First Michelin star in Croatia

“The cool, contemporary style of this softly lit, romantic restaurant comes as a contrast to the old town, in whose enchanting lanes it is hidden. Creative and occasionally theatrical, the cooking is also somewhat of a surprise; using modern techniques to create beautifully presented, flavour-filled dishes.”
With these words, the Michelin guide inspectors described Monte, the first restaurant in Croatia to be awarded the Michelin guide star.

There are currently 2,717 restaurants around the globe boasting one, two or three Michelin stars. With the recently awarded Michelin star, Monte, which is located in the charming Istrian town of Rovinj, has become the first Croatian restaurant to receive this honoured title and put Croatia on the culinary map of the world.
The webpage of the restaurant reveals that Monte has consistently made to the most exclusive restaurant lists and that renowned foreign media also noticed the restaurant. In 2013, Robert Draper wrote an article about the restaurant in New York Times and described it with the following words:

“Rovinj lies about 20 miles south of Porec and possesses the casual insouciance of the artist’s burg it happens to be. I dined that night at Monte, an airy and theatrically lighted restaurant presided over by a striking platinum-haired Dutch woman dressed all in white. The seven-course meal began with semi-crudi of tuna, scampi and scallop heated with a propane torch and served on a bed of seashells, pebbles and rosemary sprigs. It reached its zenith with a slow-roasted suckling pig accompanied by pork rind and paprika foam. You can bet that great malvasia and olive oil (the latter served in test tubes) was within reach. All in all, Monte delivered an agreeably clever spin on the region’s oceanic and inland staples, with flourishes indicative of Istria’s portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man status today.”

Source: Restaurant Monte