Description: Usually the best Slovenian restaurants are in the countryside or the suburbs. Slovenes might eat in the city centre at lunchtime if they work there, but rarely venture into the town centre to eat in the evenings. Unfortunately when we visited Velenje we did not have the luxury of a car so we knew our options for our evening meal would be limited.
We’d clocked Gostilna Sonce (pronounced "Son-seh") not long after arriving in town when looking for somewhere for lunch but we erred on the side of caution, opting for a supermarket sandwich instead in case Sonce was the only possibility in the evening. Later, in the tourist information office, we mentioned that we had seen the restaurant and asked whether it was any good. The assistant there told us that it was an excellent restaurant, notable not only for the quality of the food, but because it specialises in Macedonian cuisine. I didn’t need to ask any more questions; as we are both confirmed "Balkanophiles" we knew where we’d be eating that evening. (A Slovenian factoid - Gostilna Sonce is the only dedicated Macedonian restaurant in Sovenia)
Gostilna Sonce (the name means Sunshine Inn) is a fairly new (or at least renovated) yellow building situated just off the main road in the Stara Velenje (Old Velenje) part of the town. It was a good thing that the word "gostilna" (A Slovene word meaning "inn") was on the outside of the building as otherwise, with the stylised design of a sun in neon, I might have taken the place for a tanning salon. Having only seen the restaurant from the main road, we thought we’d find the main entrance on the quieter street in the old town; in fact, there is a little lane at the side of the building which takes you to the side that can be seen from the road. There is a decent sized outdoor dining area and this has been nicely shielded from the noise and fumes from the road. Of course, on a cold January night, we were going to eat inside.
Eating out in Slovenia can be a lonely experience; restaurants are often empty but that does not necessarily indicate the quality of any single restaurant. So we were not surprised to be the only customers when we arrived. Like most gostilnas, it has several adjoining rooms but we chose to sit in the first room. The interior is quite modern but still quite homely with warm yellow walls and colourful soft furnishings. At the opposite end of the room to where we chose to sit, there was a grill where some of the meat dishes are cooked.
We managed to fool our waiter into believing we were Slovene for a few minutes but when he realised we weren’t, he gave us menus in English and spoke to use in English too which wasn’t really necessary but he seemed keen so keen it didn’t seem right to let him down. Both staff we encountered were friendly and there when we needed them to be.
Balkan cuisine is centred on meat and those dishes tend to be fairly similar as far as the ingredients are concerned, with just the presentation differing. Most dishes are grilled but a few are done in the oven. Pleskavica is minced meat shaped into a pattie while cevapcici are tiny little rolled sausages of the same spicy minced meat. The traditional accompaniments for the grill dishes are sliced raw onions, and a dollop of bright orange ajvar (pronounced "I-var") which is a relish made from piquant red peppers and minced aubergine, or a dollop of kajmak (pronounced "kymak") which is a soft cheese made from sheeps milk. A traditional round bread called a "lepijna" ("lep-ee-nya") is served too. if you don't eat meat the choices are limited. There are some fish dishes.
As we often eat these dishes we wanted to try something we hadn’t had before, or don’t have so often (not only in Slovenia but all over the countries of the former Yugoslavia you can find simple grill restaurants just serving cevapcici and pleskavica alone). I chose a dish from the grill: it was described spicy little balls of minced meat combined with cheese. My partner chose an oven cooked dish, a pork and mushroom stew that had a layer of melted cheese over the top. We asked for a portion of "roasted potatoes" to share and a mixed salad to share which arrived before the main courses. We also munched on the complimentary bread while we waited for our food to arrive.
The portion sizes were generous and the food was nicely presented. The stew came in a simply decorated earthernware pot with a lid. It was delicious but quite difficult to eat because of the melted cheese. The sauce was lovely and rich and flavoursome and contained sizeable chunks of tender pork. My "meatballs" were very similar to cevapcici so weren’t what I was expecting but there were delicious all the same. We know in Slovenia that the style of cooking of things like eggs or potatoes often differs from our expectations from the name so we weren’t surprised to find that "roast potatoes" turned out to be somewhere midway between mashed and crushed. Whatever it was, it was very tasty and almost certainly loaded with butter.
We decided against desserts but there were several choices available including simple fruit salads and ice cream to rich creamy confections which are almost always filled with nuts and therefore off limits for me. We made do with Turkish style coffees instead which were very good.
Towards the end of our meal some customers came into the restaurant for a drink which made us feel only slightly less conspicuous. I’d like to go back in summer and eat outside, preferably on a Saturday or Sunday so there is a chance of having some fellow diners.
The total cost of our meal including beers was around €25 which was pretty good value.
Mon.-Thu.: 7.00-23.00, Fri-Sat.: 7.00-24.00, Sun.: 10.00-20.00
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