Pod Lipom Restaurant – Sarajevo

5 reasons to visit Pod Lipom

1. At the same address since 1959: a tradition measured in decades, not marketing campaigns.
2. Bill Clinton ate here twice, and came back.
3. Ismet Ajanović’s gallery of naive art upstairs, a cultural experience you did not plan.
4. A hundred seats inside and sixty in the garden, room for any occasion.
5. Traditional Bosnian food in the heart of Baščaršija: authenticity that needs no explanation.

Since 1959 Sarajevo has had its own linden tree, and you sit differently under it than under any other. Restaurant Pod Lipom (“Under the Linden”), on Prote Bakovića street in Baščaršija, is not just a restaurant but a legendary part of Sarajevo’s hospitality scene, which over the decades has become synonymous with authentic Bosnian cooking, an elegant atmosphere and stories retold for generations. Berlin’s Unter den Linden may be the world’s most famous street under lindens, but Sarajevo has had its linden in the heart of the city since 1959.

A guest no one forgets

Few restaurants in Bosnia and Herzegovina can say they hosted a US president twice. Pod Lipom can. Bill Clinton sat at these tables twice, the second time with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and a group of US senators. On that occasion the owner, Edib Ajanović Etko, gave him a painting by his uncle, the artist Ismet Ajanović.

Clinton was in famous company: conductor Zubin Mehta, Croatian president Stipe Mesić and singer Tereza Kesovija are just some of the names who have sat where you can sit.

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Bosnian cooking, a gallery and a fountain

Inside the restaurant, renovated in 2004 and extended to a hundred indoor seats and around sixty in the lovely garden in front, there is a fountain that makes the atmosphere relaxing in a way few restaurants achieve. The traditional Bosnian interior does not imitate tradition; it is a living part of it.

Upstairs is the only gallery of naive art by Ismet Ajanović, a painter listed in the world encyclopaedia of naive art whose paintings “starred” in Ivica Matić’s cult film Woman with a Landscape. Part of the collection also decorates the ground floor and the winter garden, so every visit becomes a cultural experience you did not plan.

The menu combines traditional Bosnian specialities with grilled meat, pies, starters, salads and desserts: authenticity that does not try to be modern but simply stays what it is.

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Catering to remember

Pod Lipom also offers excellent catering for business events, celebrations and any occasion where the food has to match the moment. A happy guest always comes back, and that is the principle this house has lived by from day one.

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Taste & Rate editors’ tip

Book a table in the garden on a summer evening: Baščaršija in the background, food that smells of tradition and an atmosphere in no hurry. And do not miss going upstairs to see the Ismet Ajanović gallery; it is the part of the visit that surprises guests more than they expect.