Sarajevo Inat Kuća

A small Ottoman house with a red-tiled roof and a wide veranda stands at the southern foot of the Šeher-Ćehaja bridge, on the bank of the Miljacka directly opposite Vijećnica, the Habsburg-era City Hall. The house is a restaurant. It is called Inat Kuća, the Spite House, and the name is the entire point.

The story

In 1894, the Austro-Hungarian administration of Sarajevo decided to build a municipal city hall on the north bank of the river, in then-fashionable pseudo-Moorish style. Several smaller buildings on the chosen site had to be cleared. Most owners took the compensation and left.

One did not.

The owner, generally remembered as Benderija, refused. He owned a modest 18th-century Ottoman house with a wooden upper storey overhanging a stone ground floor, the kind of house his grandfather had built and his father had lived in. He told the administration that he would not sell, and that if they wanted his patch of ground they could come and take it and explain themselves in court.

Several rounds of negotiation followed. Eventually he gave them his terms. They could have his land. He wanted, in return:

1. A bag of gold ducats as compensation.
2. The house dismantled stone by stone by the imperial administration.
3. Ferried across the Miljacka to a plot of his choosing on the opposite bank.
4. Rebuilt exactly as it had stood, every original element returned to its place.

The administration agreed. They paid the ducats. They dismantled the house. They ferried it across. They rebuilt it.

It now stands on the south bank, facing the very City Hall it once stood in the way of. The Bosnian word for the kind of stubbornness that refuses to bend even when bending is reasonable is inat. The house has carried the name ever since.

In the cadastral survey of Baščaršija completed by Habsburg geometers between 1901 and 1905, the plot appears as parcel XCVIII/7. Fejzić and Fejzić (2018) use that number to document its survival across the 20th century, while across the river the same administration was cutting new streets through the Ottoman mahala with less ceremony.

The restaurant

Since the 1990s the house has operated as Inat Kuća, a restaurant specialising in traditional Bosnian cooking. When the weather is decent the terrace opens out along the river. The view is the reason to book ahead: the City Hall directly across the water, its striped façade lit gold in the early evening.

The menu is what you would hope. Begova čorba (Bey’s soup) is the house signature: chicken, okra, root vegetables, finished with sour cream and a squeeze of lemon. Dolma is excellent (vine leaves stuffed with rice and minced lamb, simmered in tomato). Klepe are small Bosnian dumplings with garlic-yogurt sauce. Bosanski lonac, the slow-cooked meat-and-vegetable stew that is Bosnia’s national dish, is a reliable order for a cold evening. Sarajevski sahan, a shared platter of slow-cooked ćevap, rice, and dolma, is the practical order between two people. There are several preparations of veal and lamb, simply done. The bread is house-baked. The portions are generous in the old Bosnian way.

Wine is short but well-chosen. Try the Žilavka from Herzegovina with anything light, or the Blatina with the lamb.

Practicalities

Inat Kuća sits at Veliki Alifakovac 1, 71000 Sarajevo, directly across the Šeher-Ćehaja bridge from the City Hall, about eight minutes’ walk east from the Sebilj. The nearest tram stop is Vijećnica, right in front of the City Hall — the bridge is thirty seconds from the platform. Open daily from around midday to late evening. Reservations are wise, especially for the river terrace at weekend lunchtimes; contact the restaurant on +387 33 489 767 or via inatkuca.com. Mains run 15 to 35 BAM. Expect 50 to 70 BAM per person for a full meal with a glass of wine. The dining room has a fireplace for the shoulder seasons and winter, and small alcoves on the first floor look out onto the City Hall through the river-facing windows.

One practical note the owner has posted publicly in reply to visitor comments: the building has only one bathroom. The house is old and small and there is no room for another. Factor it in if you are dining as a large group.

It is one of the few restaurants in Sarajevo where the building is more famous than the food, and where the food is, nonetheless, very good. The story is on the wall. The dolma is on the table.