A Stop in Lesce: Dining and Delights Near Bled, Slovenia

On our way back home from Croatia we break the journey into pieces and make a first stop in Lesce near Bled in Slovenia. Krk to Bled is only a few hundred kilometers and traffic is light so we arrive in Bled in time for an early lunch and too early to go to the rooms we rented at Vila Eva. Near the apartment there is the restaurant Kleznk which looks promising. The restaurant is attached to the airstrip and we have a good view of small airplanes landing and taking off with gliders attached. The weather is bright, we sit on the terrace and enjoy the spectacle with the mountains forming a scenic backdrop. The burgers are good, the meat excellent. The style of the dishes is more German like compared to what we ate in Croatia. Compared to Croatia the landscape has changed as well, with mountains, more vegetation and trees. The weather, the food, the friendly staff and the landscape all add to the vacation vibe. After lunch we see opulent deserts being served at other tables but we decide to skip and go check into our rooms. If we would have stayed longer in Lesce we would probably have come back for dinner. Instead we go for dinner at Kunstelj, a traditional Slovenian in which is recommended by our host. The food is traditional with a lot of meat but a bit primitive to my taste. Also, there are a lot of people smoking and even though we are sitting outside we often get a waft of sigarette smoke crossing our table which is annoying. Worse is the staffing, the restaurant is completely full and we have to wait quite a while to get our food. But worse is that we fail twice to get a second drink. Our waiter forgets 2 times to bring us our drink even though he manages to remember orders made later at other tables in our vicinity. As we complain and finally give up and leave he gets reprimanded by the owner. So, food scores OK although I liked what we got at lunch better, customer service poor. Definitely not going back here also as it is not cheap and the discount that we were promised is not included on the bill. But after a +3 hour ordeal we just want to leave. Before dinner we walked around the village and explored a bit. It is small with some nice little alleys. Doesn’t hurt to visit if you are in the neighbourhood.