Eat

Opened on August 10 this year, Vertigo Home has a rich menu of starters, main dishes and shareable plates, shining mostly in the breakfast food section.

Despite the restaurant being situated on the busy Enver Maloku street in Sunny Hill, pine trees and bushes shelter the front terrace from noise and traffic. A quiet garden area behind the main restaurant is even more peaceful, and you have the choice of upstairs seating with a balcony dining area as well.

Blankets folded across the top of many of the chairs in the outdoor seating area mean you can enjoy the last of the September sun, even as the temperature in Prishtina inches closer to zero.

As you step inside the decor is minimal, including a series of hanging lamps and a few pallet signs upon the block-colored dark wall. The interior has a relaxing amount of soft lighting, even at midday, making it rather inviting for a private lunch or dinner, along with a small fireplace tucked in the corner. Yet, lunch time sees droves flooding the tables, sipping at their coffees and lightly complaining about the swift change in weather.

You would expect some Muzak-type jazz to accompany the comfortable atmosphere of the restaurant, but the reality is a little different. At best, we hear a haphazard selection of disconcerting techno, and at worst, complete silence, as the audio was lagging throughout lunch. Yet, one cannot exclude the fact that somebody might find such tunes palatable. But not many.

Vertigo has an all-day breakfast menu, serving a full “Vertigo” breakfast with eggs, sausage, white cheese and salad, and other dishes like warm peppers with cream, and omelettes. The llokum in particular is a highlight, pockets of lightly fried dough piled high on the plate and served warm and crispy with slices of cucumber and tomato, white cheese and ajvar, a sweet pepper relish. If they served a bit more of the latter, it would be an almost perfect breakfast.

The cream-bathed peppers and omlette are fairly tasty and price efficient: at 2.50 euros each, they can separately sate a hungry morning soul, given the free bread one can get just by asking.

The service was attentive and friendly throughout. If your palate is on the hotter side of the scale, the front of house staff are more than happy to spice up your meal or provide you with a little more ajvar on request, and would no doubt happily cater to other requests a guest might have.

The house “Vertigo salad” makes for an odd combination of piles of grated carrot, sweetcorn, olives and pasta, served with a spicy pickled pepper and a few tomatoes and cubes of white cheese on the side. While not altogether unpleasant, the flavor and texture of the vegetables felt like a confusing, and a little disappointing, choice. Stick to the Shopska salad, perhaps.

Among the choice in more or less omnipresent meals such as penne, chicken risotto and margherita pizza, a certain item in the sandwich section stands out glaringly: the Chief Sandwich (transliterated as sanduiq, which somehow adds poise). Most alluring was the tiny subtext that reads “house surprise”; an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

Approached by two moderately-sized buns of toasted pitalka, a samoon-type yeast bread, with arguably few ingredients placed between. Some white cheese, pickles, a few slices of ordinary turkey and chicken ham, pickles, tomato, and lettuce. A bit of a letdown, to be honest, considering that the most impressive thing about the sandwich was a skewer that ran through it, impaling a slice of pickle, olive and tomato on the way. Certainly not worth 3.5 euros.

Some worthy advice may be to avoid the “pronto sos,” an addition to many of their dishes, consisting of a watery cream-like dressing, adding very little to the dish.

Peja is available on draught at the bar, along with a decent wine selection, fresh fruit juices and smooth macchiatos.

You can pick from four or five dessert options on display through the glass counter next to the bar, a range of cakes, chocolate and of ice cream, as well as banana splits served to order.

Vertigo Lounge, their second location, opened on Rruga B in mid-July, serving the same menu but boasting a more sophisticated bar-like atmosphere in comparison to the comfortable setting of Vertigo Home.

This guide was coauthored by Plator Gashi.

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