Eating in: Dubrovnik
We all find ourselves sometimes searching through TripAdvisor, the Fork, or just Google to find a new restaurant. This even happens when we’re in our hometown, so when we visit a new city and want to eat out at least once, it’s almost impossible to avoid being in this situation. And when you are in a touristy place, sometimes is especially difficult to understand if you’re going to pay a fair price for what you’ll eat or not.
I try to save as much money as I can when visiting a new place, but I also like to experience eating out at least once when I’m in a new place. I will be posting about the restaurants I try and like in various cities so that you can have a good reference of where to eat in different cities. So, if you want to know where to eat in Dubrovnik, keep reading this post.
I stayed in Dubrovnik for two nights and we ate out twice (we had sandwiches on the go for lunch). The first restaurant was a recommendation from a friend and we really loved it, so that’s the one I will recommend here: BARBA.
BARBA is a street food restaurant with seafood dishes. You can try their Oysters, their great octopus burger, or even some fried shrimp. They have the perfect mix between sea and street food.
If you have a meal there, you can be sure that you won’t leave hungry and you won’t leave with an empty wallet either. We found the price to be pretty good. We paid 30,80€ for dinner for the two of us (we ate the Octopus sandwich, the Tempura Prawns and fries) and we left satisfied. Obviously, it won’t be a Michelin-star type of restaurant for that price, but I loved it. We were going to try their oysters too, but they had run out (I guess it’s still not time for me to try oysters haha) so, if you go there and try them, let me know what you think ;)
For you to have an idea, I will leave you some info from their menu (note that this was the menu when we visited, it could change):
Sandwiches
Tuna, Anchovies: 39 kn/5,18€
Octopus, Mascarpone cheese: 44 kn/6,03€
Salmon: 49 kn/6,5€
Salads
Anchovies, Arugula, and Cherry Tomatoes: 54 kn/7,17€
Octopus: 64 kn/8,5€
Shrimp, Arugula, Parmesan cheese: 69 kn/9,17€
Fried Fish
Small fish: 59 kn/7,85€
Squid: 66 kn/8,76€
Tempura Prawns: 69 kn/9,17€
Fried Oyster: 14 kn/1,86€
Burgers
Sardine burger: 49 kn/6,5€
Octopus burger: 56 kn/7,44€
Tuna burger: 59 kn/7,85€
Shrimp burger: 64 kn/8,5€
Specialties
Fresh Oyster: 14 kn/1,86€
Plate Dubrovnik (for 2 people): 199 kn/26,43€
Plate Barba (for 2 people): 199 kn/26,43€
One really cute thing we found about this restaurant is that you can leave your mark there in the form of a wooden fork. The restaurant is really small and, as soon as you enter, you will notice a lot of wooden forks in the walls over the counters, around the lamps, in jars…a lot of them. All of these forks are different because they are decorated by the people who visit the restaurant. You can grab the markers they have around and you can personalize your fork (with text or drawings, whatever you want) and then you just have to choose where you want to leave it in the restaurant. So you will leave Dubrovnik, but your mark stays there. We loved this idea and, of course, we had to leave our own fork there. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a red marker at the time and I couldn’t finish the Portuguese flag, but I still loved it!
You will find them here. If you enter through the Pile Gate, walk the middle corridor until you reach the 11th street on your left. You will find the banners below and you just have to walk up until you find it.
Banners & Lanterns
The government decided to have these banners at the beginning of each street so that you can easily know where everything is in a beautiful and homogeneous way. You will also find lanterns above the doors of restaurants and shops because the city government prohibited regular signs because they thought the street would look too commercial, so all that the restaurants and shops can use to signal where they are is a lantern.
See more on their Instagram account.
Make sure you visit when you’re in Dubrovnik, leave your own fork, and share with us how your experience was ;)
XOXO,
