Sumptuous Sundays: Balkan Yugoslavian Home Cooking

The BF and I decided to be a lil' adventurous last week and tried Balkan Yugoslavian Home Cooking for dinner. We're not the adventurous type when it comes to food, but there's something about the word "Yugoslavian" that really piqued our interest. I dunno-maybe we both want to know more about Yugoslavia and this restaurant was the closest thing to experiencing it, or maybe there's a part in us that wants to go to Yugoslavia? Could be both!

Balkan Yugoslavian Home Cooking is a pretty brave venture in a country ruled by Italian, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, and American cuisines. In my experience, Balkan cuisine is partially Mediterranean Italian, French, and Persian as most of the meals feature bread, greens, cheese, meat, meat, and more meat.

PRICE RANGE: Appetizer and Soup- Start at P100.00; Salad - Starts at P100.00; Main Course- Starts at P230.00++; Dessert- Starts at P140.00+

Before entering the resto, I thought that the interior would be somewhat country-ish: Homey, warm, and cute, but turned out that it's pretty cool and modern-simplistic modern to be exact. I loved the minimalist furniture and splashes of color here and there. The question that lingered in me all throughout our experience was: Where can I get those dayum cute oversized light bulbs?! I want some for our house! :D

A tastefully artistic wall that shows everyone how to recycle old magazines. That magazine mural was brilliant, don't you think? :)

Check out their offerings after the jump!

Pileca Supa- Chicken Noodle Soup. Never expected so much from this soup as I thought it's either canned or made from a powder mixture, but I was wrong: It was cooked from scratch and reminded me of the good ol' chicken soup that my granny used to make, that soup that makes cold days warm and bearable, and sickly days alright. :)

It's a clear broth with thin strips of noodles and soft boiled carrots. The broth has this slight chicken liver taste to it-I don't like chicken liver or anything liver, but I was able to gobble down this soup because the liver taste was okay and it really enhanced this simple dish. I actually love it. :D

Arugula Salad With Feta- Great salad is great. This healthy mix of cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and arugula is oozing with lotsa' tangy flavor, thanks to the lemon-honey-olive oil dressing and those damn fine and tasty fried Feta Cheese portions. The Feta Cheese slices are wrapped in light and crunchy deep- fried Filo Pastry: It's so mouthwatering, so fabulous, so good, so appetizing...I could go on and on about how yummy the Feta Cheese is so I'll just sum it up for 'ya: TRY IT!

Stuffed Pljeskavica- Ground Beef steak stuffed with ooey gooey Mozarella Cheese with fresh veggies on the side-you can opt for rice or french fries to go along with it. This dish tastes authentically fresh and I like that the meat still tastes like meat, with its own juices still intact giving it that heavenly juicy flavor. Oh, the Mozarella stuffing is so generous and I had so much fun chowing down the whole thing. By the way, Pljeskavica is one of their national dishes. :D

Chicken Batak- The BF opted for a high- calorie and sumptuous kind of chicken. LOL. Here's the story: My BF's diet buddy has always been chicken meat: bland, grilled chicken meat that's only lightly peppered and salted, all for the love of healthy living. He's been eating that 'piece of paper' regularly for about 3 or 4 years now and he got Chicken Batak 'cuz he's never had 'REAL' chicken in years haha! 

Anyway, this dish is comprised of marinated, deboned chicken meat with shredded mozzarella on top-sounds all too simple, but if you were in my BF's shoes, this means Nirvana. :D Chicken's super tender and marinade's flavorful, but it didn't drown the nice, smoked flavor of the chicken and that grated cheese made everything a lil' better. :)

Palacinke- Yugoslavian version of the Crepe. Unlike French Crepe, Yugoslavian Crepe is quite thick, moist, soft, a lil' buttery, and heavy-it's like Roti Canai. You have three filling options for Palacinke: Chocolate, Jam, or Eurokrem. I opted for Eurokrem, a brand of chocolate spread and it was a good decision: It's rich dark chocolate with a hint of hazelnut. The ice cream topping is not for free though, and you have to add 40 pesos for it. It's the perfect ender to my already awesome dinner.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Balkan's menu is comprised mainly of mainstream Yugoslavian dishes-I'm sure there are more traditional Yugoslavian dishes out there, but they brought out those that would perfectly suit the Filipino palate. Well that's just me thinking! Btw, portions here are huge so bring a big appetite or companions!

To cap off this post, I just wanna say that I really, really like this restaurant because the food is super simple yet super good, clean and straight to the point. This is such a feel- good restaurant!

Balkan Yugoslavian Home Cooking is located in Crossroads, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City and Maripola Bldg., Perea, Makati City.