Help with Restaurants and Wineries in Croatia

I would appreciate suggestions for restaurants and winery visits in Croatia, mainly Dubrovnik, Hvar, Split, and the Istrian peninsula (Rovinj and Pula).

Hopefully you are happy with grilled meat and fish. Other than pasta, that’s about it.

Exception being Monte in Rovinj, excellent and creative. La Puntulina in Rovinj is good but overrated. Reserve very early in advance for a sunset view table and you’ll be happy.

Nautika in Dubrovnik is very good and stellar view, book a sunset table outside ASAP.

Restaurant Dubrovnik (in Dubrovnik) night even be better food, no view but great ambience.

Azul was just ok (in Dubrovnik).

In Split, for a snack, I really liked St. Burek ( for a bourek). Dvor was good (out of town). Konoba Nikola is good for whole fish and shellfish (pricey)

Dubrovnik: Restaurant Panorama: More for the view, but the food is okay also. Get a table a couple hours before sunset and enjoy.

Rovinj: Very touristy, but fresh fish and squid is really great. The places along the main promenade have great people watching, but you pay. Restaurants along the water: ditto. It’s about the experience and the views Imo, rather than a mind-blowing meal. Dario’s pizza up above town on your way in or out is very good.

Barry, Thanks for the quick response. Very helpful!

My recollection of the food in Croatia was that it was largely unmemorable, cheap, but unmemorable. The wine on the other hand was always interesting. I was never really sure what I was drinking, but I enjoyed almost all of it. Explore and see what you find.

There will be a bunch of places outside of the city where they have roast pig at night. Never did it, but it looked amazing. Look for “konoba kontija”

The small villages (Kastela) on the coast between Split and Trogir are the best for authentic food imo. It’s that happy medium, where the the locals are the vast majority, but they get also enough foreigners where they are used to them and appreciate their business.

Our 2 favorites restaurants are Baletna škola and Konoba Intrada.

I don’t have any notes on Croatian restaurants.

Since Croatia was under Venetian rule, they have plenty of Italian restaurants. Nothing fancy. Ok pizza. You won’t go hungry.
Croatia is on the sea. There are many fish restaurants that offer up simply prepared fish (they’re known for this) that will more than satisfy you. You’ll see many varieties of fish that you’ve never seen before, especially by the docks in Hvar.

I highly enjoyed Konoba Matejuska when I was in Split a few years ago.

In Dubrovnik, we were underwhelmed with some of the food options. If you are staying on or near the Lapad, we enjoyed our dinner at “Restaurant More” inside “Hotel More” they also have a pretty cool cave bar for after dinner drinks.

Thanks to all for your helpful advice. Cheers!

Just saw this thread, so sorry for the late response. I have to point you to the following site

This guy has some pretty good recs and is a bit of a foodie. The places he recommended that we ate at were spot on to what he described. Definitely a bit more ‘Slow Foody’ than Michelin, but that is sort of how we roll anyway.

In Rovinj, we quite enjoyed Restaurant Orca. This is unglamorous, not in the beautiful downtown, and has a playground - but has terrific seafood and pasta dishes, as well as other local specialities, and is where all the locals eat; we saw no tourists.

IIRC there were some terrific looking places he recommends in the north of Istria. He’s pretty thorough.

Have a great trip. We were there in 2016 and it was fabulous. Dubrovnik is pretty touristy. We just opted for pizza and a beer. We stayed at the Hilton outside the walls, which was kind of perfect - pop in to the walled city and then back out for a breather.