While a restaurant with a really extensive and varied menu can cause some raised eyebrows – Are they spreading themselves too thin? Can they be good at everything? – it can also be a godsend; recently in Bled we needed to find a restaurant to please a group of four people that included a pair of unadventurous parents, one of whom couldn’t walk very far in search of dinner.
As we approached Chilli, my initial reaction was that this was a restaurant we wouldn’t be eating at - the illuminated red chilli pepper did not bode well. However, a quick glance at the board outside showed that the menu was quite extensive and covered much more than just Mexican food. As it was a warm evening we chose a table outside and within a minute or two our waitress brought some menus. The first hurdle was that the font used in the menus was really difficult to read; furthermore, although the dishes were listed in Slovene, English, German and Italian, the English versions were not always fully translated so explaining to the parents what everything was took some time.
The menu is
too long and extensive to describe in much detail but there are hot and cold starters, side and main course salads, steaks and grill dishes, Mexican dishes such as chili con carne, burritos and tacos, a full range of pizzas, a choice of pasta along with your choice from a long list of sauces (some quite unusual) and a host of traditional Slovenian (and Balkan) dishes too. As we had two menus to share among four diners (and had the difficult font to contend with) it took us a while to choose but finally we made up our minds.
My partner and I opted for pizzas – mine with prsut ham, olives and feta cheese, his a "Mexican". My mother plumped for a steak with fries and my father was persuaded to try cevapcici, a traditional Balkan dish consisting of small sausages made from spiced minced meat.
The meals arrived fairly quickly given that it was a fairly busy Saturday night and that people were having quite different things. The pizzas were a good size and the bases were good – not too think but not too thin to pick up. It would have been useful if the kitchen had part-sliced the pizzas before they came out because without a decent knife they were almost uncuttable. The prsut was delicious and although the amount of ham on the pizza was very generous, it was too much in that it made the pizza almost too salty. When the pizza was presented to me I was inclined to think that three green olives in the centre of a pizza do not constitute a pizza topping; on reflection any more would only have increased the salt factor. The "feta" cheese" was good but this was actually just a finely grated sprinkling over the top after cooking. The Mexican pizza was excellent if a little topping heavy, being covered in anything and everything Mexican (and vaguely Mexican). The ground meat chilli was especially good and the whole pickled peppers had a good kick.
The cevapcici were nice plump things and there were plenty of them. They came with raw onion as is usual and mustard, rather than ajvar (a relish made from aubergine and peppers) which is more traditional. The cevapcici were nice and tender and flavoursome, and were served with French fries.
My mother’s steak was served medium rare, although the waitress had not asked how it was to be cooked. This was what she would have asked for anyway, but it’s worth telling the staff if you want it a certain way and they neglect to ask. It was a big steak and came with a creamy mushroom sauce, but others are available. It was served with a generous portion of "steak fries".
The main courses were filling so we didn’t even think about looking at the dessert menu but having glanced at it briefly I did see that there is plenty of choice. The others all drank beers but I opted for red wine and ordered "dva deci" (that's 200ml). It was brought in a enormous bulb of a wine glass that was frankly too big and a little at odds with the otherwise semi-formal ambience of the place.
While visiting the toilet, I got to see the interior of the restaurant which is formulaic Mexican but cosy, comfortable and colourful. The toilets were spotless and nicely presented too.
Overall this is a good choice for groups in particular because of the varied choices on the menu. I had feared that the food might suffer because the menu was so vast but there were no complaints about any of the meals we had. At around €50 for four including drinks this is pretty good value in Bled, where eating out can be costly.
Apparently the restaurant is part-owned by a former Slovenian olympic rower - so there you go.
very helpful by (100%):
