Oda Traditional Albanian - Tirana

Albanian traditional food served in a casual “home” type atmosphere. Several seating options entry courtyard or inside or in the upstairs terrace. We sat on the terrace concrete slab for seats along the wall with simple tables and chairs. The servers were rushed and did not give adequate time to our table. Please don’t embarrass yourself by asking chilli sauce or Tabasco or similar item our female server rudely replied this is not America! In any case black pepper saved the day! One thing I did not like and I think the Food Inspectors would not be happy with is that the servers pile plates loaded with food on top of each other. So the bottom of the top plate is sitting on the food served in the plate below. I am quite certain that the bottom of the plates is not squeaky clean. They need to bring the food in trays and not plate upon plate piles up with food. The food service is slow and not personable. We asked for our bill four times and each time the server nodded towards a door. We kept waiting. Finally I got up to ask and the server said “pay at the counter!” He could and should have said that the very first time. Anyways, finally towards the end of our meal? The servers let our finished plates sit on the table for over 40 minutes and even then did not completely clean up our table for dessert. About 2 hours later we ate slow so that we could see hear the musicians — the musicians arrived. They were good and played Albanian folk songs and some Italian songs for a large group of Italians. The food was tasty. They have at least four or five vegetarian options. Reservations are recommended.

If in Tirana, you shouldn't miss this restaurant. Great food, friendly servers (Sergio was great and funny), great ambience and great live music. I recommend lamb, and for vegetarians the spinach pie and stuffed eggplant. The Albanian red wine they serve is very good, too.

Very good atmosphere with live traditional music. We had kolloface and lamb cooked in wood oven. Kolloface was very tasty a good portion and a great combination of meat, rice and eggs to connect it all in a quiche like recipe. The lamb meat was perfectly cooked. We wouldn 't even need a knife to cut it, as it was very soft. We also had a soup with vegetables and rice. It was good. For dessert we had shendetlie. We recommend it if you like nuts. Staff is very kind, even if the place is crowded. Would definitely come back. Make sure you get there early to guarantee a table.

We came for dinner and the queue outside was very long (seems to be a very popular spot amongst tourists). Staff are in no rush to seat you or manage expectations of how long it will take. We only got a table once I went and asked if we can sit inside (the wait is much longer if you want to sit outside in the cute terrace). Table service again very slow, the staff themselves are nice but must be understaffed or inefficient. Once we finally ordered the food came out quite quickly. We ate lamb, peppers stuffed with rice and spinach pie. Lamb may not look aesthetic but was very good, lots of flavour. The pepper was my favourite dish, very delicious. Spinach pie lacked flavour, no cheese. House wine was good and reasonable price. P.S. don’t forget cash.

Resturant has a very nice atmosphere and nice staff. Food was ok, was expecting more flavor for the reviews it has on Google. Discovered that the resturant was a bit pricey (almost double the bill) compared to nearby restaurants. We ordered vegetable soup, egg plant and stuffed pepper, byrek, the cream cheese with paprika and the meat balls or bifteke. Flavors were ok, meat was salty. Staff are nice, the place is nice...sometimes hard to find a table, or might need to wait long. Amount spent 1700 lek per person