Christmas 2025 saw us on an Adventure – Andrea’s friend was working at a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Slovenia, Hiša Franko, and we had the opportunity to join her for a dinner and some adventuring. We jumped at the chance, hopping a flight into Northern Italy before the drive out into Slovenia itself… with a few exciting adventures along the way.


Thursday, 25-Dec-2025

We get to the culmination of the adventure. The reason we flew out, the restaurant that drew Andrea’s friend, and sparked this entire adventure. Hiša Franko!

Three Michelin stars. Featuring in the “top 50 best restaurants in the world” consistently since 2017.

Yeah, it’s a little bit fancy.

So are we, though, and thanks to Andrea’s tutelage I felt… well, not confident? But prepared, at least.
We’re fancy, and I felt ready to experience something one-of-a-kind.

And let me tell you, dear readers, that meal was one-of-a-kind.

It’s different than any restaurant I’d experienced before. To be totally honest, I’m not convinced that I’d want to go back… but I am convinced that I’ll always be thankful that I got to try it out. It was a different type of dining – not just eating good food, but tasting interesting things. Tasting my way through a story would be the closest description, I think?

Yeah. Tasting my way through a story.

Each dish was brought out by one of the chefs, in an almost ritualistic manner. The servers aligned themselves, and the two servers put our plates down in perfect synchronicity. Drinks were similarly aligned, as if putting them down was part of an arcane ritual, where cutlery placement mattered to the tenth of an inch.

The chef came out, as mentioned, explaining each dish and the ingredients associated. Explaining the how and the why, alongside the origin of the ingredients.

Then we tasted something. Something small – but filling enough that we weren’t ever either hungry or full.

We tasted things for nearly two hours. Paired kombucha, selected wine, everything meticulous.

And then, at the end of the meal and after the dessert, we were offered a tour. A tour of the restaurant, of the kitchen, of the wine cellar, and of the cheese cellar. We met the owner and sommelier, Valter, and got to gawk at the sheer scale of the operation. Dozens of chefs and assistants, all working to make food for a restaurant hosting maybe 20 people an evening.

It really was amazing, impressive, and intense.