Sir Nole - A trip back to communist dining

Sir Nole is, I understand, quite a famous place. We arrived there however, by accident.

Somebody told me that the revolving restaurant on the top of the new TV tower at Avala was open and we thought we’d give it a try.
 
You know how it is sometimes when you know something’s not a good idea, but you’ve made a commitment. And so it was here. It had been raining all day, so it seemed unlikely that we’d catch sunset from atop the tower, which was the other reason for the trip.

And as we climbed up the hill into the clouds, which wrapped themselves around us like the thickest of London fogs, it seemed less likely still.

I’m not a travel writer but I think I can safely say that when the cloud-base is around 130 metres, Avala, at over 500 metres, is not really a destination worthy of a visit. On top of that, from the red tape blocking access to the car park, it didn’t seem that the tower was open anyway, so we started on our way back into Belgrade.

Our route took us past Sir Nole, and as the car park was full, we reasoned that it must be at least a reasonable restaurant. As we hurried inside away from the rain, Djokovic was on the verge of beating Federer but the boss pulled himself away from the crowd watching the TV and pointed us to a table.

It’s an unusual place – part ethno-Serbian, but with surrealist paintings and ballet photographs on the walls, and an old photo of Tito staring at the diners from a shelf. But its homely and warm.
 
I spent just two days in Belgrade in the 80’s so I’m in no position to judge, but in much of the rest of eastern Europe, from Ceausescu’s Romania to the Soviet Union and even the slightly more go-ahead Czechoslovakia, asking for the menu in a restaurant was an essentially futile exercise.

It made much, much more sense to ask what they had. It felt as if we’d been transported back.

Home-style Proiscutto – “supplier didn’t deliver”. Seafood risotto - “no, sorry”. Seafood Salad “unfortunately not”. Suckling pig – “no, nothing from the spit” Potatoes ispod saca – “just French fries” vitaminska salad – “no sorry, green salad?”

Once we had discovered what was available we picked veal corba, oven baked beans, a sopska salad, spicy peppers, vesalica (pork loin), home-style sausages, and a pljeskavica with kajmak.
 
To drink, we picked a Milan Jelic Tamuz, which was very competitively priced at 1,500 dinars. But, you’ve guessed by now that we should have asked. It was not available. However, for just another 100 dinars we were offered a Do Kraja Sveta cabernet/merlot, a fine alternative. Unfortunately it was served very cold, so all subtlety was lost in chilly fruitiness.

The corba arrived pretty smartly. Hot creamy, and served with an additional little pot of sour cream, some good sized chunks of veal a little carrot. It was a little light on seasoning, but really pretty good. The sopska salad arrived and it was, well, sopska salad, fresh cucumber, fresh tomato and some cheese.
 
By the time the main dishes had arrived, the beans hadn’t. We reminded the waiter. We forgot to remind him about the peppers, which hadn’t arrived either.

To be honest, the food was really quite good. The pork was perfectly grilled, the sausages were lightly spiced meaty and juicy, the pljeskavica was big, also juicy but perhaps just too firm and bland. The beans when they fi¬nally turned up were great – creamy, thick and savoury.

We asked if they could do pancakes for dessert - there didn’t seem to be much point checking the menu. They could. One portion with honey and another with Eurocrem - not bad.
 
So, although the team have clearly been to the Basil Fawlty school of restaurant management, and the chef clearly has issues with stock-checking, what food there was available was prepared to a reasonable standard.
 
Sir Nole
Bulevar JNA, 111, Jajinci
Tel: 011 3943177
Price guide: 1,500 – 2,000 dinars per head, for three courses with a modest wine.