1 /5 Šejla: I’ve honestly never felt the need to write a review for a restaurant before, but this experience was so unbelievably bad that it felt almost comical. I drove an hour to try this place after hearing good things and it ended up being one of the most disappointing food experiences I’ve had in a long time.
Yesterday my friend and I came in to get food for iftar and ordered two ćevapi plates, 5 extra ćevapi and a slice of trileće. The total came to just over $90. I genuinely cannot wrap my head around how that price is even remotely justified.
The online menu lists the ćevapi plates around $20–$25 and when I called beforehand I was told the entire order would be about $70. Somehow it magically turned into over $90 for what we actually received. Even $70 would have been pushing it considering the quality of the food, but $90 is honestly absurd.
Coming from a Bosnian background, the ćevapi themselves were an absolute embarrassment. They were way too thick, incredibly dry and tasted nothing like proper ćevapi should. This is literally one of the most basic and well known Bosnian dishes, yet somehow it was completely butchered. To make things even worse, the plate was served with rice even though on the menu it says it comes with fries. Ćevapi are traditionally served in lepinja, which is a huge part of the dish itself, so unsure why fries or rice are even options but at least fries would have been the better choice.
The only thing in the entire pack that was even remotely decent was the kupus. Everything else was dry, overpriced and deeply disappointing.
I’m also genuinely baffled as to how this place has a 4.8 star rating. The only explanation I can come up with is that the majority of people leaving glowing reviews have never actually had real Bosnian food before. Anyone who has grown up eating proper Bosnian food would immediately know that what is being served here is nowhere close to the real thing.
It’s honestly ridiculous seeing restaurants advertise themselves as “Balkan” and serve ćevapi while failing to even come close to the standard of the Bosnian national dish. I’m not sure why restaurants try to make a national dish and completely ruin it in the process. Charging these kinds of prices for such poor quality makes it even worse. Authentic ćevapi cost a fraction of this price and are infinitely better than whatever this was supposed to be.
Driving an hour for this was a complete waste of time and money. I definitely won’t be coming back and I honestly wouldn’t recommend anyone make the trip either unless you want a stomach ache the next day after eating the food.
List 15 Budget-Friendly Restaurants Near You in Dandenong, VIC (part 2)
