You don’t go to the Dalmatian coast for the food. You go there for the history, for the architecture and atmosphere of the towns, for the mountains, above all, to swim in water that looks like this:

Beach at Brela

Yes, it really does look like that.

But after all that swimming (or hiking, or whitewater rafting, or sea kayaking–I didn’t get to do any of these things, I was busy visiting archeological museums, churches, and various ruins, but they all sound great) you will have worked up a good appetite, and you will need to find something to eat. That’s when the trouble can start.

Menus on the Dalmatian coast seem to have remained unchanged since they were set by some Central Tourist Comissariat for Menu Planning back in the Tito era. After even a day or two, the same list of dishes (Dalmatian prsut, like Italian prosciutto, with local cheese; salads; three or four pasta dishes, almost always including spaghetti alla carbonara; grilled fish and meat) begins to seem almost stomach-turning, even if the food itself is very good (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t). I asked a few waiters and restauranteurs in Croatia why the menus are so repetitious, but the only reasonable-seeming explanation anyone put forward was that it was just easier that way, and a lot of people are lazy. No leads on my theory about former state control of the tourist diet.

One way to deal with this situation is to accept it as a good thing. If you graze on prsut, cheese, and salads, you can save a lot of money (Croatia has become fairly expensive) and probably lose weight as well. A sort of Dalmatian Atkins diet.

Or, you can seek out the few really good, and distinctive, eating spots as often as possible, saving calories and money when there’s nothing really good on offer and splurging for some really amazing meals here and there. I’ll come back to finish this post with a complete list of the best places I found to eat in Dalmatia, from Rijeka to Dubrovnik (and including a bit of Montenegro for good measure).