Belgrade: Food Tour with Market Tastings & Street Art Walk

4.91

(137 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

Someone hands me a flaky burek, still warm — I try not to burn my fingers but end up licking cheese off my thumb anyway. Our guide, Ana, laughs and says that’s the only right way to start a food tour in Belgrade. We’re standing outside a bakery where the smell of fresh bread mixes with the city’s morning chill. There’s this old guy at the counter who nods when Ana orders in Serbian; I think he approves of our choices. It feels like everyone here knows each other, or at least acts like it.

We wind through little alleys painted with wild street art (some of it’s honestly better than what you see in galleries), stopping now and then for tiny cups of strong coffee or to try cured meats that taste smoky and rich. At the old market, I’m offered something called čvarci — crispy pork rinds — which I nearly drop because they’re greasier than I expected but weirdly addictive. The sellers joke with Ana about tourists’ faces when they try rakia for the first time. She pours us just enough to make my cheeks warm; apparently it’s rude to refuse.

Lunch is goulash with some twist I can’t quite name — maybe paprika? — and soft village cheese that melts if you hold it too long. There’s honey so floral it almost tastes like spring air, and truffle spreads that make me wish I had bread left. Someone starts playing music nearby and for a minute nobody talks, just listens and chews. We finish near Belgrade Old Town where Ana scribbles down extra restaurant names for us on a napkin (I still have it folded in my bag). The light is softer here, and I’m not sure if it’s the food or the city or both that makes me want to linger.