, by either calling and ordering a cab, or by taking one from a valid taxi station (clearly marked). Never hail one on the street, unless you're completely confident in what you're doing.

I love the idea of a virtual book club. You're more than welcome to start with my book, Room 702. 🙂

I also sincerely enjoy a food tour. Bali Food Safari is a great one if you ever visit.

@ Milan -- Huh? We had a genuinely good time. That isn't the case everywhere we go, but was here. Not sure how to be more "real" about the experience than that.

Ajvar is not actually hard to find -- just go to your local Russian grocery store and they'll have it there. The ones near me (in Miami) each have 10-15 different brands/styles of Ajvar, depending on the day

@Tiffany - I might've misplaced my comments in your thread, because I'm sure you had a great time roaming the streets. Plus you had a local guide, and people here are the real Belgrade treasure. I was mostly referring to "The best business class lounge in Europe"-type of headlines. Plus the rave reviews of the BEG-JFK business class experience. I've tried both, and it's fine. But, just fine. I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, its just that I'm such a huge fan of onemileatatime, I would absolutely hate to see it biased in any way.

Happy travels!

@ Milan -- Oh, that's fine, I am just confused as to what you think the bias is, and would like to assuage your concerns if I can.

I don't think either of us had high expectations of Air Serbia, so the surprise probably influenced our perspective. The lounge was great, which I would expect of a brand-new lightly-used Etihad-funded lounge. The service on Air Serbia was fantastic, but when Ben does his full review he'll go into some of the missed opportunities with product. I think overall it was impressive though, especially for an airline that only has one ultra-longhaul flight.

Thanks for posting this. For the past decade, every time we go to a new country, we try to do food tours. I am always on a lookout for reviews of these so that i can make note of them for the future. If you can, please keep posting about these when you take them. Heading to Rome and Milan next year and would love to do a food tour in either city!

'Love this review of a food tour in Belgrade. Very nice indeed!

I'm actually a lifestyle travel blogger & foodie and enjoy reading about different ways of travelling hence, a follower of Lucky (who I think is hilarious and quite awesome by the way) and this blog.

However, I very much enjoy your reviews as the angles are slightly more descriptive and personal. I remember reading abour your post on a cathedral (I think) and your description of it was interestedly impressive!

Dear Tiffany,

An enormous thank you for this extensive and lovely blog you wrote about Food & Culture Tours! 🙂

We feel honored and thankful for your words. Several guests have already found and visited our tours through this blog only!

We hope you and Ben are doing well and we send you lots of warm huggs from snowy Belgrade,
Jovana, Ana and Đorđe