Afterwork:
Spicek Restaurant, Zapresic
11.4.2011 | Author/Source Špiček.jpg
Restoran Spicek can be your Ali Baba's cave for the cold winter days. If you can't eat much, we suggest you take a large company with yourself, so you can go through as many dishes from the menu as possible, because it offers nothing but pure joy. You will reach the restaurant by simply driving down the main road from Zagreb to Zapresic, until you see Spicek's imposing picture on one of the houses.
The restaurant's decor will probably not impress you, but you might be thrilled or perhaps angered by the existence of a smoker's corner. Don't let the unimaginative decor make you think that their cuisine is probably the same. On the contrary! You can expect true home-made food from the kitchen, in the best sense of that word. But it’s not the boring and a hundred times seen menu, but an imaginative play with the available seasonal ingredients.
For example, a genuine winter mezze at Spicek’s is a platter consisting of the following: some excellent pressed sausage (svargla), boiled ham with freshly ground horseradish, home-made salami, zasek, pickled mushrooms and fantastic cream and cheese! That alone would be enough for a more modest company than ours, but we did not stop. We decided to try everything Spicek had to offer in these, let’s hope, last days of winter. And we made the right choice. Grilled cottage cheese served on radicchio, with the indispensable (and often neglected) pumpkin seed oil was equally delicious as the chicken livers wrapped in bacon and sarma made of kale (stuffed with cheese cream, potatoes, bacon and lavender liquor).
After the interesting strukli soup, we barely had room left for beef prepared in several styles, and capon stewed in red wine. But we somehow managed to find room for the (now famous) “countess’ ice cream” with squash seed oil and seeds, to everyone’s delight.
All in all, Spicek is place where you will eat some nice (and abundant= meals, enjoying the sincere flavors of the local cuisine with Spicek’s twist. Let go to him freely, because there will be always something interesting waiting for you in the kitchen, regardless of the time of year.
The restaurant's decor will probably not impress you, but you might be thrilled or perhaps angered by the existence of a smoker's corner. Don't let the unimaginative decor make you think that their cuisine is probably the same. On the contrary! You can expect true home-made food from the kitchen, in the best sense of that word. But it’s not the boring and a hundred times seen menu, but an imaginative play with the available seasonal ingredients.
For example, a genuine winter mezze at Spicek’s is a platter consisting of the following: some excellent pressed sausage (svargla), boiled ham with freshly ground horseradish, home-made salami, zasek, pickled mushrooms and fantastic cream and cheese! That alone would be enough for a more modest company than ours, but we did not stop. We decided to try everything Spicek had to offer in these, let’s hope, last days of winter. And we made the right choice. Grilled cottage cheese served on radicchio, with the indispensable (and often neglected) pumpkin seed oil was equally delicious as the chicken livers wrapped in bacon and sarma made of kale (stuffed with cheese cream, potatoes, bacon and lavender liquor).
After the interesting strukli soup, we barely had room left for beef prepared in several styles, and capon stewed in red wine. But we somehow managed to find room for the (now famous) “countess’ ice cream” with squash seed oil and seeds, to everyone’s delight.
If you come at some other time of year, you can expect something made with the seasonal ingredients, boletes, brittle or home-made ajvar, and the pantry always has something left over from the pig slaughter. When it comes to the wine list, you will have something to choose from, but you are doomed to only a few labels when it comes to reds.
All in all, Spicek is place where you will eat some nice (and abundant= meals, enjoying the sincere flavors of the local cuisine with Spicek’s twist. Let go to him freely, because there will be always something interesting waiting for you in the kitchen, regardless of the time of year.
General impression: delicious, abundant and cozy
Address: Marsala Tita 48
Town: Zapresic
Phone: (01) 3392464
Open: 9 am to 11 pm
Seats: 70 inside, 50 outside
Specialized in: cuisine of the Zagorje region as prepared by Tomislav Spicek
Source: Gastro.hr
