Krk's taverns and restaurants
Along with the great Krk olive oil, Krk cheese and high quality fish and lamb, the island of Krk can be proud of the numerous authentic taverns and good restaurants. Kind hosts offering a pleasant atmosphere and traditional food made following family recipes will turn a visit to one of Krk's taverns into a real taste experience. Should you wish to have lunch with more dishes and excellent service, visit one of Krk's numerous restaurants.
In fact, restaurateurs in Krk try as much as possible, to include seasonal ingredients in their menus , and will therefore offer you young Krk lamb, wild asparagus, Krk šurlice, dishes based on the extra virgin olive oil or a special ingredient - figs!
You can find every species of fish from sardines to mackerels, from cuttle fish and squid to octopus, from billfish to swordfish, from mussels to oysters...there is plenty of white fish too: toothfish, gilthead, sea-bass, sar, sharp-snouted sparus, common two-banded seabream, John Dory, sea-bream, red fish, redfin perch, Italian Barbel, shade-fish, European flounder, large-scaled gurnard, hake, corvina (or white sea bass), European perch,breize, saddled seabream, striped red mullet and frogfish, sea catfish, ray...
We also offer crustaceans such as spiny lobster, lobster, common European crab and the world famous Kvarner scampi. Most people would agree with the claim that this is the tastiest scampi in the world, and is the one from the blue Kvarner bay mud. Regarding its origin the most frequent story is that it turned up by cross breeding domestic scampi with scampi which came to the port of Rijeka from the south China Sea on British war ships. However, the most probable story is that the scampi has been artificially settled in the Adriatic Sea, having been brought from Norway – a fact that was discovered back in the 1980s. The Kvarner scampi is a pale red colour; it a thinner shell than its fluorescent red Norwegian cousin. There are even noticeable differences in the taste, in fact, the Kvarner scampi has a particular structure which is both strong and flexible, it also has an associative sweetness, that is simply unique! It grows very slowly, and because of this changes its shell, and it takes 10 years in order for it to reach 200g. With the preparation of scampi”a la buzara” its natural aroma and smell figures most prominently, or you could simply try grilled scampi!
You can prepare all the seafood by yourself by using Krk's olive oil and Vrnička žlahtina, or more simply why not visit one of the numerous taverns or restaurants!
Wine
Vrbnička žlahtina is a quality dry white wine produced from an autochthonous variety, the white žlahtina.
This variety is specific as it is only grown vineyards in Krk and more precisely in the fields of Vrbnik Apart from the community of Vrbnik, there are few other wine producers in Vrbnik. Today, Vrbnik and Žlahtina are synonymous as this is the only place they are cultivated.
This variety came to the island of Krk in the 1880s and to the Vrbnik field during the period between the two world wars. The wine name, Žlahtina, comes from the general Slavic adjective žlahten meaning noble.
This wine is a pale yellow or straw yellow colour and has a mild bouquet and pleasant characteristic taste.The freshness which can only be achieved in a colder climate, is characteristic of the northern part of the Adriatic to which this grapevine has adjusted, but the vineyards can also be found in the northern part of the island of Krk. In fact, there are mainly white wine varieties grown on the northern parts of the island: with žlahtina (Vrbnik) you can also find Istrian Malvazija, Draganela, Opačevina and other.
The žlahtina is particularly recognisable for its specific young bouquet. All the principal characteristics of this variety are conserved in the wine itself with its pleasant and lively taste which has 11% alcohol.
It is ideal served with sheep's milk cheese, all kinds of fish and sea specialities and white meat dishes.