When in Bratislava, eat tons of potatoes, meat, cabbage, blood sausages, venison and other game meat. Drink lots of beer too! And the locals will remind you not to forget the dumplings and the kofola — which is like Coca Cola with a hint of coffee and lemon. And just like its neighbouring countries, it has its own spin on the Hungarian goulash. On my last dinner in Bratislava, I wanted a light meal and settled for soup and salad. When dinner was served, I just stared at this massive salad in front of me. And the soup? It was goulash with dumplings! The one who served me promised a very Slovak dinner even if I just wanted soup and salad. The portions were so generous I wanted to make friends with the pair seated at the table next to mine! Lesson learned: Slovak cuisine is both hearty and generous. Oh yeah. If you’re eating alone, suffer. Or go just have a drink and pica pica.

From Day 1 in Bratislava, we fell in love with their Creamy Garlic Soup and Cabbage Soup. In this corner of the world, cabbage and garlic is life. I should have stuck to those. I said NO to brynzove halusky — potato dumplings with creamy sheep cheese sprinkled with bacon. That happens to be the Slovak national dish and the waiter from Linos Bistro can’t see how I can leave their city without trying it. And so we settled on soup with dumplings. Except that the soup turned out to be the hearty goulash…. with dumplings. Touché!

If I were dining with the boys, there wouldn’t be this problem. I just feel bad about wasting food, but neither do I want to get sick for over stuffing myself. If we didn’t have dinner 2 nights in a row in Bratilavsky Metiansky Pivovar, I would have gone there and ordered the Creamy Garlic Soup. One bowl of that could have been a good dinner. In fact, everything we ordered here those 2 nights were good. The boys enjoyed the pork ribs (even the side dish of peppers), the veal, while I swooned over the soups and grilled cheese. The chicken dish was so-so but ain’t bad. We found this gastropub through our tour guide. Beer was excellent, and I like that one can order a half a litre or 1/3 liter of beer.

Our Bratislava Loft Hotel houses the Fabrika Brewery Restaurant where we had our first meal soon after arrival. We enjoyed our welcome drinks of beer 🍺 and rosé 🍷 as well as ALL of the dishes we ordered. From the salad to pork scratchings (I swear that’s what they called ’em), to lamb shank to risotto. We ordered the risotto thinking we must be missing our Asian staple. 🙄 All winners! Even when we did retail therapy and found ourselves having lunch in a mall, we enjoyed our burgers and pulled pork sandwiches. For drinks, we tried the Slovakian cola. It’s like Kofola. And if you ask me, I’d rather have a lemonade.

This trip was planned in a breeze. Maybe because there weren’t too many expectations and we’re all feeling cheery, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. It likewise helped that we had good appetites and drank heartily. Not too much, but we sure love to drink a glass or 2 with our meals. And because the food and drinks bills here didn’t burn a hole in our pockets, Bratislava is ❤️. (How can you complain over wine that costs less than €2? Or beer costing €1.20? One dinner we paid €45 for the 6 of us. And that includes our beers!)