Eventually, I developed a taste for small inns serving typical local cuisine. For my next dinner in Dubrovnik, after a bit of research, I chose the “Heritage of Dubrovnik”, which I hear “couldn’t be more authentic”.

As a reminder, the list of articles related to this trip to Croatia.

The “Heritage of Dubrovnik” concept

As the name suggests, this is a restaurant that focuses on local specialties, cooked the old-fashioned way. As their Facebook page puts it, “Meals straight from our past, prepared as our grandmothers and mothers did. Also, the food that was served to Dubrovnik’s aristocracy. Simple yet richly flavored meals, prepared with the old recipes that have been lovingly passed down to us.”

I never trust Tripadvisor, but a 5/5 rating with glowing, credible reviews makes it worth a try.

The Heritage of Dubrovnik setting

Having only been to the terrace, I can’t tell you much except that, as with many restaurants in Dubrovnik’s old town, the terraces in the side streets are a spectacle in themselves, because of the atmosphere and charm of these alleyways.

The menu at Heritage of Dubrovnik

If you’ve followed my earlier articles on the restaurants I tried in Croatia, you’ll find the fundamentals of local cuisine: fish and seafood, meats in simmering sauces and Italian-inspired dishes.

The little extra on the “Heritage” menu: a description of each dish and its history.

The meal and the dishes

First things first: booking. No website, just a Facebook page. It’s so simple and authentic!

I’ll be taking advantage of a day’s sightseeing in the medieval town to make a little detour and book directly at the restaurant.

A warm welcome, but it’s hard to find a seat. After exploring a number of possibilities with the staff, I finally found a slot for the following day at 7pm. Very early for me, who’s more of a late diner, but between the reputation, the menu and the friendliness of the staff, I really wanted to dine here.

So it’s in a good mood and with a very positive outlook that I arrive at the restaurant at the appointed time.

The welcome is once again perfect and I’m seated at my table. They bring me the menu, and my choice is made all the more quickly as I had already analyzed it in every sense before coming.

I’ll have the squid ink risotto and the lamb leg.

The risotto arrives after a very reasonable wait.

It confirms the principle that the least Instagrammable dishes are not the worst.

It’s really very tasty, light and can be devoured in just a few spoonfuls (or more…). It may not be a difficult dish to make, but getting the simple things right without overdoing them to make the dish look deceptively sophisticated is an increasingly rare quality.

Next comes the lamb leg, slowly simmered with figs, potatoes and caramelized carrots.

The meat is meltingly tender and the dish is extremely tasty.

The only thing missing is a good dessert to round off this excellent experience, which has lived up to all its promises.

Eventually, someone comes to clear my plate. I expect someone to come and propose me a dessert. 10 minutes pass, then 15. The waiters keep crossing the terrace but nobody stops at my table.

20 minutes. I keep trying to catch a glance…nothing.

30 minutes. Finally someone reacts and comes towards me.. My choice of dessert is made and I hear myself pronouncing “the bill please”.

No coffee, no dessert. Besides, I’m not asked “are you sure you don’t want dessert or coffee”, or “did everything go smoothly”?

In short, I left disappointed and a little annoyed. It’s a shame, because the rest was perfect, which makes it all the more frustrating.

The atmosphere

Once again, it’s difficult to judge the atmosphere of a restaurant when you’re sitting on the terrace, and even more so when the terrace is located in a busy alleyway.

I’d say it was friendly and relaxed…as I think can be said of all the little terraces in medieval Dubvrovnik.

The service

There were clearly two phases.

From booking to the end of the main course: perfect, fast and friendly.

Then after the main course, a space-time rift where I didn’t exist for the staff. But it’s an issue I’ve identified time and again: they’re focused on sending out the dishes, and the first to finish and enter the “dessert” period are secondary until the rest of the service is finished.

But 30 minutes is too much, and when you’re alone at the table it’s unbearable.

What was most disappointing was that when I asked for the bill, no one was bothered that I didn’t ask for coffee or dessert, or that I wasn’t simply asked how it went. Almost “so much the better a table is available”.

Bottom line

Not a negative impression, but a very mixed one. Very good on the dishes, the welcome but the impression that remains at the end is of having been left to my own devices for more than half an hour and that the fact that I decided to leave after the dish didn’t surprise anyone.

In the end, the truth is that I was simply unlucky, but that’s unfortunately what I experienced that day.

Articles similaires

Restaurant Süg in Split: excellent, affordable bistro cuisine Restaurant Kadena in Split: good but oversold Restaurant Konoba Bonaca Dubrovnik: a delicious and charming restaurant Restaurant Xerta (1*) in Barcelona: the local cuisine sublimated Restaurant Elevador in Lisbon: nice but bland Review : Mauri Restaurant, Seminyak, Bali. The Italian nugget of Bali.