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.
Attiko Restaurant & Sushi is an upscale sushi and seafood restaurant in Sarandë, plating modern Japanese-leaning fusion — signature maki and uramaki, tartare and nigiri alongside seafood pasta and grilled mains. Dishes arrive artfully finished, from a crab-clawed seafood linguine to avocado-wrapped tartare with caviar.
Why We Love It
The cooking is more ambitious than the seaside setting suggests, with beautifully plated rolls and tartare that wouldn't look out of place in a big-city sushi room. It's a polished choice for a special dinner on the Sarandë coast.
Soma Vinyl Station is a unique restaurant-bar tucked by the Pyramid in Tirana that blends delicious fusion cuisine (including sushi, tempura, and other international favorites) with a vibrant music-loving atmosphere and an impressive collection of vinyl records setting the tone. It’s a place where food, drinks, vintage vibes, and good tunes come together, perfect for a relaxed dinner, great cocktails, and social evenings.
Why We Love It
We love Soma Vinyl Station because it turns dinner into an experience great food, inventive cocktails, and a soundtrack of vintage vinyl or live DJ sets in a chic, welcoming space that feels both stylish and laid-back. Whether it’s sushi, small plates, drinks, or good conversation, every visit feels special and fun.
Omói Essence is an all-day restaurant and cocktail bar near the Grand Park lake in Tirana, running from breakfast and brunch through to dinner. The menu moves across Mediterranean and Asian influences, from oysters, beef carpaccio and sushi to pasta, risotto and cuts of steak, served in a warm room of arched green banquettes, timber lattice ceilings and a long backlit bar.
Why We Love It
Morning light through the arches makes this a calm place for a coffee and a smoothie bowl, and by evening the same room turns low-lit and clubby, with a platter of oysters on ice and a coloured cocktail catching the lamplight. The design has real polish, yet the service stays easy and unhurried.
L’Amuse is a modern fusion restaurant on Rruga Pavarësia in Durrës, with a dark, plush dining room of velvet drapes, leather banquettes and low light. The kitchen runs a full sushi and crudo selection alongside Adriatic seafood, Italian antipasti and grilled meats, backed by a curated wine list and specialty cocktails.
Why We Love It
Step in from the seafront bustle and the room slows you down: velvet, brass and a stag emblem glowing over the bar. It is one of the few places on this coast where a plate of nigiri and a bowl of Adriatic shellfish sit comfortably on the same table, and the staff clearly enjoy making an evening of it.
Retro is a rooftop sushi restaurant and lounge bar on Rruga Kolë Idromeno in the centre of Shkodër. The menu runs from sashimi, signature rolls and gyoza to ramen and yakisoba, served alongside cocktails on a plant-filled terrace with a view of the Orthodox cathedral.
Why We Love It
Sunset on the terrace, with the cathedral domes glowing behind the pergola, turns a plate of rolls into an evening out. The kitchen takes sushi seriously for a town this far from the coast, and the cocktail list keeps the rooftop lively long after dinner.
Emiral by Soren is a beachfront restaurant on the Vlorë coast, the second location of the Soren kitchen from Himarë. Fresh fish from the display counter, handmade pasta with seafood and a sushi selection are served under a wooden pergola a few steps from the sand, with the terrace running from breakfast through late dinner.
Why We Love It
Dinner starts with a look at the day's catch laid out on ice, then moves to a table where the sea is close enough to hear. The handmade pasta with shrimp is the dish to order, and the string lights over the terrace make it easy to stay for one more glass.
Epidamn Restaurant & Garden is the restaurant and lounge of the Epidamn boutique hotel on the main boulevard in Durrës. The menu moves between Mediterranean dishes, pinsa and a sushi selection, with cocktails served in a plant-filled winter garden, a velvet-lined lounge and a palm-shaded courtyard.
Why We Love It
Ivy climbs the brick walls of the courtyard, brass lamps glow over marble tables and a plate of crisp sushi rolls arrives alongside a cocktail. The mix of hotel polish and garden calm makes it an easy choice for a slow evening in the centre of Durrës.
Amazonic Tirana is a fun dining restaurant and cocktail bar inside the Arena Center at the Air Albania stadium. The jungle-themed room, with carved pillars and hanging greenery, frames a wide menu of Mediterranean mains, fresh pasta, sushi rolls and desserts, with signature cocktails and weekly live music, Greek nights and DJ sets running from breakfast through late evening.
Why We Love It
Stepping in feels like leaving the stadium concourse for a candlelit jungle, with towering carved columns, plush booths and vines overhead. It is a place for a big night out, where a plate of sushi, a pasta and a round of cocktails can carry a table from dinner straight into the live show.
Mado is a fusion sushi restaurant and lounge on Rruga Dervish Hima in Tirana, pairing fresh sushi and Asian-inspired plates with a well-stocked bar. The dark, red-lit interior with its sculptural chandelier and curved booths turns into a lounge late in the evening, with a leafy veranda for warmer nights.
Why We Love It
The room sets the mood before the first plate lands: low light, warm wood and a glowing chandelier that makes an ordinary Tuesday feel like a night out. Order a mix of rolls and nigiri to share and let the evening drift on from dinner into drinks.
Sanur Beach House is the beach club and restaurant of the Empire Beach Resort, set on the rocky shoreline just south of Dhërmi. Days run from breakfast and cocktails on the rattan loungers to dinners of grilled meat, seafood and sushi, and at weekends the pool terrace turns into an open-air party with DJs.
Why We Love It
Thatched roofs, white daybeds and the Ionian a few steps below give the terrace the feel of a Bali beach house transplanted onto the Riviera. Long lunches drift into sunset drinks, and the seafood and sushi hold their own against the setting.
Arka Rooftop is a fine dining restaurant and lounge bar on top of the Arka Art Hotel at Kodra e Diellit, on the hills above Tirana. The open-air terrace wraps around a seasonal infinity pool with panoramic views of the city, and the kitchen pairs fresh sushi and seafood with steaks and signature plates, followed by DJ sets on Fridays and live music on Saturdays under a smart-casual dress code.
Why We Love It
As the sun drops behind the hills, the pool lights up in blue and the whole of Tirana glitters below the candlelit tables. Between the sushi, the oysters and the skyline, it is one of those evenings that feels planned as much for the view as for the plates.
Lost Seaside is the open-air restaurant of a beach resort on Rruga Butrinti in Sarandë, with rattan and timber tables under thatched pergolas on decks that run straight to the water. The kitchen serves Mediterranean dishes with Asian touches, from sushi to grilled seafood, alongside signature cocktails, moving from breakfast and casual lunches to a more refined dinner service as the beach club winds down.
Why We Love It
Everything here faces the water: the decks, the daybeds, the pool and the long dining terrace with Corfu on the horizon. Come for a lazy lunch of sushi and something cold, stay as the lights come on around the giant sculpted hands at the entrance and the evening turns into a party.
Fish Art is a seafood restaurant on Sheshi 2 Prilli in central Shkodër, built around its own fresh fish counter. The kitchen grills whole fish, octopus and prawns, cooks mussels and seafood pasta, and adds a sushi selection, served in a modern dining room and on a street-side terrace.
Why We Love It
The fish on ice at the counter is the same fish that lands on the grill a few minutes later, and that freshness carries the whole meal. A platter of chargrilled squid with a squeeze of lemon, or a pot of steaming mussels, is all you need for a good evening in Shkodër.
Sushi Club is a Japanese and Asian restaurant on Rruga Gjeneral Nikols in Tirana, known for its all-you-can-eat formula: a fixed price per person for unlimited orders from the full menu, with separate lunch and dinner rates. Alongside nigiri, sashimi and a long list of speciality rolls, the kitchen turns out tempura, hot starters and sushi boats for sharing, with delivery available too.
Why We Love It
Bright, plant-filled and unfussy, this is the place in Tirana for a long, greedy sushi lunch where the plates keep coming as fast as the table can empty them. The rolls are generous and colourful, and the fixed-price rule keeps the bill predictable no matter how ambitious the order gets.
Uma Food & Drinks is a modern fusion restaurant on Rruga Taulantia, a short walk from the Vollga promenade in Durrës. The menu pairs Black Angus tartare and grilled steaks with tuna tataki, sushi rolls, seafood pasta and fish dressed with passion fruit, served with a creative cocktail list in a stylish, low-lit room with a terrace out front.
Why We Love It
The kitchen is playful in a way that is unusual for Durrës, putting a fish carpaccio with passion fruit next to a proper Black Angus tagliata and making both feel at home on the same table. Warm wood, a glowing back bar and occasional live music give the room an easy evening rhythm.
Sugar Tirana is an upscale restaurant on Rruga e Elbasanit serving a gourmet menu that moves between Mediterranean cooking and Asian dishes, with a dedicated sushi and sashimi selection. Open from breakfast through dinner, it pairs slow-roasted and fire-cooked plates with a cocktail list and a moody, velvet-draped dining room.
Why We Love It
Deep red walls, dim lamps and heavy curtains set a late-night tone before the first plate lands, and the kitchen follows through with fish in herb butter one moment and a sashimi platter the next. Nights here tend to stretch on, and the room is built for exactly that.
Salt is a large restaurant and cocktail bar in central Tirana, founded in 2016 and built around Mediterranean cooking, seafood and sushi. An open kitchen and sushi bar sit under a skylight roof in a duplex space with indoor and terrace seating, and the venue moves from lunch and dinner into late-night drinks at the weekend.
Why We Love It
Walking in under the hanging dried flowers and the marble bar feels like stepping into a greenhouse that happens to serve nigiri. The sushi counter and the Mediterranean kitchen share one menu built for passing plates around the table, which is why it fills up with groups on any night of the week.
Van Gogh is a restaurant and cocktail bar at Square 21 on Rruga e Kavajës in Tirana, designed around Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, with exposed brick, velvet banquettes and the painter's work on the walls. It serves an à la carte menu and a dedicated sushi menu alongside cocktails from a specialist bar team, from morning coffee on the terrace until midnight.
Why We Love It
The room is the draw: swirling ceilings, a bronze bust of the painter and deep green velvet that makes an ordinary evening feel like an occasion. A platter of sushi or a neatly plated fillet holds its own against the decor, and the bar keeps the mood going late.
Amo Sushi is a stylish Asian restaurant on the ground floor of Tirana's Twin Towers, set under a glass roof among hanging greenery and warm pendant lighting. The kitchen spans sushi and sashimi, signature maki, seafood ramen and small plates like gyoza and edamame, and it was the first restaurant in Albania to offer an all-you-can-eat formula at lunch and dinner.
Why We Love It
The glass-roofed, plant-filled room feels bright and buzzy, an easy setting for working through a colourful sushi platter and a bowl of ramen. The all-you-can-eat formula makes it a relaxed choice for groups who want to keep ordering without watching the bill.
