May 2024

I think this place must be pretty close to unique. It’s in a small town (Pupnat) on the island of Korcula in Croatia where we were holidaying. Michelin mentions it and gives it their “green” icon plus the “bib gourmand” (good value) and it certainly deserves both of those. It’s celebrated as a family and “garden-to-table” thing, and homey and friendly it certainly is, pretentious absolutely and pointedly not. For some reason I had the impression that Michelin had given it a star but no they hadn’t.

It was about a 12-minute drive from our Air BNB near the Korcula old town, and we arrived a bit early and were the only people seated in what appeared to be entirely an outdoor dining space. A brisk, knowledgeable zaftig young lady seated us and presented the fairly simple menu and the small wine list. By the time we started eating the patio had filled up to about 80%.

Our wine was one of the two white grapes we have found on this island, posip (the other is called “grk” which is grown only on Korcula) from a small producer called Krajancic. This characteristic of significantly better white wines than red is reminiscent of Sicily, not far away. This wine was classy (big heavy bottle, beautiful colour, free of any obvious faults) but less-than-fully present both on the nose and in the mouth, although it opened a bit.

As the patio began to fill as our “mixed starter with homemade smoked ham, smoked ham spread, goat cheese, marinated aubergine, aubergine spread and olives” arrived on a big plate with at least ten – not just six – items. I can’t list all the others, but especially impressive were the aubergine spread and another soft spreadable mix and some very rich heavy fig jam. We ordered bread for a couple of euros and it was fresh and delicious with so many varied-flavoured bites. We cleaned the plate.

Next, Robin had a homemade goat cheese ravioli and for me it was lamb stew with green peas. Both of these were beautifully prepared and both needed salt which was available on a table nearby. The ravioli seemed to me to lack a real goat flavour that I was looking for even with the salt but the morsels with their pasta melted in the mouth. My lamb with peas was hearty and I would say the more satisfying of the two mains. A salad listed as a “side dish” was chopped up greens with a very mild dressing.

I wasn’t sure what to think while I still believed this place was Michelin one-starred because it really had none of the pretentious characteristics (including the price) of usual Michelin-rosette eateries.  I wondered whether the famous French critics had swung a bit to the left. A few nights later we ate at a place called LD in the old town which did have a star and no, Michelin is still celebrating traditional high class eating and encouraging its protégés to charge for it.

Good not great food here in Pupnat, a lovely down-home environment, and probably a whole world of culture and presentation, Family and determined individuality that could appeal a bit more strongly to fans of the natural ideology than it did to me. That said for the price and experience don’t miss it if you are on this wonderful Croatian island for more than a few days.

Food 8.9 service 9.2 ambience hard to rate, depends on your taste, value 9.4 peace and quiet 9.0.