Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Purportedly New York's first and, to date, only Serbian restaurant, Kafana's warm atmosphere welcomes Slavs and non-Slavs alike---as long as they like meat.. In Short
Kafana's rough-hewn charm begins with its décor: yellow clapboard and brick walls, framed black-and-white photographs of Belgrade streetscapes, certificates in Cyrillic, and an Orthodox Christian icon hung above an alcove. Tap water arrives in antique-looking milk bottles. On temperate evenings, the wait staff opens the doors to a tiny veranda, heightening the bistro feel. The menu features hearty, carnivorous fare like cevapi (grilled minced meat), pljeskavica (traditional Serbian burger), krmenadla (pork chop), and prebranac sa seljackom kobasicom (baked beans with peasant sausage).

Doesn't Recommend

saban

Joined 5 years ago

Bad service, good food served in strange way. Food is good but most of it is overpriced. Place is too small for that number of tables. I spent waiting forever in the front and no one came to show me the table. Usual serbian food is served in a strange way like cevapi that are supposed to come with bread or lepinja come with nothing. Who eats meat and onions without anything? then you end up paying for bread extra.What ever they calldjuvec is actually sataras and that portion is way too small. Desert menu is very poor,only two deserts in whole menu. It was hard to find it and noone in nyc we asked ever heard of that avenue.

Recommends

osbornrift

Joined 5 years ago

A new favorite, had no idea Serbian cuisine was this amazing. Cute place, too.... My first time there: Ordered the fried smelt, which came (generously portioned) with the perfect amount of light but flavorful batter and a delicious aoli on the side. We had the mixed grill, and every item on it was a star Absolutely wonderfully seasoned food, all presented well and thoughtfully with very fair portions and extremely reasonable prices. The decor was spare but personal, the service was genuinely friendly and eager to please without being at all "hovering". The EV and beyond put out a LOT of new places around this size/price, but this is a standout member among avenues of assembly line "ex-servers' dream" places that come up short. Definitely a star of the neighborhood.

Recommends

spicy_tuna

Joined 6 years ago

Delicious Serbian food in a warm setting. Been wanting to eat here since it opened a couple of weeks ago and I'm so glad I finally did!

Went a couple of nights ago with a friend and my boyfriend and was very pleased all around. Vladimir, the owner, is there looking very dapper and overseeing all the tables, meeting and greeting all the customers as they come in.

I recommend the cured meats plate as a starter, as well as the cucumber/feta/tomato salad. We shared the mixed grill plate as our entree: the sausages were great, and I loved the prune stuffed with walnut and wrapped in bacon- so delicious.

The desserts were also a treat--sour cherry pies, and some kind of serbian sweet mush that looked like a pile of oatmeal but was so tasty when mixed with the whipped cream. All in all a very pleasant evening, with good, attentive service. The restaurant is intimate and well-designed and I look forward to going back and trying the lamb-spinach stew.