In our last night in the Kotor/Dobrota area, we went to a local restaurant that our Airbnb host had mentioned to us. It was a 5 mins walk and like many restaurants here, had a pretty waterfront view. We got to sit in the lovely terrace upstairs where there weren't a lot of people, so it was nice and quiet (although a large group did file in after us).
At this point, we knew the drill in terms of what to expect food wise - so I went with my standard seafood salad to start but then got the fish fillet which the waiter said was sole fish. There was no mention of how it was prepared except that it was prepared "house style" but I'm not picky so I just rolled with it. The seafood salad was similar to the other seafood salads I had been eating on the trip - fresh, simple and delicious. As for my entree, what came out with a gigantic filet of fish that was breaded and covered in a heavy white cream sauce. It was served with the favorite local side of sauteed spinach and boiled potatoes. The fish was actually quite tasty even with the sauce but at some point, the sauce was so heavy and filling that I had to scrap it off. It was a bit like eating a large slightly healthier fish fillet sandwich at McDonald's but without the bread and cheese on it. April had gotten another local dish that had been described as beef but what came out was a gigantic pork roll stuffed with prosciutto and cheese inside. It was truly a unique dish that we hadn't really seen elsewhere on the trip.
We hadn't had much dessert on this trip and we had been dying for some good baklava, so when this place said that they actually had it, we were so happy. Unfortunately, the baklava wasn't very good here. Even the waiter was like "it's a very sweet dessert" - which was an understatement because it was dripping in sugar water and was way too sweet for us. Waa Waa.
The food here wasn't spectacular but it definitely had a nice local feel to it and I left feeling overly full from my food. Our waiter was nice enough but nothing stand outish. Total bill with tip and wine: $148 USD for 5 people
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor
Il Brodetto Przno Obala 24, Przno 85315, Montenegro 3.5 Forks
After our stay there, we made our way to our final stop on our trip which was the town of Przno - the beach part of our trip! It was close to the party town of Budva, but still outside enough that we were on a quieter more sophisticated area. After we checked into our Airbnb, we made our way to the main beach outside our apt. There is a cute adorable strip of restaurants by the beach that lined the short path. The vibe on the street felt very seaside Mediterrean and I loved it. This place also came recommended by our host and it looked to be the most busy on the street.
The atmosphere here was a bit nicer than the places in Kotor but not super stuffy. The restaurant had a Greek feel to it with the stone streets and old world charm. Instead of getting a seafood salad, I decided to opt for a straight octopus salad (12.50 euros). I saw that they also had a sea urchin pasta (16.50 euros) and I just had to get that because I hadn't really seen sea urchin on any of the menus so far and I love a good sea urchin dish.
The octopus salad was enormous - it really is more of a sharing plate. But I devoured the whole thing it was probably one of my favorite dishes on the trip. It was just so fresh and simple and cooked perfectly well - it's something that I've been really craving since I've been back in the States and really miss. Unfortunately, the sea urchin pasta wasn't quite as mind blowing. I was excited because it was listed as a specialty of the house, but it was heavy spaghetti with more of a sea urchin paste/sauce. There weren't any visual or obvious tongues of sea urchin in there. I was a bit let down after the amazing octopus salad that this dish didn't knock it out of the park too. Overall, it was still a lovely meal in a lively and adorable beach side town that I would recommend to others visiting this town. Total bill with tip and wine: $173 USD for 5 people
Aman Sveti Stefan Sveti Stefan, Montenegro 4 Forks
Holy Jesus, if there was ever a more luxurious place in Croatia/Montenegro, then I don't know where else it could be. This Aman Hotel is the epitome of exclusivity and elegance. It's so private that the hotel sits on an island away from the main land and you are not allowed on the grounds unless you are a guest or make a reservation at the restaurant - you can't just randomly stroll in and take a look around. To give you a sense of the how opulent it is there, we looked up the nightly rate here and it was $2,000/night - so even if we wanted to go all out and stay here for even 1 night, that was still way to much money.
They have 2 restaurants but only 1 is open for lunch, The Piazza, so we made a 1pm reservation there. You have to get escorted everywhere but for good reason, as the place is quite sprawling. When you walk in, your breath is taken away at how stunning it is - I might be overly gushy about this place because most of the Airbnbs that we stayed at, while nice, were definitely not luxurious.
As you can imagine, the restaurant was gorgeous. It was in this beautiful outdoor garden surrounded by the water. The service was super attentive (almost too attentive) and helped guide us through the menu. As expected in a place like this, the prices are exorbitant and quite shocking after all the relatively cheap meals we had been having. To give you a point of reference, we got a bottle of wine that was 60 euros, which even by US standards, is more than I would usually pay for a bottle of wine at dinner at home. Most of the wine we had been getting was closer to 12 euros. But given how cheap most of this trip was, we felt justified in having one baller meal and if it was going to be anywhere in Croatia/Montenegro, it would be here.
I got with lamb suvlaki and everyone else got these amazing looking pizzas - I know, it sounds kind of strange to go to a 5 star hotel and get pizza but they were delicious and much higher quality than the pizza we had been getting on our trip. Most of the pizza we had been eating was like a solid high school cafeteria pizza (and I say that in the nicest way but I have a soft spot for it) but the one here was like going to an artisanal wood oven place in Brooklyn. As for my lamb, it was presented beautifully on 2 hanging metal skewers and served with a yogurt dipping sauce and a Greek salad. The lamb skewers were good although I wished that my meat was a bit more medium rare - it was closer to a medium/well done. The Greek salad was super fresh - I just wished there was more of it as it was just a few bites. The cucumber yogurt was good but a bit thin for me - I would have, ironically, liked a thicker Greek yogurt dipping sauce. I had a bite of Jenn's pizza and it had a great thin crust to it and felt very high quality.
Overall, this place is just stunning. I've been lucky enough in my life to have traveled to a few luxury properties and this one has got to be in the top 5 in terms of physical beauty. However, the downside of being in such a high end establishment is that the prices are downright ridiculous. This was by far the most expensive meal we had on the entire trip at $390 USD with tip and wine for 5 people. I've obviously spent way more in the States (in fact in the first week I came home, I was sadly dropping $70-80/pp on dinner for no good reason) but knowing how cheap the rest of the country is, it's still quite a shock to the system to be paying NYC type prices when you're in Eastern Europe.
Blanche Obala 11, Przno Beach 3 Forks
Sniffle, last meal of the trip! We ended at Blanche which was located towards the end of the sea/beachside street and it had stunning views that overlooked the beach. It's was a beautiful walk over during sunset. I could see this place being a super romantic place for a couple.
Since it was our last meal of the trip and I hadn't actually gotten a whole fish, I felt like it was time to do it up. Unfortunately, something was lost in translation because he showed us the whole fish (it was a branzino aka European sea bass) before serving it and I had told him I wanted him to keep the head on and leave it as is, but it was fileted by the time it got to the table. The actual fish meat part was fine - nothing spectacular - but there were a ton of small bones in it. It was to the point where I just accepted that I was going to be swallowing fish bones all night. Luckily I was with the girls, so I wasn't too embarrassed to be pulling out bones from my mouth but it was starting to get really annoying. I wished they had just given me the whole fish so that I could just maneuver it myself and find some pockets of goodness in the head of the fish. The fish was also served with grilled vegetables which were also just ok.
Jenn had asked the waiter if they could linguine and clams and they said yes and again, something must have been lost in translation because she got mussels and pasta and she said it wasn't all that great. We had thought about getting dessert but our waiter just never showed up. Since we had to get up at 4AM the next day to catch our flight, we finally flagged him down to get a cheesecake to go, but it took forever. The service was most definitely very "European" here - aka too slow for this New Yorker.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite meal of the trip but it was just nice to spend time with the girls in a pretty setting on our last night out. I'll have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my food adventure in Croatia/Montenegro - I loved that it was very seafood and Mediterranean focused and that most of our food tasted fresh with no preservatives (in fact I felt like I lost weight on the trip with all the walking and healthy food). My only comment would be that I wished that there was a bit more variety and spice to the food (I came home and immediately ordered Thai food) but in general it was a fantastic trip that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for something a bit off the beaten path.
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor
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