The Square

Land and sea at the pass

With each plate, control at The Square in Belgrade comes from balance: salt, fat, acidity and structure hold together without one side claiming the other. Branko Kisic leads the kitchen, a young chef who came up through the house itself from senior chef de partie, and his brief is to draw European cooking together with a Serbian accent and his own hand. Eyck Zimmer, a Michelin star-winning chef, headed the room before him. The control shows in the menu rather than in biography. Seafood anchors the cooking, then meat, jus, mushroom, citrus, or truffle gives the dish its counterweight. The point is not contrast for its own sake. It is the pass held steady while two registers meet.

A menu built by crossings

The Square works in modern European fine dining, with both tasting menu and à la carte formats, and its kitchen keeps seasonal change close to the method. Kisic reworks the lunch menu weekly, which is where the dynamism shows before it reaches the tasting sequence. The named dishes tell the story plainly: Smoked Trout with Beetroot, Beef Wellington, White Lady Mousse, and Gnocchi with Oxtail. The tasting sequence has run to nine courses over two hours or more, from celeriac soup and beef carpaccio through foie gras terrine with watermelon-hazelnut chutney, wild mushroom blanquette with eggplant cannelloni, poached cod, a timut pepper and sudachi sorbet, and foie gras-stuffed chicken breast with peas. Those combinations depend on proportion. A deep jus needs acidity beside it; shellfish or squid changes the reading of meat; beetroot can bring earth to smoke without turning the plate heavy. Poaching in aromatic olive oil and confit work carry much of the technique. The restaurant’s wider program also carries an exceptional wine list, with all five Premier Cru Classé from Bordeaux named in the house’s account of the cellar, alongside Serbian bottles for pairings. Rakija belongs to the beverage focus too, giving the formal room a local register that does not need to interrupt the cooking.

The room behind Studentski trg

The room keeps its voice low. Soft lighting, formal service, and the enclosed garden courtyard make the restaurant feel set back from Studentski trg, though the hotel sits in Stari Grad near the city’s daily movement. The counterpoint matters: outside, Belgrade is public and bright; inside, the pass works at a quieter temperature. Sommeliers move through the room with the confidence required by a serious wine program, while the garden piazzetta gives the evening a pause between courses. The setting is polished, but not brittle. It suits food built on balance, where trout, beetroot, oxtail, and mousse arrive with enough space around them for the hand to register.

A Belgrade address with an international brief

The Square carries a World’s 50 Best rank of 34, and two of Serbia’s best-regarded sommeliers work the room. Those numbers matter, and they give the room a useful frame, but only because the work remains clear and legible at the table: a modern European kitchen in Belgrade, attentive to season, seafood, meat, wine, and local spirit, without turning the room, the cooking, or the service into a thesis or making dinner feel like an argument.