Mediteran restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida

The misspelled title may be a mistake in the foreign owner’s translation of the language or a plan to attract attention. His probable spelling mistakes, he makes up for with charm. Branislaw Butina is a short man with curly brown hair and a quick smile. However, it’s not about him, it’s about the food. One of the few places to get genuine Baltic food in St. Petersburg, The Mediteran Restaurant will keep people from that region and people of other ethnicities like me coming back, not believing the portion sizes and wondering about the recipes. He’s unwilling to reveal how he makes his mince-based dishes look like a real steak.

A Serbian neighbor and some of his other converts tried to explain Pljeskavica’s size from Butinas. I said, “That’s what they all say.” He and I took our bikes to the 4th Street restaurant ready for a snack. In the cooler behind the counter, I saw Pepsi, old-fashioned, in the little glass bottles, perfect to start with. Since I couldn’t read the menu very well and didn’t know what was good, Pedja ordered for me.

There was another Serbian man sitting at the counter and the three of them spoke and spoke in their language, which gave me plenty of time to occupy myself looking around the place. It definitely lacked the feminine touch, but that didn’t detract from the good atmosphere. It was small, with about six uneven tables and chairs. Imitation plants were on the corners. The walls had pictures without giving much thought to the actual decoration.

The cabinets behind the guest counter where Butina began preparing our meals were bright purple. Taped to the front were their cappuccino and espresso ads. I had cappuccino for dessert, it was great.

A family with two teenagers ate at one of the tables and many times people entered the place to order something or pick up takeout. As soon as they put my plate in front of me, I said, “This is ridiculous.” The meat was eight inches in diameter and fell a couple of inches from the sides of the specialty homemade bread and the edge of the plate.

After looking at Pedja, Butina and vice versa, I tried to figure out why she had brought me steak. He knew that was not what he expected. Speaking politely to me in English, he said it was ground beef and Butina had a secret to making it with this unique texture. I kept saying as I sliced ​​through the sandwich trying to form manageable bites, “This is steak.”

Served with pepperochini, red onions and sour cream, I wanted to stop eating but couldn’t. There seemed to be a lot of spices infused into the meat, in fact Butina had asked me how I handled spices before he prepared them perfectly for me. The meat seemed airy but not fluffy; I wish I knew how he did it. He would be happy to sell the meat after he prepared it, but he was not going to tell us how he did it. As an American who has enjoyed Indian, Lebanese, Thai, Italian, Hungarian, Greek and perhaps some other ethnic food, I felt like the story about this Baltic treasure had to be told. People should go to The Mediteran restaurant and experience these flavors.

The name can be misleading, before my friend taught me otherwise; I would expect Greek or Italian cuisine. He was surely ignorant, but if you are too, take a look at this place. I ate as much as I could and still had a full meal left. -notes to follow-

Mediteran Restaurant

6500 4th St N

Saint Petersburg FL 33702

727-526-4466

Monday to Sunday from 7 am to 9 pm closed on Tuesdays.