Kafana

Grilled meats are at the center of the action, with pork in a supporting role.

If you've explored the cuisine of the former Yugoslavia, perhaps during a visit to Queens, the menu at Kafana will seem broadly familiar. But while most such chow in the city is prepared by Bosnian Muslims, the Eastern Orthodox iconography in this Serbian bistro (or, more literally, café) signals that pork is also a possibility. Pork rinds nestle among the gherkins on the meat meze platter; pork is ground into the wonderfully springy mini-sausages called cevapi (che-Vah-pee), the Serbian "burger," and the coarse, garlicky peasant sausage; it appears as pork chops and smoked pork loin; and, as bacon, it's rolled around salty chicken livers and walnut-stuffed prunes. I especially enjoyed the peasant sausage and the prunes (shown above), and the cevapi are quite good; accompanying them, the kajmak (Kay-mahk; a slightly sour spread akin to clotted cream) was a tad oleaginous.

Early in its tenure, the kitchen still has an uncertain hand with seasoning. The spinach pie (and, as reported in several quarters, the lamb and spinach stew) was bland; so were the baked mixed vegetables. The sopska was very salty, even for this typically salty salad of tomato, cucumber, onion, and cow feta. However, the baked broad beans called prebranac (preh-Bon-ahch) offered up an engaging savory tingle, owing, perhaps, to paprika and red pepper. If the mixed grill for two is beyond your capacity, you might set your sights on the combo of baked broad beans and peasant sausage.

The sour cherry pie was fine, the chocolate crepes called palacinke were better, but my favorite dessert was zito, a dome of boiled wheat berries heavily scented with nutmeg and cinnamon. Though served with whipped cream, it worked very well all by its sparingly sugared self.

Kafana
116 Avenue C (7th-8th Sts.)
212-353-8000