Rona makes some nice glasses. Could you keep it?



No tvaroh? looks really tasty

It was glassware in the restaurant, I was not about to take it. I don’t think I’ve seen it sold with the souvenirs.

No tvaroh, mak a višne.

I have not forgotten about you, and will get you the promised epilogue from Strelec, offerendum-style soon.

It's just...



...that vacationing is very hard and busy work.

As a little spoiler, this lady is keeping me busy today:





​​​​

Strelec is a Michelin one-star rated restaurant in Ljubljana, which slotted in neatly into my travel plans.

A bit more difficult to find on the site as the entrance is not visible from the main castle courtyard, but I found it eventually and got seated with a late seating. I’ve gone for a middle ground 7 course tasting menu, with the wine pairing.


Amuse bouche, first round. There was salmon tartare with cream on top, liver pate coated to look like a cherry, and the last one I don’t remember.

Second amuse bouche, which completely left my memory as to what was in it.

First course, roe tartar wrapped in leaves, foie gras foam

Cauliflower, with egg yolk, brown butter, breadcrumbs and truffles

Onion, with cheese and yeast

Veal main, with eggplant, pine nuts, olives and smoked marrow

First desert, with rhubarb, youghurt and elderflower

Peach, rosemary and honey in the second dessert

And lastly petit fours with, among others, melon jelly, chocolate truffle.

The menu was 115, the accompanying wine selection 60, and I paid a couple extra for an aperitif of sparkling wine.
All in all a good experience and an appropriate value. The food was very good (I think I have missed the pictures of both mains, one of which I grabbed from the restaurant socials) and certainly worth the Michelin award. Wine pairing also, great selection that paired well. I was happy to see that all of them were Slovenian, showcasing the variety this little thought of wine producing country can supply.
What was not so great was service. Some mistakes were made, with service recovery which was made with good effort but not effectively. Coupled with the fact that I was seated at 20:30 (and not as the last diner) and would not get my last course until about 11pm, when rest of the castle around was long deserted, this is something the restaurant should look at. According to maitre d’hotel I discussed the service with, they are stretched quite a bit with the restaurant management trying to extract as much value from the season as they can, to a detrimental effect.

Addendum -

The restaurant is in a tower of the Ljubljana castle. There is some outside seating as well for earlier diners, but by the time I came, it was all inside. The view from the tower is just a view of the city. Nothing special.


Small light at the table caused the well lit desktop to reflect in the window. This actually reminded me of another small issue, very minor, but in a detail-oriented environment noticeable - the light is battery operated and started giving up as I was finishing my meal.

The restaurant gives out a menu with the daily offerings, the 5, 7 and 9 course menus are put together by a chefs selection of these options. The sommelier was kind enough to write down my pairings as well.

What an amazing TR! Loved the multiple travel modes, and how much you packed into such a short trip. I did wonder how many people stayed outside of Paris and simply caught the TGV in for the day to spectate the various free Olympic events, especially like the road cycling or the marathon.

I, too, prefer the old TGV power car design. The TGV Duplex is one of my favourite trains in the world, despite the French quirks.

Very enthused!

And one last bonus post while I am vacationing. Once I am back to my daily grind, I’ll find more time to work on my next TR.


I have been thinking about taking my parents out for a “proper” dinner for some time now. Originally I was thinking a restaurant up in the Slovak mountains (Gašperov Mlyn, to be recommended) but recently, The Michelin Guide has extended the scope of its Hungarian publication from Budapest to the whole country, and one of my all-time favorite restaurants, one Anyukám Mondta (“Mom said so”) in a small town of Encs, received a Bib Gourmand distinction.
And about the same time, and perhaps for that reason, the restaurant started offering a 5 course tasting menu “Blind date with a chef”.

This was much easier to work into the plans as it is an easy drive from my parents home. So this year, I asked for the birthday dinner to be there.

I do not have any pictures to show the setting this time, but the restaurant is tucked in in a small alley behind the local post office, next to a butchers shop and a confectionery. The interior is nice however, quite recent, made out in a farmhouse style.
The restaurant serves modern Italian-Hungarian fusion, you can go as simple as cheap as a nice pizza, or have a multi-course menu as we did. Still with very good prices.

Let the pictures do the talking for a bit now:


First amuse bouche, a small piece of bread with a cut of ham, a bit of pesto and a bit of tomato paste. Excellent way to showcase the italian fresh tastes to come.

Second amuse, a small bowl of brioche, with duck pate. Nice, sweet, less Italian, but favorite of the group.

First proper course, grilled heart of mutton on a bed of panzanela. My personal favorite.

Second course was a bit disappointing, well executed but comparatively bland. Raviolo filled with ricotta, with tomato sauce and some special kind of parmigiano.

Catfish fillet on a parsley purree. Very good.

Second main, lamb on a bean salad with picked radishes. Somewhat disappointing, for some reason the lamb was over salty and chewy. A good idea in the dish, but the execution was not as good as it needed to be.

And lastly a simple desert of a chocolate cake. No petits fours tonight.


Wine pairing was had by most (except the designated driver) and they paired well. Only one red, with the dessert. Most of the rest was white, with one rose and one orange wine. Some were restaurant branded, from Hungarian producers and I really liked those. There were some Italian and one New Zealand wine, all around, decent showing, but not as good as in Strelec, which is absolutely fine for a restaurant with this distinction and especially price point.

Which is low. Yes, this is a Hungarian countryside random towns local restaurant. But still, the dinner is about 75 eur per person with the wine pairing, go with just water and you are under 50. For this amount and quality of food, it’s the best deal I’ve had in a looong time.

Is it worth upgrading to a Star? No, I don’t think so. I’m sure they could if they wanted, but the restaurant would have to change too much, and would lose, I think, the bread and butter of their business - people from the wider area who want a good dinner in a nice environment that wouldn’t break the bank. A Bib Gourmand is where the restaurant is now, and where I think they can comfortably stay for years to come.

Coming back through my reports, I realized I forgot to address this note.

I was actually looking at staying outside of Paris and taking the TGV in to take part, both for the first and second weekend.

What I have found is that the cities and towns around Paris, about the area of first stop of the Grande Vitesse routes, were quite expensive. Of course I have no idea whether this was due to Parisians wanting to get out, or visitors thinking to get a leg up on Paris proper prices... but I can definitely tell you, that a night close to the likes of Champagne-Ardenne TGV, Reims TGV or Fontainbleau was quite a bit more expensive than the Orsay hotel I ended up staying in.