Balbi 34

Balbi 34 is the most ambitious dining room in Saranda, and the clearest evidence that the Albanian Riviera is now a serious culinary destination. It operates out of a restored villa on Rruga Tolo Jovani, a five-minute walk from the main promenade, with a small inside dining room seating twenty-eight and a garden terrace that adds thirty-six covers in season. Chef Mirjan Balbi cooks modern Albanian–Mediterranean with a confident technical hand.

The tasting menu is where the kitchen is most clearly itself. A carpaccio of Ionian sea bass with Dukat olive oil and caper flower; a hand-rolled trahana (Albanian pasta) with langoustine and a reduced shellfish jus; a slow-cooked Tepelenë lamb shoulder with charred aubergine and yoghurt; a dessert of kos (Albanian yoghurt) with cherry compote and pistachio crumble. The à la carte is shorter but follows the same idea.

The wine list leans into the new Albanian producers in a way that is unusual for the Riviera — Cobo, Kantina Skënderbeu, Kokomani — with a serious Italian fallback and a small natural-wine row. Pairings are cheap by European standards: thirty-five euros for a full tasting run. The sommelier is young and actively evangelising for the Albanian winemakers, and he is right to be.

Service is Mediterranean-warm and genuinely proud of the project. Mirjan Balbi walks the room most evenings and will explain his decisions readily. The value proposition is significant: a sixty-euro tasting dinner at this technical level would price three times higher across the water in Corfu, and probably would not be materially better. It is the clearest argument that Saranda is worth the short hop from any of the surrounding tourist bases.

Balbi 34 is the Saranda table to book when a guest needs to understand why you chose Albania over the Greek islands. The cooking is serious, the room is intimate, the value is inarguable, and the wine programme is quietly advocating for a country the guest has probably never drunk from. It is also the Saranda proposal room — the garden terrace under Mediterranean lights is quietly perfect for a private evening.