Food Review: Balkan

So, my fiance and I made another fortunate find this week. We were walking around the 2nd floor of the RCBC plaza looking for something to eat before meeting with potential suppliers for our wedding when lo and behold, I saw the words "Yugoslavian Cuisine", I knew that had to try Balkan out. Maanne, who at this point, is very well aware for my penchant in trying out new food gamely went along with me.

The interior of the place is very clean: white walls, wooden furniture, famous Yugoslavians (I assumed anyway. Also, is that the right term?) painted on the opposite site on where we were seated. Payment is made through the counter and the food is self-serviced which I don't mind. Most of the food have one too many consonants which made guessing their correct pronunciations an interesting experience. Good thing that there we're big pictures beside the names to give you an idea on what you're ordering.

For our first visit, we went with the staff's recommendation of Stuffed Pljeskavica (I think it was pronounced as pil-yes-ka-vi-sa)which is a ground beef steak stuffed with mozzarella. Option for side dishes we're white rice, french fries and mashed potatoes. We went with the mash potatoes since they we're out of rice at the time. Boo. For my order, I went with something safe in case the first one was a bust, Chicken Kebab with a side of french fries.Serving time was surprisingly fast, we got our food in 5 minutes!

The Stuffed Pljeskavica wasn't tough at all. We could cut the meat with just a spoon (which is a good thing for ravenous eater like me). The meat was very flavorful, juicy and goes well with the melted mozzarella inside. It's reminiscent of a very well done beef cheeseburger. Definitely coming back for this one again. Maybe with the sandwich variant next time!

The Chicken Kebab was a different take on what we've usually had from previous mediterranean joints we've been into. The chicken is flavorful, tender, wrapped in BACON(!) and had a mild garlic paste mixture inside that really ties it all together. The vegetables we're all grilled nicely to bring out their respective flavors and just goes so well with the kebab. The fries we're nothing special. Would have been even better with rice!

All of the meals are under 200 which was very competitive compared to the other establishments there. Aside from the hard to pronounce names, the Yugoslavian cuisine presented there was very accessible. Everything is just an Eastern Europen take on the most common meat-based comfort foods steaks, burgers, sausages and kebabs. Also, they seem to really like their cheese a lot which I'm sure everyone will appreciate. Definitely coming back here again next time. 4 out of 5 farts! :)