The people of Montenegro are known for their hospitality and, based on an old tradition, open their doors wide as a sign of welcome. Guests are offered the best drink and food available in the home, are seated at the best places at the table and are made to feel as comfortable as possible.

This sense of hospitality and warmth can be described as second nature to the people of Montenegro.

Enjoy a lovely launch or dinner after a wonderful day of shopping and sight seeing in the Bay of Kotor. This Bay of Kotor Restaurant Guide will give you a breakdown of all the restaurants, food and cuisine in Kotor. For more general information please consult our Montenegro Restaurant Guide .

Bay of Kotor Food & Cuisine Guide

The cuisine of Montenegro is based on its geographic location and its long and rich history. Traditional dishes from the heartland and the Adriatic coast have an Italian flavour, especially in the way that breads are made, in the curing of the meat, and in the flavours of its cheeses and wines. Other gastronomic influences are from Turkey and the Levant, with dishes such as burek, pita and baklava. There are also dishes like the popular Hungarian goulash, doughnuts and Viennese bread from other parts of Europe.

The coastal regions in Montenegro typically eat a Mediterranean type of cuisine with lots of seafood, while the northern regions have more of a meat based cuisine, with dishes of lamb, polenta, cicvar and tripe. Montenegro's traditional method of cooking dishes of lamb, bread and flat cakes is still followed. In this method, shallow clay dishes are covered with a bell and buried under coals and ash to give it uniform heat from every direction.

Kotor has a variety of restaurants, with the majority of them offering typical Mediterranean dishes.

Cold Antipasto (a.k.a. Meza)

This is the dish that is usually offered to welcome a guest. The classic Meza platter includes items such as njeguska prsuta (which is a local version of prosciutto), thin slices of cacciatore smoked salami, njeguski and pljevaljski cheese, and kastradina, a type of smoked mutton.

Breakfast

A normal breakfast consists of Cicvara, which essentially is stewed cornmeal with skorup (fresh cream that is salted and compressed), pita bread with kiselo mlijeko (yogurt or buttermilk), popara, or simple bread with some skorup.

Soups

Soups generally include supa (pronounced soop-uh) which is a clear soup, corba (pronounced chore-buh) which is a thick soupy stew, and kasa (pronounced kuh-shuh) which is a porridge type soup. Soups are generally served as the starting course at lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day. Popular soups include kokosija supa, a chicken broth, jagnjeca supa, a lamb broth, and goveda supa, a beef broth. The traditional method involved adding a little rice to the pot once the broth was made, so that it became more substantial. Today, most people add pasta instead of rice.

Main Courses

Montenegrin cuisine include kuvani brav or boiled lamb which is similar to an Irish stew; kacamak or polenta, brav u mlijeku or lamb cooked in milk which is the national dish of the Albanians originally from Montenegro; buttered potatoes with corn meal drizzled with skorup, a fresh salted cream, that is served with either cold milk, yogurt or buttermilk, kuvana krtola or halves of boiled potatoes, served with cheese, fresh cream or cold yogurt; ukljeva or smoked and dried bleak; pastrva or fresh water trout; krap or fresh and smoked carp straight from Skadar Lake; rastan (pronounced as ruh-shtun), a sturdy green vegetable with a slight bitterish taste and which comes from the cabbage family. Rastan adds a delicious flavour when added to stews with pork ribs and also to ham hocks. Other main course dishes include japraci and dolma that is made by rolling rastan leaves and served with mashed potatoes; corbast pasulj, a bean stew that also has smoked ribs and a variety of sausages and salami and is similar to a French cassoulet or the fabada or feijoada from the Iberian region; Maune or a green bean stew; balsica tava, a fried veal with several vegetables and dairy items; grasak, a beef and pea stew; and pastrovski makaruli, a homemade macaroni with cheese and olive oil.

Seafood dishes

Seafood dishes are an important part of the Montenegrin cuisine and include items such as lignje (squid), tunj (tuna), salata od hobotnice (octopus), musle (mussels), scampi (prawns), and prstaci. Seafood dishes are a excellent choice when eating out in Kotor

Salads

Salads are also an central part of Montenegrin meals, with the most common salad being paradajz salata or tomato salad which is similar to a bruschetta topping with tomato, onions, olive oil and some rock sea salt; a zelena salata or a green salad with spring onions and spring lettuce along with some olive oil, vinegar and salt, ajvar (a roasted or fried capsicum relish) as well as kiseli kupus or sauerkraut.

The preferred way to end a meal is with some seasonal fruit and sweet biscuits accompany tea or coffee. Some of the famous sweets in Montenegro are the priganice, flat doughnuts or fritters served with cheese, jam, honey or homemade syrups with wild pomegranate that abounds in the countryside of southern Montenegro.

Montenegro has a variety of cheeses of which it is immensely proud. Varying from skorup, which is also known as kajmak and is a salty cottage cheese; pivski kajmak, a salty cottage cheese from the Piva area; prljo, which is cheese made of skimmed milk, cijeli sir, buca and zetica, all of which are made of unboiled milk.

Drink

Drinks made from dairy products like yogurt and kiselo mlijeko (buttermilk) are popular and are found everywhere.  

There are several Red and white wines local to Montenegro. One excellent red wine is Vranac, which is affordable and suits a variety of palates.  Montenegro's local Merlot can compare quite well with medium priced varieties from Europe. The best known white wines of the region are the Sauvignon and the Krstac, which is a dry wine. The local loza/grappa is Rakija and is consumed across the country for toasts and is also offered to guests. Since it is a fiery wine, it should be sipped slowly and is best drunk when chilled and taken as an aperitif with some smoked ham and cheese. Kruna is the smoothest variety of Rakija and is refined with vine twigs.

Montenegro's trademark is Niksic Beer, which is made of local barley, mountain water and some bitter but aromatic hops. The beer is usually served chilled at 5 degrees C.

Rakija is a local brandy that is made of grapes from Zeta Valley and the Crmnica region. While it is similar to Russian vodka, Montenegrin Rakija is a stronger and aromatic drink. There is also a brandy from small wild apples that are found in northern regions as well as from plums and pears and junipers. Montenegrin brandies all display the name of the fruit base from which they are made, so names are like lozovaca or loza (made of grape), sljivovica or sljiva (made of plum), krusku (made of pear) and so on. Prvijenac is an extremely popular variety of brandy and is strong and aromatic. Most meals are ended with some loza, a Pomace brandy that is quite similar to Italian grappa, slowly sipped and taken with a glass of water.