Tirana Food & Restaurants

Among the capitals in Europe, Tirana is one of them where you can find delicious cuisine, probably it is the only place where you could find both delicous food and good service together. Typical mediterranean vegetables, meat and fish are cooked by Albanian cooks very deliciously. It is possible to find many restaurants all around the city for almost any taste. Organic food can easily be found. Especially at Turkish style bazaars and at Pazar i ri, many types of fresh food is available.

It is very common to eat out. Many restaurants serve Italian Cuisine. Pizza served at most restaurants are probably at a better quality than the restaurants in Italy. Restaurants where pizza is served, many types of pasta and rice (pilaf) are also served.

Traditional Albanian food can be tasted at small traditional restaurants called "Gjelltore". The most common food served at Gjelltore restaurants are fasule & pilaf (beans and rice), qofte (meatballs), tasqebap. Albanian Cuisine is very rich and is a must to taste for a traveller.

There are also quite a few international restaurants such as Mexican, Indian, Chinese and Turkish. Turkish Restaurants are the most common international restaurants in Tirana.

Fresh snacks are easily reachable. The snacks which are usually fruits change from season to season. Street sellers who sell them are located a few meters away from each other all around the city, especially in the downtown. Typical snacks are chestnut kebab, sunflower seeds, plum, grilled corn and pop corn.

The last but not the least, byrek! Little shops called "Byrektore" sell fresh byrek. Byrek is really fresh and they are usually served right out of the oven. Interestingly, most byrek cooks are from Korca. Most common byrek types are with spinach, onion & tomato, gjize (a kind of cheese).

Albanians eat a lot of leek. It is a must taste when you are in Albania.

There are many meat speciliaties to taste. Most restaurants serve chicken, ham, veal, rabbit. Special pots called "chomlek" are used to cook the meat well. Chomlek meat food is another must taste for a traveller in Albania.