Guests who come to us for the ceramics often ask where to swim, where to find good coffee, and where to eat well in Rovinj. Everyone here has their own places, and the choice is a personal one. So this is not a list of the best places in Rovinj — it is simply where we feel at ease: the places we go to ourselves, or that we know are good the way locals know such things.
Rovinj is a small town, and everyone here knows everyone — that is the beauty of small places anywhere. So of course we know most of the owners. That is not why they are on this list. And, believe it or not, nobody on this page has paid to be on it.
All walking times are measured from our door at Zdenac 2. Almost everything here is small and family-run, and in July and August it fills up — a phone call in the morning is usually all it takes.
Eat
Konoba Jure 15 min
Ten minutes past the last souvenir shop, which is exactly why locals still eat here. The cooking is Istrian and domestic: hand-rolled pljukanci, polenta with cuttlefish, gnocchi with game, and whatever was good that morning. Nothing is plated for a photograph. The dining room is small, so call ahead.
Artičoka 4 min
Thirty-five seats in a quiet street north of the church, in a room of bare stone with clean modern lines set against it — guests remember the room almost as much as the food. The kitchen is open, so you watch the whole evening being cooked. The menu is short because everything on it is made that day, down to the bread and the olive oil: Istrian cooking taken seriously. Book before you walk over.
La Vela 5 min
A gostionica a minute from the main square, with a grill that never stops. Grilled squid, fried small fish, warm bread, generous plates. It is not trying to be anything other than what it is, which is why we keep going back. Come before seven and you will walk straight to a table; after eight, expect to wait.
Bookeria 3 min
A small square, an old vine over the terrace, and a family in the kitchen. The truffle pasta is what most people come for, but the reason we send vegetarians here is that the meat-free dishes are a proper section of the menu — four of them, and not the same truffle pasta everyone else calls a vegetarian option. One detail tells you the rest: the saffron risotto is deliberately kept out of that section, because of the parmesan crisp on top. Vegans get two mains and a chocolate dessert of their own.
Scuba 3 min
On the waterfront by the old harbour, where you can watch the boats come in while you eat. Fish, shellfish and octopus, grilled or baked, seasoned lightly and then left alone. Ask what came in that morning rather than reading the whole menu. It fills up from eight, so call during the afternoon.
Puntulina 5 min
Terraces cut straight into the rock at the western edge of the old town, the sea a few metres below and nothing between you and the horizon. This is the dressed-up end of Rovinj: the setting is spectacular and the prices follow it, so keep it for an evening that deserves it. Reserve a day or two ahead and ask for a lower terrace.
Monte 5 min
The first Michelin star in Croatia, and still run by the family that opened the restaurant. Tasting menus only, in the evening, in a courtyard just below the church. It is an occasion rather than a dinner, and it needs booking well in advance — in summer, weeks rather than days.
Quick & casual
For the days when you want lunch rather than a meal, and you would rather not give an hour to it.
KANTOON 5 min
A small deli counter a couple of streets back from the harbour: sandwiches on their own focaccia, salads, lasagne, fresh juices, and a chef who remembers what you ordered last time. There are vegetarian sandwiches on the board, and usually a few other meat-free things besides, so ask what they have that day. It shuts for the afternoon and opens again in the evening, so aim for before three or after six.
Wok.About 5 min
A few steps from KANTOON, and where to go when you have had enough fish: bao buns, gyoza, stir-fried noodles and curries. Two vegetarian dishes and two vegan ones, and the tofu is treated seriously — but if you are vegan, say so out loud when you order, because some of the sauces are not. One thing to know before you join the queue: there is a single cook and everything is made when you order it, so in July and August the wait can be long. Go at an odd hour, or order it to take away and eat it down by the water. There are only a few seats inside and a few tables round the side facing the sea anyway.
Coffee & drinks
Augusto Coffee Shop 5 min
A coffee shop roughly the size of a kitchen, run by people who take the roast, the grind and the water seriously. Espresso, filter, and a short list of pastries. Come in the morning — they close in the early afternoon, and by then the good things have usually gone anyway.
Circolo 5 min
A bar on a small square that runs from breakfast through to two in the morning: coffee and something to eat early, craft beer and cocktails late, and a terrace that stays pleasant even when the streets are full. One of the few places in the old town that is just as good at nine in the morning as at midnight.
Mediterraneo 4 min
Drinks on the rocks at the western edge of the old town, facing the open sea and the sunset. There are no reservations and barely any tables — you order at the small bar, walk down the steps and find a flat stone. Go an hour before the sun drops if you want a good one.
bar La’Moura 5 min
High on the western rim of the old town, a few doors along from Mediterraneo but a different kind of evening: a proper bar with the best shelf of spirits in Rovinj, small plates to go with the drinks, and something to eat sent over unasked. There is no wifi, which is the point. Come towards sunset — in the middle of a still summer day the terrace catches no breeze, and there is an air-conditioned room upstairs with the same view for when it gets unbearable.
Sweet & bread
Ombra — laboratorio del gelato 2 min
Small-batch gelato made in the back with real ingredients, and a short list of flavours that changes through the season instead of staying the same all summer. The vegan flavours are clearly marked, so nobody has to interrogate the person behind the counter, and now and again there is a vegan croissant too. Two minutes from our door, which is a daily problem for us.
Figment Artisan Bakery 23 min
Proper sourdough, croissants worth the walk, and bread made with flour from local mills. It is a real walk out of the old town — twenty minutes east, or five by car — but if you are staying on that side, this is where the day should start. Go early: they close in the late afternoon and the good things go first.
Beaches
One piece of advice before you go looking: go south. The coast north of town has little to offer a swimmer — the good water, the shade and the quiet all begin below the old town and keep going for kilometres.
Balota 5 min
The old town’s own beach, directly below the church of St. Euphemia. It is rock, not sand: no showers, no sunbeds, no bar — just flat stones, ladders into deep clear water, and the best place in Rovinj to watch the sun go down. Bring water shoes and a towel you don’t mind sitting on.
Lungomare from 10 min
The seafront promenade running south from the marina past the hotels. Flat and easy, shaded most of the way, with small beaches along its whole length and somewhere every few hundred metres to stop for a coffee, a cold drink or lunch. This is the walk to take with children, or in the early evening when the light turns gold.
Park šuma Zlatni rt 25 min
Where the promenade ends, the pine forest begins. The beaches run along its whole edge for kilometres — shade right down to the water, calm shallow bays, and small coves you can have to yourself if you keep walking another ten minutes. No cars, no entrance fee, and the sea is usually a degree warmer than in town.
Our neighbours
Three shops where we know you are going to find high quality hand made things.
Arca Gallery same building
Mauro works upstairs from us (he literally lives in the building), with jewellery he designs and makes — quiet, well-made pieces, and prices lower than the room around them suggests. Open late, every day.
Braković Ceramics 1 min
Ceramics thirty metres further up our own street: stoneware cups, plates, lamps and fish, made to be used and admired at the same time. Braković Gallery has been here for many years and we respect their work very much.
Nothing to Sea 1 min
For anyone who wants to take home something a person actually made from a meticulously made research into Croatian hand made authors. Porcelain on the theme of the sea, prints and postcards from the owner’s photographs, and work by other artists — not a factory trinket in the place. There is a second, smaller shop a few streets away on Sv. Križa with a slightly different selection.
Map
Everything on this page, on one map. It opens in your own Maps app, so it knows where you are standing.
Tell us a place
If you’ve experienced something in Rovinj that you feel deserves to be on this page — or if you have just been to one of these and want to tell us how it went — write to us here.