My First Dining Experience of Croatian Cuisines!

My trip down to Kuala Lumpur this time around was graced by a food review invitation to Dubrovnik, a fine-dining Croatian restaurant in a two storey building nestled in the bustling Solaris Mont Kiara. It was indeed a unique European Mediterranean dining experience.

A crest can be seen in the entrance glass panel. Upon stepping into this restaurant, you could feel yourself being enveloped by a truly homely feeling with stone walls and high pillars creating a nice and cozy ambience. There’s a lounge on the ground floor for customers to mingle about and a cozy dining area in the upper floor.

The restaurant offers authentic European Mediterranean dishes, using traditional recipes from Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Croatia. The entire menu was created by Croatian Head Chef, Zoran Djumic. He has been living in Malaysia for the last 12 years, and is accustomed to the local flavor very well. It was his brainchild to have the traditional wood burning oven to reflect authentic Croatian culture, while the pastas and bread are handmade daily.

Upon our arrival, we were served with a variety of Cocktails and Mocktails. Enjoying our drinks in the lounge overlooking a video depicting Croatian culture, the drinks were indeed refreshing and a treat to the taste buds. As with many places, there is a great selections of cocktails and wines to enhance your dining at this restaurant. Among the beverages that we enjoyed that day was the Ananas Refresher, Cosmopolitan, Snowball and my particular favorite, You Complete Me. My drink was made up of a blend of fresh blueberries, apple juice and yoghurt! The prices for the Cocktails and Mocktails range from RM16 right up to RM30.

The restaurant management makes it a point to ensure the usage of the freshest products while paying attention to details in food preparation. The end product? A combination of rustic, home-made dishes with the tinkle of innovation on the traditional cuisines.

The first dish that we had was freshly baked bread with Vegetable Salsa dip of tomato, eggplant and capsicum. It was followed up with delicious soup, ranging from the creamy Krumpir soup, Due Colori soup to the much lighter Eigenmachtez soup. The portions are reasonably large, and it was a pleasure indeed indulging in a totally new cuisine!

Bread with appetizing Vegetable Salsa Dip

KRUMPIR SOUP and the DUE COLORI SOUP

EIGENMACHTEZ (Austrian chicken and vegetable broth, served with Croatian dumplings) RM15

This APPETIZER PLATTER @RM45 has a combination of Strukli, Palacinke and Sofia Salad. I find a liking to the Strukli. The dumpling filled with cheese is fried with breadcrumbs and served with sour cream. This appetizer  is just right to kick start the meal.

LAMB CROATIA – lamb steak cook slowly in lamb jus & green pepper sauce, served with broccoli and pommes dauphine potatoes @RM48. The tender and juicy lamb goes together with the deep fried mashed potatoes that were mixed with choux pastry. This version of potatoes tasted good and really helps to soak up the delicious gravy.

PASTA SPALATO contains fresh garganelli (penne) with capsicum, spinach and chévre cheese @RM 28. Most of us are quite familiar with this pasta dish but I find that it has a special acquired taste to like it.

PEKA (traditional Croatian way of preparing marinated meat or seafood, under an iron bell for 3 hours in the wood burning oven) - Chicken Peka RM45 / Lamb Peka RM50. The bell shaped oven steams the chicken in its own juices, which enhances the flavor. The meat is enjoyed alongside potatoes, carrots and rice.

Another meaty dish is the Traditional Steak Korcula – RM48. The overnight herb marinated beef loin is pan-fried with mushroom sauce, butter and flambeed with Cognac right beside our table.  The meat is very tender but the taste is slightly on the saltier side. Their Manager Ben shared with us that Croatians prefer to have their food that way.

I got the ‘permission’ to have some fun…hands-on

The meat was slightly saltier but it was delicious nonetheless

To finish off the meal, we were served with desserts and sweets which utilize fruits like apple and oranges. I had the desserts with a cup of freshly brewed black coffee. This APPLE PITA @RM16 with thin crispy dough has a warm creamy apple filling and is delicious taken with the cold ice cream.

MILLIE FOGLIE – RM18. This crispy and tasty pastry is filled with fresh light vanilla cream of the right sweetness.

The ROYAL CHOCOLATE CAKE – RM17 is a rich piece of cake with hazelnut praline base, topped with bitter chocolate for that royal touch. This irresistible piece of cake goes especially well with my black coffee.

From the awesome chocolate cake, we moved on to the refreshing ORANGE TART – RM17.  The almond tart was filled with orange zest, light and delicious. We seldom get to see tarts baked with oranges in Malaysia.

Another dessert that utilizes orange is the CREPE SUZETTE – RM18. The two pieces of thin pancake is cooked in citrus orange sauce and then Cognac flambéed at our table. It is an interesting way of preparing the pancakes, the taste was awesome and full of orange flavor.

I’ve came to know that this is the only Croatian Restaurant in the whole of Malaysia, although I have yet to confirm this personally. However, serving such rare cuisines definitely brings a different to Dubrovnik compared to other common Western eateries. Here is a short delightful video clip on the restaurant and the food, courtesy of food lover, Christopher.

This fabulous dinner was made possible thanks for the invitation from Alice George Communication and special thanks to Dubrovnik’s general manager, Miss Dina for sharing the various Croatian dishes with us. Make a visit to Dubrovnik for a dining experience where Croatian cuisines come with good service.

Dubrovnik Restaurant KL
J-0G-14, Solaris Mont Kiara
No. 2 Jalan Solaris
Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Tel  : 03 62036780

Business Hours  :  11.30 am till 11.00 pm  (Tuesdays – Sunday)
Closed on Monday

GPS Coordinates : N03 10.499   E101 39.594

Website :  www.dubrovnikrestaurantkl.com

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