Lokrum is a small island that is a 15 minute ferry ride away from Dubrovnik. It's a nice half day trip to experience some peace and quiet and to get away from the crowds. There isn't too much to do there except to walk around and hike up to a fort and maybe take a quick dip in the water (although be warned, there are no real beaches, it's all very rocky). A cute fact about the island is that it is full of peacocks running around, so it's fun trying to catch a photo of them with their wings out. After a fairly hot and strenuous hike, we decided we to have lunch on the island. As you can imagine, there aren't many options - it's basically 1 "fancy" restaurant, 1 cafe/rest area and 1 casual pizza type place. We opted for the casual pizza place which I sadly can't remember the name of - it might have been something as basic as A La Carte but that doesn't really sound right. In any case, it's a lovely outdoor cafe amongst the peacocks - they can get a bit aggressive so watch out. The menu was the typical line up for our trip: pizza, pastas and some seafood. I opted for the seafood tagliatelle and most of the girls got pizza. Besides the peacocks, there were swarms of bees. Bees, bees, bees. It was becoming incredibly annoying and our adorable waiter tried to put burned coffee down to try to keep them away. It didn't really work but we appreciated the sentiment.
As for the food, the pasta was what you expected. A nice tomato base with some mussels, small shrimp and squid. It was a perfectly fine dish and quite a lot of food but it definitely didn't rival any kind of pasta I had in Italy or even in some finer restaurants in NYC. But the combination of sitting outside on an island with a chilled bottle of rose made it the right meal at the time. Total bill with wine: 200 kn = ~$28/pp
Lokanda Peskarija Na ponti bb, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia 3.5 Forks
After spending the afternoon walking the walls in the Old Town, we decided to stick around the same area for dinner. Unfortunately we weren't starving but what's good about being in a seafood heavy town is that for the most part, eating seafood won't weigh you down. We had seen several restaurants that were serving giant pots of mussels and we decided that that's what we wanted. There are several restaurants right by the port that have beautiful outside seating for groups of people, so we decided to saddle up to the one that looked the most busy.
The menu here is almost 100% seafood, so if you aren't into it you're out of luck. We split a pot of mussels (77 kn = ~$11 USD), shrimp (111 kn = ~$16 USD), a seafood risotto (88 kn = ~$12 USD), and a small salad (35 kn = ~$5 USD). The small salad was fairly large and their salad are pretty similar to Greek salads in that they have lots of juicy red ripe tomatoes, red onion, olives and sometimes blocks of feta cheese. I love that most of the salads here are dressed only with simple olive oil and red wine vinegar - none of that heavy creamed based dressing. The pots of mussels were what you expected - steamed with garlic, lemon and some white wine. They weren't all that big but there were a lot of them which made up for the size. The shrimp came with the head on and were quite flavorful and juicy. They were medium sized so there was enough meat to make peeling them worth while. It was nice to have the risotto to help fill us up a bit and it had some more shrimp and squid in it. The risotto itself was a bit on the runny side for me and had more sauce than I would have liked but it was good to have some carbs in the meal.
In addition to visions of having cute dinners on cobble stone streets, I also had dreams of seaside dining while eating fresh seafood and drinking chilled wine, so mission accomplished for both dreams. It's these small things in life that make me happy, I just wish there were more options like this in NYC. Total bill with wine: $84 for 4 people
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor
Panorama Restaurant Cable Car Station, Dubrovnik 20000, Croatia 4 Forks
While we had several lovely meals in Dubrovnik, this one was my favorite which I was totally surprised by. When we had checked into our Airbnb our host had left us coupons for this place (and it's sister restaurant) which I usually take as a bad sign. There's just something slightly touristy and tacky about leaving coupons to entice customers to your restaurant. But I couldn't have been so wrong.
We tried to call the restaurant multiple times for a reservation but they kept telling us that they were full. Undeterred, we decided to go anyways because we were going to go up the cable car anyways that night. The trip up the cable car is totally worth it - it's lovely and beautiful views, especially during sunset. You get full spectacular views of the entire Old Town and the surrounding neighborhoods. It's pretty romantic and a couple even got engaged up there while we were there.
With Jenn's persistence, we were able to get on the waitlist and got a table within 30 minutes. The first thing we noticed while we were there was that it was super windy and cold. None of us were really that prepared but luckily the restaurant was prepared and had warm fleece blankets waiting for us at the table. How cute is that?! Our waiter was so adorable and sweet, we all took to him immediately. I know it's primarily a tourist town but I've been really impressed at how kind everyone was to us there. The menu had a meat and fish focus and I went with the meat special of the day, the rib eye. For starters, we got the grilled calamari and burrata to share. Both were fantastic, especially the burrata which was very creamy and moist. I ordered my steak medium rare and they did an awesome job of making it as close to rare was possible (it was pretty pink). It was tender and sliced well. It came with mashed potatoes and portobello mushrooms. It was great mixing the combination of meat, buttery potatoes and mushroom with the juices of the meat. We all still had room for dessert and got the cheesecake and chocolate cake which were both sweet and satisfying. We also had two fantastic bottles of local red merlot that were fairly light in taste but went well with my steak.
Overall, the menu was probably more American than most but that was fine given how much we enjoyed the food. The stunning views and sincere service made it worth the trek up the cable car. It was a lovely way to end our time in Dubrovnik. While I'm glad I finally made it to Dubrovnik, I was surprised at how incredibly touristy it was. Maybe it's the Game of Thrones effect but I'm not sure that I really need to come back to this part of Croatia again. I would definitely be up for checking out the Northern part which I heard was stunning and beautiful as well. Total bill with wine and our 10% discount: 1,535 kn = ~$219 USD for 4 people
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor
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