We are back! I have to say Slovenia was amazing. This isn't a travel blog because I don't travel enough, but you should 100% go to Slovenia. Incredible. beautiful. Slovenia.
So Majerija (Mah-HEH-ria, not Marjorie).
To summarise where this is going, this was the best meal we had in Slovenia, and perhaps one of the best meals I had in my life. (I can't make too many commitments)
What is Majerija? Majerija is an old house in the Vipava valley in Slovenia, it is located just outside the village of Slap and is a restaurant, guest house and has what the english would call a farm shop. In the farm shop, they have a selection of homemade honey, marmalades of every flavour, jams, olive oil, chutneys, and much more. We stayed overnight and that meant we got to try all of this at breakfast. The Lavender Honey was excellent, I could have sat there all day and eaten their homemade white bread with butter and honey.
So Dinner, we had a table booked for 1900. We had a 30 second walk from the room and, in true style, managed to be late (only a couple of minutes). We ate in the dining room of the main house, just next to the door to the wine cellar. Both the waiter and waitress were Sommeliers and spoke excellent english.
The room design was set out as a home dining room, very laid back, no fancy chairs or linen, no huge chandeliers saying "look at me you are in a classy place". The room was saying "don't notice me, you're here for the food, the food is what you should be looking at". It was warm comfortable and homely, everything a dining room should be.
The Atmos was very similar, very laid back, you were made to feel welcome and enjoy the old stone house that was warm and filled with happy diners. Everyone was happy to be there and was looking forward to a good meal.
The Food and Wine. Here is how it goes, we chose to have the 6 course taster menu. Initially our plan had been to ask the sommelier's to bring us wine for each course to go with the meal. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we went for a wine tasting that afternoon that started with 5 (reasonable) glasses of wine, and finished with a (very large) 45% cognac. It was an excellent afternoon but I simply couldn't drink another 7 glasses of wine and enjoy the meal without losing my head. So we had 3 wine recommendations and a glass of sparkling wine. All from the Vipava valley and all were excellent.
The chef is called Matej, he owns the restaurant with his wife and his daughter is the Sommelier. He welcomed us very warmly to his home and spoke great english. Matej cooks exceptional food that is all about using and show casing what they have in the Vipava valley. Fresh local ingredients and local (exceptional) wines.
The meal was great, I have put a more detailed summary of each course (with pictures) below, but I thought I would summarise here. The menu changes so often it is unlikely you will eat the same courses as us, but I would be very surprised if you enjoyed it any less.
The food was excellent, each dish was well thought out with great sauces and texture combinations. My favourite was the Beef Carpaccio with walnuts and candied peel. Candied peel.... I thought that was only for bread and butter pudding, or mincemeat. I imagined a tub of some supermarkets candied peel being sprinkled over this delightful beef carpaccio. I admit I was confused at this being a dish. I wasn't just pleasantly surprised, that sounds like a cliche, I was overjoyed. The candied peel made this dish. The beef was perfectly sliced and served at a perfect temperature to taste the delicate meat. It looked wonderful as you can see, but the contrasting textures where something else. The smooth beef, the crunchy nuts and lettuce with the candied peel that melted in your mouth. On the menu it was originally with honeyed mushrooms. This dish was designed perfectly, a real testament to a great chef who had to think and change the menu due to a lack of ingredients. If I came back I would request the candied peel again, it was perfect!
Matej's daughter served us our wine. She is studying to be the sommelier, she made excellent recommendations which went really well with each course. We made it difficult for her by not having a different wine with each course. The wines we had were excellently matched, especially for multiple courses. After the meal she took us down into the wine cellar to have a look around at all the Vipava wines. We got to try some of the liquors they make using ingredients from they orchard and gardens. She was also kind enough to give us some excellent tips on tasting wine and what tastes and aromas to consider and what they meant which we thoroughly enjoyed.
If you want to read a more detailed description of each course (and see pictures), I thoroughly recommend you do, then keep reading when you get to the end. If you don't then just know that it was all exceptional and there was nothing that could be improved.
The whole experience was one I will not forget in a long time, we both love food and agree that this place is one we will most definitely come back to.
The score is an obvious 10/10. Don't just visit Majerija if you are in the area, make the area part of your visit to Slovenia. It's a 45 minutes drive from Ljubljana, and the meal alone is worth more than that drive.
The price for a 6 course taster menu, with amuse bouche and after dinner treats, with 2 glasses of sparkling wine, 3 glasses of red wine, 2 white and 2 rose. Cost us €135, which was well worth it.
Useful pieces of information:
There is an a la carte menu.
If you order using the tasting menu both members of your party have to have the same dishes.
They are not open everyday so check their website. (http://www.majerija.si/en/).
Go there.
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Thanks
Carry on reading for information on each course.
We started with a glass of sparkling wine, and a wonderful amuse bouche, a stoned plum baked in (home cured) prosciutto with pistachios and a balsamic glaze. The taste sent fireworks through my mouth and was spectacular. The sweetness of the glaze and ham, combined so well with the tartness of the plum. I will be trying to make this. Look out for a future post!
The 6 courses:
Cold Starter: Beef Carpaccio (see above).
Warm starters. 2 of them.
The first was a pumpkin purée in a toasted pancake with pecans. Again (like the carpaccio) the textures brought the dish alive in your mouth, all contrasting. The fresh earthy pumpkin, the sweet glazed nuts, and the warm comforting pancake combined brilliantly. Another wonderful dish.
The second was a Barley and Saffron Risotto. In Slovenian cuisine they use grains like buckwheat and barley a lot, and I can definitely see why. Whilst the risotto was not as creamy as your traditional rice risotto (you can be the decider on which type of risotto rice you use), the barley added a lot of flavour to the risotto and went really well with the saffron.
Main courses, again we had two, purely because we couldn't decide between the Duck with black bean puree and crispy cabbage and the Suckling pig with roast potatoes. Both dishes were traditional Slovenian.
The duck was excellently cooked, it was light, fresh, had a great flavour and was exceptional with crispy cabbage and a creamy black bean purée, everything you want in duck dish. The cranberry sauce was a pleasant change from the the sweeter sour cherries.
The pork was the same, a great intense robust pork flavour, a soft and tender texture all served on the bone, with amazing roast potatoes.
For dessert we had home made vanilla ice cream with figs that were cooked then soaked in rum. It was the perfect end to a perfect meal, exciting, light, boozy and sweet.
No improvement could be made on the dishes they were quite simply exceptional. The lady we did wine tasting with earlier on in the day described the restaurant as "classical Slovenian, you get your meat and potatoes but it is so much more than just meat and potatoes!".
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