Editor Pick
Dačo
Dačo is a fantastic restaurant.
Being some way out of the center of Belgrade, it’s a little bit difficult to get to and that seems to discourage a few people. Even our hostel reception couldn’t tell us how to get there and suggested a taxi, which would have been about €5; enough for two big desserts. We decided to figure out the inexpensive public transportation for ourselves, and it wasn’t too hard. We knew the address of the restaurant and found it on our map, which also showed that bus lines 35 and 37 went from Republic Square out to Dačo’s area. We found the ticket automat, put in the number of coins suggested by the adult symbol, and we were on our way.
We weren’t sure at exactly which stop we needed to get off, so we planned to just follow the landmarks, make an estimate, walk across to Patrisa Lumumbe street and follow it to number 49. The bus was crowded by the time we’d decided to hop out, and it took us so long to work through the standing passengers that the bus pulled away and we got carried on the next stop. This turned out to be lucky because it was much closer to the restaurant, which we finally found after floundering around in the dark, getting confused by the street-numbers, and eventually asking directions. Even our guidebook suggested that a taxi would be necessary, but the buses are fine and you’ll save at least enough for half a meal.
Perhaps because of all this stumbling around in the cold and dark, we liked Dačo from the moment we set foot in the door. It was our first experience of colorful, cheerful country-style Serbia, a world away from the sombre urban greyness of big-city central Belgrade. The entrance and dining rooms were light, bright, and strewn with all manner of folksy decorations. Brilliant red chillies hung from the ceilings in the thousands, and colorful embroidered rugs hung from the walls, which were painted over with the old roller-stencils once common in Central-European farmhouses. The furniture was picked out in bright primary colours, old wooden beds had been put into service as seats and stainless-steel graters and colanders were transformed into light shades. As if all this wasn’t enough, the fat trumpets of Boban Marković were playing in the background. This was exactly the kind of Serbia we’d been hoping to find.
But what about the food you ask? I decided to chance it with the "chicken surprise", which turned out to have lashings of sesame seeds and was delicious. Francie had the "poacher’s kebab", we shared salads and fresh bread, two drinks each and it totalled 2000 Dinar (about €25).
A little more than we would usually spend, but a bargain for the best meal of our trip and possibly one of my favorite dining experiences ever.
From journal White city, blue Danube, black heart.