Ebisu

Belgrade's Leading Japanese, or Just Its Only One?

If you're weighing Ebisu against The Square or Salon 1905 for a special occasion dinner in Belgrade, the calculus is direct: Ebisu is the only serious Japanese option in the city, it earns two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) to prove it isn't coasting on novelty. The question isn't whether it does Japanese food well for Belgrade; it does; but whether it's the right call for your evening, whether the rooftop setting justifies the reservation over a stronger local cooking tradition at comparable prices.

What Ebisu Actually Is

Ebisu sits on the seventh floor of the Square Nine Hotel at Studentski trg 9, the setting is doing a lot of work here in the leading possible sense. The lift opens directly into the restaurant, the room splits into three distinct formats: bar stools, a sleek glazed interior, a rooftop terrace with open views across Belgrade's historic core. For a special-occasion dinner, request the terrace, the city panorama is a genuine feature of the meal, not an afterthought.

The cuisine is fully committed to Japanese execution rather than a fusion hedge. The menu runs sushi, sashimi, maki, tempura, teppanyaki, ramen, covering enough ground that two diners with different preferences can both find something genuinely compelling. The dessert section pivots to modern European, which is either a pragmatic concession to the local palate or a sensible acknowledgment that Japanese pastry culture doesn't always travel cleanly. Either way, it doesn't undermine the main event.

The adjacent bar runs a menu of saketini-inspired cocktails, worth arriving early to work through one before you sit, particularly if you're on a date or marking something worth celebrating. The transition from bar to table is easy here, the format rewards a longer evening rather than a quick dinner.

The Tasting Architecture

Ebisu's menu reads like a considered progression rather than a list of disparate options. A well-ordered meal here moves logically from lighter, raw preparations, sashimi and maki first, through the more substantial teppanyaki and ramen courses. The tuna maki with jalapeño pepper is specifically noted in the Michelin record as a standout, pairing heat and acid against clean tuna in a way that holds up as both a technical and flavour achievement. The tempura course, built around soft-shell crab with wasabi mayonnaise and pickled ginger, is the kitchen's clearest statement: a traditionally structured Japanese preparation executed with attention to textural contrast rather than mere novelty.

For diners building a fuller arc through the menu, the structure rewards you: move from sashimi to maki to tempura to teppanyaki, you have a meal that escalates in richness and intensity in a way that feels deliberate. Ramen, if offered on your visit, acts as a grounding final savoury course before the European desserts close things out. This isn't the meditative, course-by-course omakase format you'd find at Myojaku or Kagurazaka Ishikawa in Tokyo, but for a European city operating outside Japan's supply chain and culinary ecosystem, the discipline on display is worth acknowledging. Ebisu doesn't overreach.

The saketini cocktail programme alongside dinner adds a through-line for those who want to pair drinks with food. For reference points on what serious Japanese cooking looks like at the top of its range, Azabu Kadowaki, Isshisoden Nakamura, and Ginza Fukuju represent the standard Ebisu is implicitly measured against. It isn't competing at that level, nor should it, but the Michelin recognition signals that the kitchen is being taken seriously within its actual context.

Who Should Book

Ebisu is well-suited to three specific situations: a date night where ambiance and food quality both need to land, a business dinner where the neutral ground of Japanese cuisine avoids the loaded associations of Serbian or Balkan cooking, any occasion where you want a view as part of the meal. The €€ price point keeps it accessible relative to Langouste at €€€€, while the Michelin Plates signal enough quality to justify the choice to a guest who's never been.

It is less well-suited to diners who want to explore Belgrade's own cooking traditions, for that, Bela Reka or Iva New Balkan Cuisine are the more honest choices. And if the view is your primary driver but you want French or modern European cooking, The Square at the same price tier is worth comparing directly.

For broader Belgrade dining context, see our full Belgrade restaurants guide. If you're staying in the city, our Belgrade hotels guide covers where to stay near Studentski trg. For pre- or post-dinner drinks beyond the Ebisu bar, our Belgrade bars guide has the current options.

How It Compares

See the comparison section below for how Ebisu sits against Langouste, The Square, and other Belgrade options. For Japanese cooking at the level Ebisu aspires to, reference points include Kashiwaya Osaka Senriyama and Gion Matayoshi in Japan's own Michelin ecosystem.