Gostilna
Vovko is a home-style restaurant, so it cooks what we all love, and as has always been the custom in Dolenjska. Except that times are different these days, so Vovko has a dining room with antiques and embroidered placemats, a wine room with selected wines and an armchair in front of it, and a tasting menu, with traditional dishes, but for business and gourmet guests.
Vovko
Rok Vovko defends his philosophy of life: it’s not a restaurant first, it’s a family. Which is even better for the guests, because they no longer just sit at the bar, but come to visit when the Vovkos have time (make a reservation!) so they can prepare well for them.
Grettings
Greetings from the kitchen: Kukenberger’s albumen curd with wild garlic on rye bread with seeds, coarse sea salt. Not for a chef’s greeting, but for a pub table setting, which is not on the bill, but is quickly on the table and provides a bite to eat with a sparkling aperitif.
Winning salami
Four slices of the winning salami (winner of this year’s Sevnica Salami Festival, Božo Zupančič) on a wooden board. Top-quality meat (vivid color), snow-white bacon (sweet taste) and pronounced smokiness. Not a salami for a sandwich, but a salami for tasting.
Smoked trout
Smoked trout tartare, horseradish, pumpkin seed oil mayonnaise, trout roe, trumpet flower, sprig of yarrow. Simple smoked trout tartare is elevated by the additions, because they are not just decorative. Smoked trout and fresh horseradish are old friends, pumpkin seed oil in mayonnaise form adds its own success. Pure flavors prefer such simplicity.
Venison tartar
Venison tartare (sliced), raspberries, pickled partridge, pickled black trumpets, sourdough chips.
Beef soup
Beef soup with homemade hand-cut noodles, chunks of beef, yellow and orange carrots. A good ‘Sunday’ soup in a festive plate.
Wild garlic soup
Wild garlic soup and semolina dumplings.
House ravioli
Homemade ravioli stuffed with trout and cured, lightly toasted in brown butter, fennel cream, sautéed fennel, daisy flower.
Dandelion
A salad without which there is no inn spring. Still warm and firm potatoes, toasted meaty bacon and young and fresh dandelion.
Krškopolje pig
Free-range pork cutlet from Krškopolje, baked potatoes, vegetables (leek, cauliflower, romanesco, yellow and orange carrots).
Deer
Deer loin in venison sauce, curd and wild garlic štrukelj, vegetables (cauliflower, romanesco, yellow and orange carrots).
Tarragon štrukelj
Sweet tarragon štrukelj, vanilla cream, plum and apple compote.
Cake Manca
Homemade cake Manca: chocolate sponge cake, mascarpone cheesecake, raspberry sauce.
Wine cellar
Where his father’s charcoal grill was, now his son’s refrigerated wine room is. The grill only needed Cviček and a few local wines, while the tasting menu needs a wine tasting. The wine room features the best wines from Dolenjska, complemented by the owner’s extensive wine knowledge, for comparison’s sake.
Aperitif: sparkling wine Nord, Kozinc; cold appetizers: House variety 2024, Colnar (Sauvignon, Laški Riesling, Kraljevina); ravioli: Chardonnay 2021, Sutor; deer loin: Pinot Noir 2023, Colnar; dessert: Yellow Muscat GROS 2021, semi-dry, Anton Grubar.
Petit four
Walnut cookies, linzer cookies, sprinkled cookies, Spanish meringue and homemade walnut liqueur.
