Albanian Food: 32 Things to Eat and Drink in Albania
Before my first trip to Albania I knew very little about Albanian food. What I found surprised me. All the foods I thought of as Greek (pita, stuffed eggplant, ravani, baklava, kalamari, moussaka, baked lima beans) are regional, and Albania had them all.
Like the rest of the Balkan area, the focus is on fresh seasonal ingredients. Olive oil, ripe vegetables, local dairy and meats, fresh seafood, honey and coffee! Albania’s coffee culture is huge!
Albanian Food: What to Eat and Drink in Albania
Albanian food may not be fancy, but it is delicious. And it’s pretty healthy with an emphasis on local and fresh ingredients.
While grilled meat is hugely popular in Albania, there’s also lots of vegetarian dishes. Every restaurant will have some vegetarian options.
See my suggestions for a 14 day Albania itinerary, where you’ll have plenty of opportunity to try all the regional specialty foods.
What to Eat in Albania
These are the foods you will find in Albania, and what they actually are:
1. Byrek
Byrek is practically the national food of Albania. There are byrekstores everywhere (places that only sell byrek), it’s Albanian street food. You’ll also find byrek in coffee shops, bakeries and even restaurants.
What is byrek? It’s a pie made with layers of flaky filo and stuffed with a variety of fillings: spinach and cheese, leek and potato, pumpkin, cabbage – it’s cheap and always delicious. A breakfast favourite of locals.
2. Qofte
Qofte are traditional meatballs or patties, lightly seasoned. Usually they’re made with lamb or beef, or a combination of both.
This is a very common food, and you’ll see it on many restaurant menus. The best ones are grilled over charcoal, but many home cooks fry them.
If in Tirana, try them at Te Met Kodra near Pazar i Ri – it’s the most famous qofte shop in the city, and one of the best places to eat in Tirana.
3. Tave Kosi
This actually is the national dish of Albania. You’ll see tave kosi on practically every traditional restaurant menu.
Tave kosi is lamb baked in a cheese and yogurt sauce, served in an earthenware dish. The Albanian word ‘kos’ means yogurt. It’s great with crusty bread.
4. Sufflaqe
Sufflaqe is an Albanian gyro. Albanians like to add french fries to their sufflaqe, and it’s honestly the best.
And they don’t use any of that prepackaged block gyro meat you find in North American fast food places. Albanian sufflaqe is always made with fresh grilled pork or chicken.
This is what Albanians consider fast food (there’s no McDonalds in Albania).
5. Lakror
Lakror is a traditional pie. Sometimes it is made with a top and bottom crust, and sometimes it is made without any crust. I’ve had it both ways, and they’re each delicious.
Like byrek there are many fillings, and they are usually made from ground meat, leek, spinach, cabbage, zucchini, onion, potato, egg and cheese.
It’s traditionally baked on hot embers, under a heavy iron dome called a sac. One of the best places to have lakror is in Korce, it’s the regional specialty.
6. Albanian Salad
An Albanian salad is basically a Greek salad. These are especially good in summer when produce is super fresh. Practically every restaurant has this salad on their menu.
I ate numerous salads when I was travelling around Albania, and they were all delicious!
7. Speca te Mbushura
Speca te mbushura are stuffed peppers. In Albania they are often filled with rice, ground beef and light herbs, like rosemary or dill, but they are also made without meat.
Peppers are widely grown in the Balkans and most restaurants serving traditional food make speca te mbushura. The vegetarian version was one of my go-to foods, and I ate in all over Albania.
8. Patellxhane te Mbushur
Patellxhane te Mbushur is eggplant filled with tomatoes, onion and garlic and baked in the oven. Many traditional restaurants serve these.
It’s a hearty dish, I think one of the best vegetarian specialty foods to eat in Albania.
9. Fergese Verore
This is a traditional Albanian vegetarian dish of roasted peppers, tomatoes and ricotta style cheese. It’s served in the same dish straight from the oven (don’t touch it), and is great with crusty bread.
10. Japrak
Japrak (or dolma) are stuffed grape vine leaves. They’re a Mediterranean version of cabbage rolls. They can be filled with a rice and meat mixture or just rice.
In restaurants they tend to be seasonal (in summer), when the vine leaves are fresh. This is another traditional dish I always order if it’s on the menu.
11. Grilled Fish
Albania is on the Adriatic and Ionian seas, and the coastal region has excellent seafood. Even Tirana has amazing fish (it’s only 37 km from the Adriatic).
The fish restaurants I visited had lots of sea bass, bream and mullet, but I think it depends on the time of year also.
For the best grilled fish, ask them to grill it whole. It’s also easier to remove the bones this way!
12. Kalamari
Kalamari is squid. It’s grilled or lightly breaded and fried. I usually get it fried, but one of the restaurants in Ksamil I went to served amazing stuffed and grilled kalamari.
Many restaurants on the Albanian Riviera serve kalamari. I highly recommend it! I ate it countless times (almost daily) in Tirana and all over the Riviera, and never had a bad one.
13. Pispili me Presh
This was one of the best things I ate in Albania and the entire Balkans. In some regions it’s called shapkat. It’s a cornmeal, leek and feta casserole baked in a shallow dish and cut into squares.
One of my favourite places to eat in Tirana, Era Piceri, makes this specialty perfectly. They use dill and serve it with a yogurt sauce. It’s excellent!
14. Qifqi
Qifqi are herbed rice balls often served as an appetizer. Qifqi are cooked in a special pan (a qifqi pan). This is a regional specialty of Gjirokaster, Albania’s famous stone city.
To be honest, I completely forgot to try qifqi when I was there, but it’s on my list for my next visit.
15. Fasule Pllaqi
Fasule pllaqi are giant lima beans baked in the oven with tomato, onion, mint and olive oil. Simple food, but delicious. Especially good in the cooler months.
I’ve been eating fasule for years and thought it was a northern Greek dish, but like so many traditional foods in Albania, you’ll find it in several Balkan countries.
16. Moussaka
Moussaka is a layered eggplant and potato casserole made with meat and bechamel sauce.
It’s really a Greek dish, but you’ll find all over the Riviera, especially in culturally Greek areas like Himare.
17. Jufka with Chicken
This is a basic, but hearty and inexpensive dish. I often see it in simple neighbourhood restaurants.
It’s basically lightly seasoned homemade noodles baked with chicken broth and whole chicken pieces in the oven. It’s typical Albanian home cooking.
18. Tarator
Tarator is cold yogurt and cucumber soup. It’s a common summer dish and often served instead of salad.
It’s very refreshing, and one of the best foods to eat in Albania during the hot summer months.
19. Tave Krapi
Tave krapi is baked carp. It’s the tradtional dish of Shkoder in northern Albania, where the carp comes from Lake Shkodra.
Tave krapi is often baked in a yogurt based sauce, like tave kosi, but sometimes it’s in a rich tomato and onion sauce like the one I had Marina Seafood 4VM, one of the best places to eat in Shkoder.
20. Vienez
Vienez is the specialty of Berat. It’s thin steak rolled up with cheese and walnuts, then coated in bread crumbs and fried. It’s delicious and I ate it at several Berat restaurants when I was there.
21. Petulla
Petulla are deep fried dough balls, traditionally served for breakfast. When I had them in Saranda, they came with jam and cheese, but they are sometimes served with Albanian honey.
They’re like homemade doughnut holes. Very good, but not something you should eat every morning!
22. Trilece
Trilece is a soft milky sponge cake topped with a thick layer of caramel sauce. It is the most common dessert in Albania and you’ll see it in every pastry shop.
This is the Balkan version of the South American tres leches cake. It’s good, but super sweet.
23. Baklava
This layered sweet pastry of filo, walnuts and honey syrup is a very common Albanian dessert. There’s a lot of crossover between Greek and Albanian cuisine – and baklava is a good example.
Best to have this with a strong Greek style coffee to offset the extreme sweetness.
24. Zup
Zup is a layered confection of custard, cream, cake and nuts. Albania’s version of trifle! This is my favourite Albanian dessert – it’s not overly sweet and fairly light.
25. Ravani
Ravani is a simple orange cake made with semolina flour and soaked in sweet syrup. Sometimes you’ll find lemon or grapefruit variations. It’s a sponge cake, so despite the syrup, it’s light.
This is another dessert you’ll see across the Balkans. I’ve eaten ravani in Greece, Bulgaria and many times in Albania.
26. Kabuni
Kabuni is a very old Ottoman dessert made with rice, caramelized sugar, cinnamon, cloves and shredded lamb. It’s a local specialty of Kruja, the historic mountain town north of Tirana.
Dessert with meat is not what I would normally order, but I had something similar in Iran (koresht mast – a pudding with lamb paste), so gave kabuni a try. And it was delicious. Absolutely a must-try Albanian food!
27. Ekmek
Ekmek is a layered dessert of custard, sweet kadaif (the pastry like shredded wheat), whipped cream and nuts. I don’t often see it in restaurants, but bakeries make it.
What to Drink in Albania
These are the most common drinks in Albania. And don’t forget to drink bottled water (you can’t drink the tap water in Albania)!
28. Coffee
Albania has a huge coffee culture. Just about every block anywhere in the country has a cafe. I’ve even seen the local cafe double as a grocery store in small towns.
Turkish or Greek style coffee is very popular, but that is slowly being overtaken by espresso.
29. Dhalle (Ayran)
This is a yogurt based drink made with water and salt. It is hugely popular and available in all shops and petrol stations.
I never would have tried it, but when I was travelling from Vlore to Budva (Montenegro), my driver bought byrek and dhalle for me. I didn’t want to be rude, so I drank it. I liked it and started drinking it regularly after that.
Dhalle looks like milk, so don’t mistakenly put it in your coffee or tea.
30. Raki
Raki is basically Albania’s national drink. It’s a very strong, usually homemade, brandy. It’s part of everyday life in Albania, like coffee! Used for toasts, at the beginning or end of meals, for social gatherings – it’s everywhere and all the time.
There are many types of raki, mostly fruit based. The cinnamon one I tried in Himare was amazing.
31. Wine
Albanian wine may not be well known internationally, but there is a thriving viticulture and some excellent wines. Albanian wine (especially the reds) is delicious and often the same price as soda pop in restaurants.
The region around Osum River which heads south from Berat has many vineyards. There’s archeological evidence that Albania has been making wine for 3000 years!
32. Beer
Albania makes some decent beer, so don’t order an overpriced import! Birra Korca and Birra Tirana are the most popular brands. In fact, if you visit Korce, you can tour and have a beer tasting at the Birra Korca brewery.
Tips for Eating Out in Albania
After eating out all over Albania, here’s what I learned:
- Restorant Peshku is a fish or seafood restaurant
- Zgara is a grilled meat restaurant
- Pasticeri is a pastry shop
- Taverna and Kafana are traditional food restaurants
- Bread always comes with the meal (usually you won’t be charged extra, but a couple of spots in Tirana did charge)
- Tipping is not mandatory, but 10%-15% is very appreciated
- Look for restaurants away from tourist hot spots for better food and lower prices – eat where the locals eat
FAQs About Albanian Food
These are commonly asked questions about Albanian food:
Typical Albanian food is simple but hearty, using locally produced and seasonal ingredients.
Tave kosi is the national dish of Albania. It’s lamb in a yogurt and cheese sauce baked in an earthenware pot.
Yes, there are a lot of similarities and crossover between Greek and Albanian cuisines.
Byrek is the most popular food in Albania. It is a flaky savoury pie or pastry made with filo dough and a filling of vegetables, cheese and/or meat. There are many variations. Byrekstores are everywhere in Albania. It’s considered street food or ‘fast food.’
No, Albanian food is not spicy. Albanian cuisine is typically seasoned with herbs like oregano, mint, basil and bay leaves, and paprika, garlic, salt and pepper.
Last Words on Albanian Food: What to Eat and Drink in Albania
I didn’t expect to enjoy Albanian food as much as I did, but the simple home cooking style with fresh, local ingredients won me over.
And the cuisine is much more varied than I imagined: seafood on the coast, hearty casseroles in the north, local specialties, fantastic wine, beer and coffee, and lots of desserts!
