We were supposed to be in the right place, yet there was no sign of the restaurant. Naively, we wandered the shady streets of old Belgrade near the historical Dorćol district, searching for the mysterious restaurant Delirium Silence. It existed online, but there was no trace of it around. The address was correct, but there was no restaurant in sight. Just a lively youth bar with great atmosphere—definitely not the fine dining spot we were looking for, Serbia’s only molecular gastronomy restaurant. The name suggested we were heading for a mind-blowing experience, and we truly had no idea what to expect.
Entering it is like saying “Open Sesame!” You need to look very carefully at the series of doorbells in front of the heavy gate at 10 Dositeeva Street to notice that one of them says Delirium. We ring, say we have a reservation, the gate opens, and we enter somewhere. Clean and neat corridors and staircases, but preserving the spirit of the early 20th century when the building was constructed.
The owner comes out of the front door. You are about to imagine a refined middle-aged gentleman from the 1920s, but you are overwhelmed by an elegant youthful freshness from the presence of the young team in the kitchen – chef Vladimir Kučera and several of his assistants, who were hardly over 30 years old.
The kitchen, right off the corridor, is tiny, but they work together seamlessly. Beyond it, we enter the aristocratic decor and mystical atmosphere of the restaurant.
The interior, designed by Vladimir’s brother, blends early 20th-century aristocracy with a modern edge: mirrors, paintings, play of light and shadows. The perfect setting for something from a parallel universe.
The molecular cuisine of Vladimir Kučera
Vladimir almost gave up on cooking. He graduated from culinary school, but his first jobs were in traditional “kaafanas”, where they mainly prepare grilled meat, potatoes and similar popular favorites. We can’t deny that we are also fans of Serbian barbecue, but the topic of this article is different.
After several years of working in “kafanas”, Vladimir went to study cooking in France and reached his professional rebirth. He discovered molecular cuisine and since then he has been dealing only and exclusively with it. He has been a chef in some of the most exquisite restaurants in Belgrade.
Today he has his own place and is one of the newest members of the international organization of ambitious young chefs JRE, from where we learned about the restaurant. And the place, in fact, is also brand new – since August 2024
But let’s clarify what molecular cuisine or molecular gastronomy means. Although there is no precise definition, these terms are understood as a set of methods for preparing food, based on the chemical and physical processes that occur during preparation.
Cooking based on science. Through the applied scientific methods of processing products, all kinds of shapes, textures and combinations of flavors can be created. If we think about it, every thermal processing of food is such a process and in every kitchen there is some element of molecular gastronomy.
But usually we talk about molecular cuisine when the scientific approach is dominant in the preparation of food and the results are often extravagant and very different.
Between science and tradition
We order the Delirium Experience – the main menu of Delirium Silence. In addition, there is also an option for a fish menu and a shorter vegetarian menu.
There are several options for combinations with drinks – with Serbian wines, with foreign wines and with cocktails. After some hesitation, Andrey chooses the wines, and Mimi dares to try the cocktails.
The dishes are playful and rooted in Serbian nostalgia—ayvar, pljeskavica, paprika in cream. Locals adore how the menu creatively brings childhood memories back to life. We felt it too, as many flavors were familiar to us as well.
But what we were served exactly?
The 7-course menu actually includes 9 dishes:
The beginning:
A basket with kaymak cream, mandarin gel, broccoli foam, and leek ash.
Aged beef tartare in a nest of potato threads with wild blackberry jelly.
And then: a sour cream cream, enveloped in a jelly of lacto-fermented sweet peppers, smoked paprika gel, a crackling biscuit. The reference here is to the traditional relish ‘paprika u pavlaci,’ which is a mix of roasted peppers and sour cream.
The main courses:
Savoy cabbage sarma with rabbit, whey and horseradish foam, parsnip puree, and herb chips.
Chicken soup with noodles in a molecular version is the next dish, in the preparation of which we also have a little participation. Here we have a clear chicken broth with durum wheat noodles, celery “caviar”, a ribbon of carrots and chili and lacto-fermented acacia flower.
Next is freshwater fish, poached in butter with toasted sesame, Pirot cheese velouté, spinach cream, celery puree.
We are almost at the end of the main menu, and to cleanse the palate comes an airy espuma of apple and mint with compressed grapefruit and fermented fir tips.
And here is the main course, which is also the culmination of the menu – aged beef steak, with marinated kohlrabi ribbons, mushroom marmalade pearls and chicken bone broth.
Before the real finale, we cleanse the palate again with lavender gel, ginger and orange kombucha with elderflower and raspberry infusion. And the real finale is a strawberry and white chocolate mousse with mint kombucha sorbet and caramelized hazelnut.
Cocktails and more alchemy
From this culinary journey, which started from Bulgaria and went through Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria and back, we learned something new and useful for us – to pay attention when they offer us food and drink combinations, especially when there is an opportunity for cocktails. Cocktails are not just a drink for a fun evening with friends, but they also have a well-deserved place in haute cuisine, especially when they are prepared with the same attention and professionalism. We learned this during our visit to Hisa Franko by Ana Roš, when they offered us to try, in parallel with the wine combination, an option with non-alcoholic cocktails.
To our great, but really pleasant surprise, the result was delightful. The drinks were created as a special addition to the food, in order to achieve complete harmony. The alchemy with…
Sources
The cocktail pairing at Delirium Silence achieved the same effect, with the difference that most of the cocktails were alcoholic. A large part of them were gin-based, but there were also some with rakia. Extremely attractive and precisely prepared, some of them made directly before our eyes, they enriched the alchemical world in which we had immersed ourselves at the table and enhanced the experience.
And yet, we cannot deny the excellent wine pairing with its truly carefully selected wines, most of which were French. And it’s hard to imagine a Serbian dinner without a good rakia.
Delirium
The word “delirium” comes from the Latin delirare – “to deviate from the furrow,” in a figurative sense – “to go off the right path,” “to fall into delusion.” In medicine, delirium is described as an acute disturbance of consciousness, accompanied by confusion, hallucinations, and illusions. It is a state in which the boundaries between reality and imagination blur.
The feeling is similar when you leave Delirium Silence. Dositejeva Street is lively on a Saturday night, as is the entire surrounding neighborhood, filled with bars and cafes. Belgrade’s nightlife is bustling, and yet we are both in it and still in our own experience. A true delirium.
After finale
Although we usually avoid talking about prices, we will share how much this experience costs, as the topic is interesting. The price of the Delirium Experience menu is 12,000 Serbian dinars, or 200 BGN per person (June 2025). The pairing with foreign wines is 10,000 dinars. For two people, the final price was around 42,000 dinars, or 700 BGN.
!Only one thing left us with a slightly unpleasant feeling, although it was not entirely unexpected. It turns out that even in fine dining restaurants like this one, smoking is allowed in Serbia. This is the case even in Michelin-starred restaurants. We know that indoor smoking is not banned in Serbia, but we still hoped that chefs of such a caliber would not allow the aromas and flavors they create to be mixed with tobacco. In this case, two ladies in the same room were smoking e-cigarettes between every course.