Tirana - Post Report Question and Answers
What typical restaurants, food delivery services, and/or takeout options are popular among expatriates?
Not a ton of variety in foods here but a few popular Indian, Sushi, and Mexican places. - Apr 2018
Good delivery and wide availability. There are a few Asian places, an Indian restaurant, a few Mexican-ish restaurants. The food in restaurants is very good and affordable. - Aug 2016
No American fast food exists here. There is a "Knock off" McDonald's called Kolonat, and it's decent. Other restaurants here are crazy cheap. We can eat a three-course dinner with wine for about US$50 per couple. - Aug 2015
There are suflaque (greek style pita sandwiches), pizza, and byrek (greek style pastries filled with meat, cheese, spinach) take-away stands all over. There is also Kolonat, which is a fake McDonald's. A Cinnabon just opened up in the Blok. There are plenty of good restaurants, including Asian and Indian. A few places will deliver. There is a bagel place close to the Embassy that has decent bagels and bagel sandwiches, especially if you can't remember what a NY style bagel actually tastes like. It is hard to get a good steak here, but there are a couple of restaurants that bring their beef in from Western Europe. A restaurant called D-Town recently opened that specializes in American food and is the only place in town for Sunday brunch. - Aug 2014
U.S. fast food is totally non-existent. Even McDonald's has not yet come to Albania. There are a couple of knock-offs -- Albanian Fried Chicken, and Kolonat - like McDonald's -- but my family went once and has not returned. Fast food here really revolves around pizza, gyro-type sandwiches, and local meatballs (qofte). There are also a few rotisserie chicken places that are good and cheap. For nicer restaurants, there is a selection of very good places. 97% of restaurants in Albania serve the same menu of pasta, thin-crust pizza, and grilled meats. The 3% of original offerings, however, are very good and very reasonable. There is good Thai, decent Chinese, very good sushi, semi-terrible-but-not-too-bad-when-you-really-need-a-fix Mexican restaurant, and a handful of very good European continental cuisine restaurants with creative chefs in the kitchen. If you want a nice dinner out, there are places to go to and you won't be disappointed. The most my wife and I have spent on the nicest restaurant we have found for dinner was $75 for both of us, not including wine. It was an amazing meal. - May 2013
This is one of the downfalls of Albania. There is not much food variety. If you like thin crust pizza and pasta, you should be good. And it is usually pretty cheap. Besides that, you have to search a little harder. There are a few places that are different, and they deliver! Chinese, Thai, and a new Mexican restaurant that just opened and is ok. - Dec 2012
People seem to get sick here a lot from food and water, you cannot drink the water. The local fast food is byrek- cheese, spinach or meat baked in phyllo dough. There are not American chains here but some of the Americans like Albanian Fried Chicken (like KFC) and Kolonat (like McDonalds). Eating out here is inexpensive, but groceries can be expensive. There is not a lot of variety here but good food is available. Make sure to look at expiration dates when buying food at the grocery store, you will see expired food being sold. Most food you find in restaurants is Italian. - Oct 2011
No - unless you count Kolonat (McDonald's wannabe). Amour is a decent restaurant and has good (real) steak. Chocolate is another good restaurant and offers good pizza and Italian food. ERA is a pizza parlor (they also deliver) and the pizza is pretty good. Food can be tough here, watch where you eat, ask around for recommendations. - Mar 2008
