Dubrovnik is a beautiful old city. Sadly it is plagued by your typical cruise tourist. Otto Restaurant On my recent trip to King’s Landing…errr…Dubrovnik, I was seriously disappointed. I expected a lovely, quiet, old town. Idiot me did not know that Dubrovnik was a landing spot for CRAPPY EVIL CRUISE SHIPS. This, combined with Game of Thrones tourism resulted in a city over run by tourists and shitty food. (New travel rule – do not visit cities where cruise ships land). Most restaurants are over priced (why was I paying US prices in Croatia?), homogenous, and simply sub par. Thankfully, I stayed in a wonderful apartment outside of the old town, near the Luka. Our host, Maro recommended that we try the restaurant that was just a few steps away from our apartment. We ended up going various times for the food, service, value, and it’s owner, Otto. Otto opened up the restaurant about a year ago. He is one of those people who really loves his business. He was there every time we showed up, chatted with each table at the restaurant and made everyone feel at home. He even gave us some great restaurant suggestions (like Buganvila in Cavtat) which were wonderful. The restaurant has a lovely outside area, and we sat there on all our visits. On our first visit I opted for the grilled tuna steak with sage sauce on Swiss chard and lentils (105kn approximately $18). Although the tuna was cooked to medium (and I had asked for medium rare), the flavors were spot on. The lentils were delicious, and I ate the entire thing. Antonio ordered the pork fillet with string beans and saffron-garlic mashed potatoes (99kn or $17). The pork was reminiscent of a kebab, juicier than any we had in all of Croatia. Simple flavors on the pork that worked perfectly. The saffron mashed potatoes were almost polenta like, and while Antonio usually likes them a little less creamy he really enjoyed them. On our second visit, I opted for the onion soup (35kn, $6USD). I was not quite sure what to expect. Let’s just say the execution on the crust was flawless. It was fluffy and flaky. Once you broke into it, the aromatics of the soup were released which prompts your mouth to salivate. The dome stays up, but the edges fall into the soup. This was a seriously fun dish. The soup itself was sweeter than I am used to, but I would order it again in seconds. Antonio decided to be adventurous and get the chicken breast with hummus and celery root, parsley-tomato salad (85kn, $15USD). I was a little worried about this seemingly strange combination. but it was surprisingly good. The hummus was chunkier than usual, which highlighted the chickpeas. It had nice texture, which we both welcomed. The celery root tomato salad was great! He could barely stop eating it. If every restaurant owner was like Otto (not his real name, but what everyone calls him) they would automatically garner themselves 3/5 stars. He was pleasant, welcoming, and we look forward to seeing him again on our next visit to Croatia. Recommended Otto is located at Nikole Tesle 8 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. If you are going there from the old town, take the #6 bus. Those that scamper through the city, taking pictures and not really enjoying it. Instead of Dubrovnik, may I suggest Cavtat. It is only a few minutes away, has a ferry to King’s Landing and has some wonderful restaurants. If you end up going to this lovely town, I seriously recommend Bugenvila. It is really easy to get to the restaurant. As soon as you arrive in town, there will be a huge parking lot towards the right. Park there, walk towards the town, and make a right. The restaurant will be on your right a short walk away. Our server at Bugenvila was wonderful. He kinda looked like Dominic West from the wire (who I find quite attractive). He spoke English (almost everyone in Croatia does) and was gentle, knowledgeable, and attentive. We started off the afternoon with a bottle of Posip Cara. Posip is one of Croatias most well known white wine varietals. It is pronounced sort of like “pushup”…think “poship”. The wine was fine. I tried a lot of Croatian white wine during the trip, and liked none. This one was drinkable, but lacked backbone (as most white Croatian wines that I sampled). Stick to the reds, Plavac Mali is quite nice as a varietal. Antonio and I shared a tomato salad. Please do yourself a favor. When you go to Croatia, order tomatoes everywhere. They are sweet, fleshy, and simply scrumptious. Croatian olive oil kicks ass. So make sure to douse your tomatoes in it. I don’t recall the salad being on the menu, but our server gently suggested we should have one with our meal. I was incredibly thankful. The salad was simple, and perfect in its simplicity. Being in Croatia and overlooking its gorgeous waters, I knew I had to order fish. My choice was scorpion fish with homemade pasta with Swiss chard, black olives, garlic, white wine and cherry tomatoes. It cost 90Kn which converts to about $15USD. The pasta was gorgeous. Better than any homemade pasta I have made. The fish was elegant, and juicy. The olives added a nice salinity to the dish. The best part about it was not having that overly full feeling when I was done. Antonio is not a fan of seafood. This presented a great deal of trouble in the Dalmatian coast (which is heavy on seafood – as expected). The issue was most restaurants had very boring menus. After a while, he was bored of having beef and lamb. Almost no restaurants had chicken or pork on the menu (later someone explained that pork season was over). He ordered a chicken grappa with a creamy mustard seed sauce with arancini whic cost us 80KN ($14USD). The chicken was juicy, and the mustard seed sauce was lovely. The arancini were perfectly cooked, and sinfully delicious. I loved the experience and the food at Bugenvila, do not hesitate to go there, Recommended Bugenvila is located on the Cavtat Promenade at Obala A. Starčevića 9.
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