Corner Pizzeria in Tirana was developed in collaboration with renowned pizza consultant Massimiliano Crocetti (Pizzamassi), who worked closely with the team to finalize the dough recipe, shape the pizza, pasta, and dessert menu, and establish a clear working method before opening. With a beautifully designed space, high-quality equipment, and a fully trained staff, Corner is built on strong foundations from day one.
Why We Love It
Corner Pizzeria it’s not just another pizza place, it was carefully crafted with expert guidance, precision, and passion behind every detail, from the dough to the workflow. That kind of preparation and attention to craft is exactly what makes a place worth discovering from the very beginning.
teKomuna is a stylish Mediterranean restaurant and sushi bar in the heart of Tirana, where coastal flavors, fresh seafood, and expertly crafted sushi meet handmade pasta and Neapolitan-style pizza. With a lush, plant-filled interior, a relaxed garden terrace, and live jazz setting the mood, it is a place built for long, unhurried evenings shared over great food and creative cocktails.
Why We Love It
teKomuna nails the art of the evening — a Mediterranean soul with coastal tastes, fine sushi, and live jazz, all wrapped in one of Tirana's most beautiful dining rooms. Come for the sashimi and stay for the pizza, the cocktails, and a terrace made for lingering.
Pontil is an Italian and seafood restaurant on the Sarandë promenade, open from breakfast until late with a covered terrace facing the bay. The display counter shows the day's fish and shellfish, which arrive as oysters on ice, grilled seafood platters, mussels and seafood pasta, alongside wood-fired pizzas and grilled meats.
Why We Love It
Evenings on the promenade drift past the terrace while plates of grilled prawns and clams land on the table and a singer works through old favourites. It is relaxed, well priced for what arrives, and easy to linger at long after the sun is gone.
Bev's is a bright all-day bistro on Rruga Mihal Duri in Tirana, at once restaurant, pizzeria and cocktail bar, set in an airy terracotta room with terrazzo floors, tall windows and a leafy street terrace. The kitchen runs from weekend brunch and poke bowls to pasta, pizza, sharing boards and grilled mains, and the evenings bring cocktails and regular live music.
Why We Love It
The sunny, plant-filled room makes brunch feel like a small occasion, whether that means eggs Benedict and a mimosa or a shared charcuterie board with a glass of wine. As the light fades, live sax and cocktails give the place an easy evening rhythm that rewards staying put.
Nur is a fully halal restaurant near Pazari i Ri in central Tirana, with indoor seating under brick arches and a covered terrace on the street. The wide menu mixes Albanian and Mediterranean home cooking with Turkish-style dishes, wood-fired pizzas, burgers, vegetarian options and sweets such as künefe and pistachio baklava, at wallet-friendly prices.
Why We Love It
Red brick, kilim-patterned cushions and shelves of copper pots give the place the feel of an old Tirana house, and the kitchen keeps things honest with grilled meat, crisp pizzas and generous portions of chips. A dependable stop for families and visitors looking for halal food a few steps from the New Bazaar.
Arco Restaurant is a small, cosy Mediterranean restaurant on Rruga Qemal Stafa, in one of Tirana's older neighbourhoods. The kitchen turns out thin-crust pizzas, fresh pasta, grilled meats and homemade desserts, served in an intimate dining room and on a larger covered terrace shaded by greenery, from breakfast through to late dinner every day.
Why We Love It
The terrace is the draw here, a leafy pocket off a busy street where a truffle pizza or a plate of pesto pasta with octopus turns into a slow lunch. Inside it is barely a handful of tables, which keeps the service personal and the food consistent from one visit to the next.
4 Stinët is an Italian restaurant and pizzeria on the Taulantia seafront promenade in Durrës, serving the city since 2003. The kitchen pairs classic Italian cooking with fresh Adriatic seafood, from risotto and fish soup to whole grilled sea bass, alongside a wood-fired pizza list of around fifty varieties.
Why We Love It
A bright, airy dining room with a long bar and a steady hum of Durrës regulars, where a plate of crisp fried fish or a saffron seafood risotto arrives with the sea just across the road. It is the kind of dependable, generous place a city adopts as its own.
Ulliri is a Mediterranean restaurant in the former Austria building on Skanderbeg Square, the city-centre branch of a Tirana restaurant group. The all-day menu runs from breakfast through grilled meats, wood-fired pizza and Albanian specialties, with cocktails and desserts served in a curtained, softly lit dining room and on a panoramic terrace above the square.
Why We Love It
Few tables in Tirana sit this close to the heart of the city, and the terrace turns a coffee at breakfast or a steak at dinner into a front-row seat over Skanderbeg Square. The kitchen keeps things dependable across a long menu, so it suits a quick pizza between sights as well as an unhurried evening meal.
Triana Resto-Lounge is a beachfront restaurant and lounge on the Durrës seafront, with tables set directly on the sand and a glass-fronted dining room facing the water. The kitchen covers grilled fresh fish, seafood pasta and pizza, and the terrace doubles as a lounge for coffee, drinks and hookah from early morning until late.
Why We Love It
A grilled sea bream with the Adriatic a few steps from your table is the whole point here, and the sunsets over the bay do the rest. It shifts easily from a lazy beach lunch to an evening of pizza, drinks and hookah as the lights come on along the shore.
Mexican Food Shpëtimi is a casual fast-food restaurant in Berat serving Mexican favourites with a local twist, open daily from morning until late. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas and loaded wraps share the menu with pizza and grilled chicken, eaten in a warm brick-and-wood dining room or ordered for delivery around town.
Why We Love It
Bright lights, wooden tables and trays of tacos and cheesy enchiladas make this an easy, filling stop after a day among Berat's white houses. It is cheerful and unpretentious, the kind of place where a family can order half the menu and still leave with change.
Platinium is the restaurant and beach bar of Hotel Platinium, set a minute above the pebbles of Dhërmi beach with a thatched terrace facing the Ionian. The kitchen leans Mediterranean, with fresh local fish and shellfish, seafood pasta, carpaccio, grilled meats and wood-fired pizzas, served from breakfast through late dinner.
Why We Love It
Lunch here comes with the sea filling the whole frame, boats bobbing just beyond the terrace and a plate of the morning's catch in front of you. Service stays attentive without fuss, and the bill is gentler than the setting suggests.
Poka Pizza is a playful pizzeria near the Faculty of Economics in Tirana, serving handcrafted pizzas with inventive toppings and sauce drizzles alongside pasta and Italian-style comfort food. The bright, colourful room with its neon emoji sign and green wall works for families and groups, and the kitchen also runs a busy delivery and takeaway service.
Why We Love It
Pizzas here have personality, from the four-way party mix to the house Poka Lady, and the sauce zigzags are half the fun. The bright chairs and neon grin make it an easy, cheerful stop for a casual dinner with kids or a quick slice between lectures.
El Mar is a seafood restaurant and pizzeria on the Vlorë seafront, with a terrace that opens onto the promenade and the bay. The menu runs from whole grilled fish, octopus and shrimp carpaccio to grilled steaks and wood-fired pizzas, served in a bright, modern dining room that looks straight out to the water.
Why We Love It
Lunch here stretches out easily, with a plate of grilled sea bass on the table and the bay glittering just past the terrace rail. The fish is as fresh as the setting suggests, and the pizza is good enough that the table next to you will probably order one too.
Artigiano is a warm, wine-lined Italian trattoria on Rruga Abdyl Frashëri in Tirana, its walls hung with vintage Italian posters and a sketched Leaning Tower of Pisa. The kitchen turns out wood-fired pizzas, fresh pasta and seafood, poured alongside bottles from the extensive wine racks that run through the room.
Why We Love It
Between the Italian film-poster walls, the buzz of a full room and a prosciutto-and-burrata pizza fresh from the oven, it hits the easy, generous Italian note it's going for. The sidewalk tables are a fine perch for people-watching over a long lunch.
Heming-uej is a seaside resto-cafe with rooms above it on Rruga Agaveve in Durrës, themed around Ernest Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea. The kitchen cooks Adriatic seafood the Italian way, from oysters, octopus and scampi to seafood pasta, risotto and wood-fired pizza, served in a glass-fronted dining room and on a terrace by the beach.
Why We Love It
Portraits and quotes from Hemingway line the walls while plates of mussels, prawn linguine and grilled fish keep coming from the kitchen, and the Adriatic sits right outside the glass. Open from breakfast until late, it is an easy seafront stop for a long lunch or a slow evening in Durrës.
Gerti Restaurant is a beachfront family restaurant at Shkëmbi i Kavajës on the Durrës coast, open from breakfast through dinner. The kitchen mixes seafood with Italian comfort food, from grilled fish and fried calamari to shrimp pasta, risotto and pizza, served in a bright modern dining room or on the terrace above the sand.
Why We Love It
Sunset over the Adriatic, a spritz on the table and a platter of fried fish with lemon make a very good end to a beach day. Prices stay honest, portions are generous and families settle in easily thanks to the relaxed terrace and the kids' corner.
Pizza Savos is a small, family-run pizzeria in central Sarandë, a short walk from the seafront. The menu is built around thin-crust pizzas baked to order, alongside grilled pitas, sandwiches and fresh salads, with delivery available across town.
Why We Love It
A generous pizza, a cold drink and a table by the open front is the whole idea here, and it works. Prices stay honest, portions stay big, and the locals who fill the place most evenings are the best sign that the kitchen is consistent.
Italian Mattarello is an Italian-owned pizzeria and street-food spot on the seafront at the southern end of Sarandë's promenade, run by a family whose pizza and panzerotti business dates back to 1958 in Puglia. Wood-fired pizzas, panzerotti, baked pasta and bruschette are made with ingredients brought in from southern Italy, and the open terrace faces the bay across the road.
Why We Love It
The pizza comes out blistered and thin from the oven, the panzerotti taste like Puglia, and the owners greet regulars by name from morning coffee until the last late-night slice. Tables under the palms with the bay turning pink at sunset make this an easy, unpretentious favourite on the Sarandë seafront.
Pizza Artist is a wood-fired pizzeria and family restaurant in the centre of Pogradec, a short walk from the lakefront. Pizzas come out of a brick oven alongside baked pasta, focaccia-style breads and fresh salads, served in a wood-panelled dining room or on a small street terrace under a neon pizza sign.
Why We Love It
The wood oven is the heart of the place, and pizzas like the spinach and runny egg one arrive blistered and generous. It is the kind of easygoing neighbourhood pizzeria that fills with local families in the evening, which is usually the best sign in a lake town.
Giardino Della Pace is a pizzeria and café set in a large garden on the main road at Ishull-Lezhë, just outside Lezhë. Wood-fired pizzas are the main event, backed by coffee, croissants, desserts and a wine list, with seating spread between a glass-walled dining room and a garden terrace shaded by palms and full of flowers.
Why We Love It
The smell of the wood oven reaches you before the pizza does, and the thin, blistered crust topped with cured ham and rocket is worth pulling off the road for. Afterwards the garden, with its bright sofas and flower beds, is a pleasant place to linger over a coffee before driving on.
