JB Restaurant

JB Restavracija: honest home-style cooking

"As soon as you step in, you feel you’re entering a living slice of Slovenian culinary history in a secessionist-style 1920s building on Miklošičeva Street, where an elegant, almost futuristic dining room meets cooking as polished as the setting under chef Janez Bratovž and his family. This was the first Slovenian restaurant to make the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, yet the spirit is “honest home-style cooking”: produce is carefully sourced from Slovenian farmers and fishermen, with fresh ingredients chosen daily at the central market. Amuse-bouches arrive on the branches of a tree-like centerpiece; plates are modern, attractively presented, and boldly playful, from sashimi-style raw fish served on a bone and starters like trout, sea bream, horseradish, and fennel to risotto with lemon and langoustine and contemporary reinterpretations of polenta with mushrooms and home-made cheese. The cuisine shows Mediterranean and French influences but remains deeply Slovenian; bread, breadsticks, pasta, and ravioli are made in-house, with braising a favored technique that keeps the chef in close, flavor-balancing contact with his ingredients. Foams and lightly seared meats may be new to some guests, but the mantra holds—“If the ingredients are good, there’s no need for fancy cooking techniques... Our cuisine takes guests back in time, evoking memories of the flavours of bygone days.” A perfectly cooked ravioli is a permanent fixture adored by guests, while the family team—son Tomaž cooking alongside Janez, daughter Nina (an Advanced Sommelier) guiding the wine list and front of house, and wife Emma overseeing operations—grounds an identity that weaves past and present, from the four-elements taste philosophy to the photos at the entrance and a large, elegant white book whose copies are each marked by a unique colored brushstroke." - La Guida Michelin