Tasted by the editor - Gverović-Orsan

Written by Mark Thomas May 29, 2017

Every week The Dubrovnik Times goes to new levels for your pleasure. This time it’s all about culinary pleasure. We have scoured the menus of Dubrovnik to bring you our favourites. And not only did we just research the menus we have gone that extra step and tasted the food in advance for you...its hard work but someone has to do it. This week I visited a restaurant for the first time ever...but not the last time.

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Now I must have driven past this restaurant hundreds of times, I would always throw a glance and think “that looks like a great spot for lunch,” but would then continue past once again. This time I stopped, and I am glad I did. Located in the wide open bay of Zaton the Gverović-Orsan restaurant is one of the iconic eateries of the region. Some restaurants advertise that they “have a sea view” or are “close to the sea” – if Gverović-Orsan was any closer to the sea I would be sitting with the fishes. “Every table is front line to the sea, so everyone has a sea view,” laughed the manager as I found a table.

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I could however see a problem – I am not going to want to leave here. And being so close to the sea it made perfect sense to go for a seafood lunch of which Gverović-Orsan has plenty to choose from. Octopus salad, fresh anchovies on rock sapphire and fish carpaccio, all delicious, all fresh and all presented gloriously.

The fish carpaccio was in an unusual sauce so I asked the manager “Lemon, honey and olive oil...all ingredients we grow ourselves,” he smiled. This proved to be one of the keys to the success of the restaurant, keeping things simple and authentic and using home grown local produce to the maximum.

On to the main course and sticking with the fish theme I plumped for the black risotto “Orsan.” I had heard about this risotto before, renowned as one of the best in the region. I am a fan of black risotto so couldn’t wait to dive in. Loaded with flavour (and seafood) it was a complete winner. Delicate and light (so often risottos are heavy) is was the perfect balance of tastes. One tip – as there are only 12 tables I would heavily recommend booking in advance, in fact in the summer you will be lucky to find a table if you haven’t booked.

Respecting traditional values and recipes all in the perfect location, that is Gverović-Orsan. And to round of a perfect lunch I chose pancakes in a wild orange and honey sauce. And yes I was right; I just didn’t want to go home. Gverović-Orsan gets 10/10 from me.

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