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Promenada is a young restaurant. It opened in 2010. The restaurant shares the building with Hotel Park and has the same owner (Sava Turizem). And that means it has a name to uphold in Bled. It was in 1953 that Hotel Park's chef Ištvan Kovačevič brought a special cream cake (kremsnita) recipe here which made kremsnita a trademark of Bled.

Sixty years later it's chef Volčič who's making fame in the little town. Not in the least because of his appearance in the popular reality television show Restaurant Seeks Chef. Bine, who is still in his early thirties, is the only chef in Slovenia who regularly has to hand out autographs. But, of course, it is his creative work in the kitchen that makes Bine a real star.

A visit to Promenada is an experience full of surprises. The first surprise comes when you ask for the menu. Menu's don't exist in Promenada. Bine's culinary inventions are handwritten on a blackboard that hangs on the wall. You either make your choice yourself or Bine will come, have a talk with you and help you choose the perfect meal.

The menu changes regularly, depending on the season and the chef's inspiration. Today the starter is Cromesquis; fried balls of pork. It's French cuisine but Bine gave it a Slovenian twist. Pork, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, champignons, parsley. ,,Typical Prekmurje ingredients'', says Bine. The chef developed his Cromesquis three years ago when one of his tutors, French masterchef Joël Robuchon, came for a visit. ,,I wanted to make something Slovenian for him.''

It might be clear already, Promenada is not your typical restaurant. ,,We have a different philosophy, it's a little crazy'', says Bine with a smile and a wink. It's not French cuisine, it's not Italian, Slovenian or Asian. Bine's creations have something of all. ,,It's totally fusion. I really like Asian flavors. They're fresh, aromatic. I love to combine them with our food.''

The Cromesquis arrived. On the plate are of two small balls with pork, hidden behind a pyramid of vegetables and bathing in a red sauce. The balls are so perfectly round and smooth that it seems a waste to break them. But once you get over that and take a bite the crust will break easily, releasing the juicy pork meat that's inside.

The creativity behind the dishes show that Bine is as much an artist as a sculpture or a painter is. Promenada's kitchen is his atelier. He doesn't color with paint but with tastes. Bine says that ideas for new recipes just come to him, or not. ,,It happens that I don't have inspiration for two or three months and then suddenly during the night three new recipes appear in my head.'' Bine, who learned the tricks of the trade from the best in France, has around 250 cookbooks. He often goes through them before he goes to bed so that he can dream of something new. He gets enough inspiration to regularly replace the choices on Promenada's blackboard.

It's time for the main course; Duo of Lamb with a white bean cassoulet, as Bine suggested. Olives, tomato and mint are some of the other ingredients on the plate. But this dish is all about the meat. And you know it when you put your teeth in it. The meat is amazingly tender with a full and lasting taste. A bite of lamb feels like a kiss. To get the right taste and texture the lamb needs to cook for eighteen hours at exactly 82 degrees, reveals the chef. The best thing of the courses of Promenada is not the moment of actually eating them but the seconds, minutes and sometimes the hours after when your taste buds and brain are still translating the palette of aroma's that came to you. It's that time when you sit, relax, talk while the essences linger inside of you.

When you read some of Bine's creations on the blackboard you might wonder if the chef didn't get a little bit too crazy there. Take the dessert, Baba; a traditional French dessert of yeast cake. The original dessert is with rum but Bine takes Baba to another dimension. Promenada's Baba is floating in a strawberry soup and in the middle of the cake is wasabi ice. Cake, strawberry, wasabi; now that is a combination. It's with the first bite of the dessert that you know Promenada brought you another perfect combination. The cake neutralizes most of the burn of the wasabi. The grande finale of the Promenada experience is a sweat treat with a very delicate bite. It's a taste to remember. Bine in the meantime composed a new symphony of tastes for a small group that just arrived. Right after he had to leave for a few minutes to give his autograph to a group of young girls that were waiting behind the restaurant. He did it with a smile; it's all part of being a young Slovenian topchef.

Three course meal
Cromesquis -  wine: white Sipon
Duo of Lamb - wine: red Stoka carsus
Baba with wasabi ice

Prices:
3-course menu €32
4-course menu €38
5-course menu €52

Reservation is recommended.

If you can't get enough of Bine's culinary tricks, it's also possible to follow a workshop with him in the kitchen of Promenada. For 150 euro you can spend the whole day in the kitchen and learn about the Promenada kitchen secrets.