Kafana

Not merely Manhattan’s first Serbian restaurant, granny-chic Kafana—dig those exposed wooden rafters and the scratchy wool seat covers—is home to some of the best Balkan food in the city. While Serbian cuisine is porkier than the fare from neighboring Croatia or Bosnia, the kitchen excels both at pan-Slavic standbys like cevapi and Serb-specific items like the magnificent dimljena vesalica (smoked pork loin) and rolovane suve sljive (prunes stuffed with walnuts and wrapped in bacon). True meatheads should opt for a two-person mixed grill, which offers all of the above—plus seljacka kobasica (kielbasa) and rolovana dzigerica (chicken liver)—piled atop a thick, bone-in pork chop.