WHAT TO EAT IN HVAR CROATIA- Hvar & Stari Grad Croatian Food Tour!

It is my favorite day again, food tour. This time we're checking out some of the top rated restaurants on the island of Hvar. Hi we're Jeff and Angela and we're Pure Detour. This summer we are island hopping the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. And the first stop on this food tour is a restaurant called Lusulis in Vardan. And when we got here we don't know about lunch and dinner but there's no menus for the breakfast. They just bring you out a bunch of stuff. So let's see what they bring out. And here is what they brought us out for breakfast. Several different kinds of yogurt as well as two different kinds of granola, some ham, some local cheese, nice ripe tomatoes, scrambled eggs, this gorgeous bowl of local fruit, homemade fig jam, homemade peach jam, and freshly baked bread. It looks amazing. That's going to wrap up Lusulis. The breakfast was fantastic. Peach and fig jams out of this world. For both of us combined there, 16 US dollars. Great value on that and quite possibly the best cup of coffee since I left Spain. Let's go check out something else. For lunch we are checking out a popular local spot called Dalmatino. They do a lot of traditional local foods with a twist. Let's see how that goes. So this is a piece of fresh carob. Our server just brought us out and was telling us. And the other is a carob liqueur. Apparently when you eat the little piece of carob and then drink a little bit of the liqueur there afterwards it's supposed to give it a chocolate effect. Let's give it a try. The carob itself is very sweet. It's strong because of the alcohol in it but absolutely gives it a chocolatey flavor. It's pretty amazing. We each chose a dish that we are going to share. I chose sea bass that is topped with a tapenade made of black olives and anchovies. Can't wait to taste it because I love salty things. And then it came with fava beans topped with a feta cheese cream. Let's give the try. Oh the skin is so crispy. Wow. Oh wow. You've got this gorgeous sea bass that is cooked so that the skin is crispy. The outside of it is crispy but it's got this very delicate flavor set off so well by that salty black olive anchovy tapenade. It's amazing. So you see a lot of things here in Croatia with squid ink. Normally it's a squid ink risotto that you find. What's different here is that they're doing it with a gnocchi, not a risotto. This also has truffles and shrimp along with it. So we're going to grab just one of the gnocchis here and you can see how dark that is. Let's give that a shot. It's delicious but to be honest with you the truffles almost overwhelms everything else that's going on with the dish. The gnocchis are really nice but it's a very heavy truffle flavor to it but it's delicious. The side for my fish is fava beans with a feta foam. Feta foam? Is that what he said? I've also got sun-dried tomatoes on it. Let's give it a shot. Feta mousse. Thank you. Once again that feta is salty and I love salty stuff. I wasn't expecting the fava beans to be like so tender and juicy inside. And this is the fish with the black olive tapenade and the crunchy little skin that's all involved here. Let's go. Oh my. As crispy as that fish is around the outsides of it, it's amazing how moist and fluffy the fish itself is. It's not all burnt to a crisp. The tapenade is out of this world good. This is fantastic. That didn't take long. Amazing, amazing lunch at Dalmatino. Our waiter, Stefan, was also absolutely amazing. Knew that menu inside out, made great recommendations. Highly recommend. For dinner tonight, a place called Iurin Podrum, which is supposed to make a mean homemade pasta. Let's find out. So this is one of my all-time favorite things. This is linguine with clams. Became a huge fan a few years ago in Italy. Let's give it a go. That's so good I had to snort when I ate it. It's perfect. The olive oil with it is amazing. Just get a big chunk of this linguine here. It's awesome. Oh my god. I ordered the house specialty pasta. This looks like a linguine. It's got anchovies, roasted red pepper, and garlic, and it's so pretty. Oh wow. Okay, that sauce is so fresh. It's garlicky too, which is great because I love garlic and it's just set off by that smoky, salty anchovy taste. Oh my gosh, I love this. We are going to give Angela's pasta a try here. This is the anchovies, roasted red pepper, and garlic. Let's give it a go. Wow. The saltiness of the anchovies pops right through immediately. It's loaded with garlic. The red pepper that's in there is amazing. You can tell that the pasta is homemade. This is fantastic. I'm giving this linguine and clams a try. That is so good. They've done such a good job of making that sauce into emulsion. Oftentimes this kind of dish is quite oily because it is olive oil based, but this has come together with that fish broth so beautifully. It's perfect. When in Croatia, do as the locals do. A shot of rakija. Oh, it's rakija. Let's give it a go. I'm a glutton for punishment. And that wraps up our meal at Jurem Podrum. Pretty sure it was good. Not sure I remember because of the rakija. All right, so after a great meal here in Stari Grad with a lot of rakija and a lot of wine, a little bit drunk. And hot. Super hot out here. Yes. But we have now gone to, what's the name of the place? Jagoda. That means strawberry in Croatian. Strawberry cheesecake ice cream. I got lemon. Nice and light. Good for hot weather like this. So good. So good. Dripping everywhere. Me too. We're up here at Ljubi Rooftop Restaurant to have some dinner and hopefully check out the sunset across this gorgeous view of Hvar behind us. The owner just pointed out to us back there in the hills is where they grow the grapes for their wine here and they grow the olives for their homemade olive oil. I don't know if we've talked to you guys yet about the homemade olive oil here in Croatia but honestly in my opinion some of the best in the world that we've ever tried. It's got this gorgeous fresh pepperiness to it. I love it. While we're talking about the olive oil, let's also talk about the homemade wine here. They have their own winery. They have several house brands that they do here and this one is a poship. We've had poships here in Croatia and we've enjoyed them quite thoroughly and this one is not to be missed as well. It's excellent. So this is a very traditional Croatian dish. This is called pastisada which is a sauce that is with stewed meat, prunes, vinegar and this comes with gnocchi. Let's give that a shot. So we've had pastisada before but here you can like really taste the presence of those plums in here. It's got this like pleasant sweetness in the meat. You can see you can break it apart with a spoon. It's so tender and delicious. And these lamb chops. They're cooked awesome. There's a bit of fattiness to them. They're chored perfectly on the outside of them. These are delicious. Let's give these lamb chops a shot. Those are really really flavorful lamb chops. They're done in the oven so they've got this nice slow roasted flavor and they come on top of some potatoes, zucchini and what I think is onions. Let's give those veggies a shot. Oh look at that. Wow those potatoes are amazing and they've got this like crunchy sea salt all over them. It's really good. And the pastisada. I normally will not order gnocchi anywhere but something about Croatia here. I get the gnocchi everywhere I go because they're so good. The meat is super sweet from the prunes. It's extremely saucy. The gnocchis are delicious. This is amazing. One thing about Jeff and I, we definitely like our wine but it's actually not like us to get through most of our meal on our first glass. But this food has been so good that we've just been putting it into our mouths and forgetting about the wine. That wraps us up here Let's go see what else we can get into. Next up on the list is a stop at a place here in Stadigrad called Nuk. Extremely highly rated. Let's give this a shot. Have we mentioned it's hot here in Croatia in the summer? But we have these gorgeous mocktails that we just ordered here. They're all icy and delicious. This one is strawberry, coconut, lemon and pineapple. This one is ginger, lemon and lime with honey and fresh mint. They're ridiculously good. Yeah that's the ginger is just bursting throughout the whole thing. Slightly sweet from the honey. Hint of mint in it. It's fantastic. All right not sure what this white sauce is here. Give that a dip. Wow that's a lot of sauce. Wow wow okay. So it's your typical falafel in the sense that it's got the nice crispy outside chickpeas inside but there's this spinach filling that is just gorgeously creamy and savory. These are some of the best falafels I've had in a while. So this is a pulled duck taco. I've never heard pulled duck before but these are fantastic. You superb. So good. Look how stuffed full of fish these tacos are. I don't know if I'm going to be able to put this in my mouth but damn it I'm gonna try. I think that's a chipotle mayo. A little dip. That is so good. The batter is like gorgeously light, super crispy. That chipotle mayo has just the right amount of spice and definitely not too much fish in there. I can definitely eat that. In spite of Jeff's protests I have stolen one of his pulled duck tacos. Let's give this a shot. Really smoky tender duck. Wow that's fantastic. So that is going to wrap up this food tour here on the island of Var. Yeah absolutely. This spot here Nook in Starigrad. Absolutely amazing food. Sweet sweet people. Nice couple runs it. So if you're in the area definitely check it out. Definitely. Yeah and don't forget to like and subscribe to see what we eat next. Bye.