Five knives from Martin Novák: the best-rated restaurants from Na nože

Five knives is a rare thing

At the end of every episode Martin Novák hands out a knife rating, from zero to five. Four knives show up fairly often, but a perfect score is genuinely rare. Across five seasons and more than fifty episodes of Na nože, only two restaurants earned the full five knives. Both are still open, both are on our map, and both are worth the trip. Here is what is behind that top score.

Tri groše, Ľubietová (5 knives)

Tri groše is a guesthouse and restaurant in the picturesque village of Ľubietová, tucked between the hills a few kilometres from Banská Bystrica. The name nods both to a Slovak fairy tale about three coins and to the trio who run the place: married couple Lucia and Peter Ambrúš and their seventeen-year-old daughter Lula. It was Lula who called Martin in, because she could see her parents were completely worn out. They were at the restaurant from morning to night, had not taken a holiday in three years, and the strain was slowly pulling them apart.

What Martin found was textbook "tweezer cuisine": a menu trying to do everything, black risotto, lamb with espuma and edible flowers, and above all waits of up to an hour for a plate. The fix was ruthlessly simple. No rebrand, just a grill and a smoker out on the terrace, honest dishes like beer-glazed ribs and a minced schnitzel, and a return to what Peter is actually good at. In between, Martin sent the couple fishing and to a dance class to remember why they got into this in the first place. A month later a full terrace, a lamb skewer from a local farm, and a homemade strudel convinced him enough to award five knives and call Tri groše the "number one" of the whole season.

Open the Tri groše restaurant profile

Oravský Zrub, Nižná (5 knives)

Oravský Zrub is a romantic timber lodge sitting right on the main road between the Orava dam and Orava Castle, a road nearly a million cars use every day. The problem? Almost nobody turns off it. Two friends, Tomáš Žiglo (a chef with twenty years of experience, including five with Roman Pohlreich) and Ľubo Guláš, had spent two and a half years fighting an empty dining room and a daily loss of four to five hundred euros. They were on the brink of closing.

This time one thing surprised Martin: the food was excellent. He said he had not eaten better sviečková even in Prague. The problem was not the kitchen, it was marketing and the inability to reach customers. So the answer was not "change the menu" but "bring the food to the people". Across from the lodge sits an industrial park with a thousand employees, so the team launched a proper lunch delivery service, loyalty cards, and real marketing. A month later lunches were going out every day, the website and social media were working, and the quality had held. Excellent food that finally found its customers earned five knives.

Open the Oravský Zrub restaurant profile

Just below the top: the four-knife restaurants

Four knives is a high bar on the show, and it usually means a place genuinely turned itself around. Here are thirteen restaurants that came within a single knife of the top. All of them are open, so if you happen to be nearby, you have a lunch tip.

• U Zlatého Tanku (Divina near Žilina, S2): from a village pub with rubbery pizza back to an honest restaurant.
• Penzión Turista (near Banská Štiavnica, S2): an empty guesthouse with a pork-heavy menu got a new direction.
• Hostinec Raj (Hrabušice, Slovak Paradise, S3): packed every lunch with great food, it just needed a united team.
• Penzión & Řízkárna Veranda (Frýdek-Místek, Czechia, S3): a Czech detour that turned a deep-fried řízkárna into an honest kitchen.
• Silvanus (Kremnica, S3): a hunters' restaurant with honest game, drowning in overstocked fridges.
• Rybárska bašta (Nitra, S4): a place that promised fish but had a seamstress cooking it, reborn as Brasserka.
• Yalla Habibi (Banská Bystrica, S4): superb Syrian food that finally found its guests.
• Koliba pod Vlkolíncom (Ružomberok, S4): a mountain koliba run by remote control from Bratislava, brought back to fresh cooking.
• Hostinec u Krivého potoka (Betliar, S4): an inn near the historic Betliar manor.
• Reštaurácia u Katky (Košice, S4): the season four finale in Košice.
• Bonanza ranč (Skýcov, S5): a menu juggling three cuisines at once finally got a clear focus.
• Bistro Zetko (Vieska nad Žitavou, S5): slow service and an owner insulting reviewers, replaced by order.
• Smokehouse (Košice, S5): great BBQ ideas with no system and long waits, put back on its feet.

Where to head first

If you are planning a trip, the two five-knife restaurants are an obvious choice, but the four-knife places are worth a stop too. You will find each of them on our interactive map with the address, opening hours, rating, and a link to the episode. Mark off where you have already been.