Before we went to Slovenia Camilla kept asking me what the food was going to be like, so I stuck a finger in the air and guessed it would be an Austrian, Germany like mix. Who knows!? We don’t have any Slovenian restaurants near us, in fact I have never even see a specific Slovenia cuisine restaurant before (and London has pretty much everything) so it was going to be a great surprise.

We found out much to our delight that it was more of an Italian, Austrian fusion (come on girls look at a map!) and we have to say we has some pretty top-notch meals for all different budgets. One thing which took us by surprise though was our lacking in wine consumption. Normally we’re all for a boozy dinner, however, when around the lakes you don’t feel the need. We were up at the crack of dawn most days and spending the days hiking around the National Park, so wine just wasn’t on the agenda. Sorry if you were looking for bar recommendations, we’ve truly failed you.

Therefore, without further ado, here is our run down of top five foodie must dos around Lake Bled.

Pizzeria Rustika 

Now this is where the Italian side of the fusion came into play. We love a good pizza restaurant especially when it has been cooked in a stone bake oven so here we were in our element. They have an extensive menu but obviously we went for the most expensive, which had prosciutto, olives, burrata, cherry tomatoes, rocket and balsamic vinaigrette and also a ham and cheese because who doesn’t love a classic and then split them down the middle. Best of both worlds.

The staff were friendly and funny, they took an interest in where you were from and your trip. It was a lovely experience and it won’t break the bank.

Cenik – Street Food 

On our first day we had been walking around the lake and spotted a few street stalls by the east end. They were heaving, and the queues were snaking all over the place. We obviously made a mental note and not wanting to go too big on our first night after travelling we headed back there that evening. There were two different stalls to choose from; one a more traditional vibe with meats, potatoes and veg, and the other pull pork buns and sticky wings! Drool! Guess which one we went for.

After queuing for what seems like forever when your wait for food we had two burgers, a side of sticky wings and two Aperol Spritz (just noted I said we weren’t going big and we didn’t really drink much… anyway moving on…) we settled down on the benches provided, nestled between the other punters and tucked in. Now, if you don’t like salt this option may be a problem, but after hiking around all day salt is exactly what we needed, and they went down a treat. If we’re honest the sticky wings might have been over kill as the burgers were filling enough!

Ari Kruhek

During our trip we lived in this place! Our hotel didn’t have breakfast included and we were getting up so early it wouldn’t have worked out timings wise anyway so luckily for us there was a little bakery right on the corner of our street; queue Ari Kruhek.

It is a little bakery, really really reasonably priced and you can get everything you need here. We would normally head in for breakfast (it opens at 6am – dreamy) and get two spinach and feta rolls and then also get two baguettes for lunch time because we didn’t know where we might be – you can get a salad but hey we were on holiday.

This little bakery was a life saver and a penny saver, we cannot recommend it enough!

Penzion Mlino 

This was our – we really need to get to the heart of the Slovenian cuisine solution. We had heard that Penzion Mlino served tradition food and we were eager to give it a go. Now, to say that it was smooth sailing would be a lie. But, it was an experience and when you travel that’s what you’re looking for, so give it a go.

We both decided to go for the veal with gnocchi and cranberry sauce. It was a random little paring in our eyes but it sounded authentic and we love veal and gnocchi so what could go wrong?

There wasn’t anything particularly ‘wrong’ with the dish, the veal was cooked beautifully, and it was delicious, the cranberry sauce was sweet and had full berries within and the gnocchi was cooked well too. The only little ‘erm’ was this brown crusty stuff on the gnocchi? We couldn’t for the life of us work out what it was. We knew it wasn’t working so we scrapped it to the side and enjoyed the rest of the dish, but we kept going back to solve the riddle. By the end of the meal we realised it was about half a bag of brown sugar they had been thrown on top of the gnocchi. Now, Camilla has a sweet tooth, but this was another level.

If anyone knows if this is normal Slovenian cooking practise, please let us know!?

But in all honesty, apart from the brown sugar confusion it was great – one hundred percent worth a try!

Sova 

Sova was our golden find. We had googled some good places to eat such as Pizzeria Rustika and Penzion Mlino, but this was a stroke of luck. We were walking round the south side of the lake and spotted this little rustic restaurant covered in wooden beams with its doors and windows flung open. It looked so inviting we vowed to go back before the end of our trip (and we are so glad we did). On our last night, and running out of time on our vow, we headed over. Luckily, they had a spare table, but by the muttering and pointing of the staff and worried faces we think booking would have been a safer option.

We had decided that tonight was wine night as we weren’t getting up as early in the morning and you know, we’re alcoholics at heart. They had a huge wine selection including many local wines which we love to try so big ticks there.

But the main sparkle of the restaurant was the food. It was beautiful. We both opted for different types of risotto and it was like little explosions of flavour with every bite, mine even had Champagne foam. Just go, you won’t regret it! And the pudding, oh the pudding!