Taste excellence

Explore the diverse culinary specialities of Slovenia

From the Alps to the Mediterranean, from the Karst and to the Pannonian Plain - taste something different every day.

Culinary specialities of four geographically very different areas are an excellent reason to visit Slovenia, one of the most sustainability-oriented countries and the first to receive the title of the Global Green Destination.

Alpine Slovenia boasts goods from mountain pastures, Mediterranean and Karst Slovenia feature the flavours of salt and charcuterie aged by the Bora wind. In addition to healthy water, Thermal Pannonian Slovenia offers different farinaceous foods and bread, and Central Slovenia with Ljubljana original dishes with cosmopolitan influences.

We choose and use local ingredients in our cuisine

Slovenian cuisine uses fresh ingredients whose journey from the field to the plate can be tracked.

Top chefs incorporate in their dishes typical Slovenian ingredients, such as salt from traditional salt pans, honey collected by indigenous bees, pumpkin seed and olive oil and wine, drunk here since Antiquity. Dishes are enlivened with wild plants harvested in nature.

Slovenian cuisine is based on local heritage and produced from the nearest gardens, fields, meadows, pastures, forests, orchards, rivers, lakes and sea. What grows in Slovenia’s 20,000 km2 always has a short transport route to kitchen. Most food comes from nearby and has a small carbon footprint. Slovenia’s gastronomic development is based on sustainable principles.

Enjoy your food and raise a glass anywhere in Slovenia. Taste excellence everywhere you go

Everything is close in the only European country combining the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Karst, and the Pannonian Plain.

It is only about a two-hour drive from Ljubljana to the most remote corners of Slovenia. Experience the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Karst, and the Pannonian Plain in one day. Enjoy superb gastronomic experiences and taste local dishes prepared by top chefs in all four regions.

Find the best dishes by top chefs in excellent restaurants

Check the ratings of prestigious international guides when choosing stops on your gastronomic journey.

The best flavours in Slovenia await you in restaurants that have been ranked among the world’s best by the Michelin Guide, the most prestigious book in gastronomy. The French culinary guide, Gault&Millau, brings you the best of Slovenian restaurants, bistros, wine cellars, breweries, and agritourism farms. The Slovenia Restaurant Awards highlight the 100 top gastronomic locations across all the Slovenian regions.

Try typical Slovenian dishes in inns and eat like locals

A gostilna is an establishment with many years of family tradition, house and regional dishes, and a selection of Slovenian wines and other drinks.

Traditional lunches are served there, which locals like to enjoy. Many also serve house specialities. The best among these typical Slovenian inns are labelled Gostilna Slovenija.

The criteria to obtain such label are:

• observance of principles of sustainable development,
• use of natural and traceable food,
• culinary knowledge,
• recognisability and hospitality, and
• integration of heritage and family traditions.

Why is Slovenia such a culinarily interesting and diverse country?

What we eat is based on nature and cultural influences at one of the most interesting European crossroads.

Surprisingly, Slovenian dishes occurred at the point where the Germanic north meets Roman countries in the West, the Slavic Balkans in the south and Hungary in the East. Find your favourite flavours and unforgettable experiences among the highest mountains and the wildest waters of Alpine Slovenia, among the wast fields and vineyards and in the healing waters of the spas in Pannonian Slovenia, in the saltpans and mysterious caves of Mediterranean and Karst Slovenia, or in lively Ljubljana and Central Slovenia, where the influences from all directions combine into cosmopolitan originality.