Željo – Best Eats from the East

With its big blue sign above the entrance, Željo is difficult to miss on Quellenplatz in the 10th district. Named after the biggest football club in Sarajevo, Željo was opened by a Bosnian family fleeing the war in the 1990’s. Mr. Emir took over the business after his father and opened their second location in Thaliastraße. Their Bosnian version of cevapcici are slightly smaller than the Serbian, and they also throw the lepinja bread on the grill too to our delight. After, they smear the bread with fat.

The idea behind Željo is to serve fast-food style meals with quality ingredients. You will find there all kinds of grilled meat, as well as Bosnian burek and other types of pitas, plus some irresistible sweet treats like baklava, tulumba and hurmašice. At Željo’s, they don’t serve alcohol. Instead, you should go for a drinking yogurt! You’ll be surprised how well this goes together with the greasy meats your digesting.

Željo might be Bosnian at its core, but the ingredients are made up of a true Balkan mix. While the food is typically Bosnian, the kajmak comes from Serbia, ajvar is from Macedonian and the yogurt and other dairy products are Slovenian.

Plus… we suggest you eat your cevapcici the real way: grab them with your hands and bite! And lick your fingers when you’re done.