Restaurants
Croatia's newest Michelin star is in Poreč
One new star, 14 starred restaurants, 112 recommended addresses — and Istria confirmed as the centre of gravity of Croatian fine dining.
Sava Marević
Chef & Founder of savamander
27 June 2026 · 7 min read
Michelin presented the 2026 Croatian selection on 25 June 2026. One restaurant was newly starred: Harry's Piccolo Poreč, in Istria, only months after it opened. Agli Amici Rovinj held its two stars for a third consecutive year and remains the only two-star restaurant in the country. Croatia now has 14 starred restaurants inside a selection of 112 recommended addresses, up from 99 last year.
Quick summary
- Selection
- 112 recommended restaurants (from 99)
- Starred restaurants
- 14 (from 13)
- Breakdown
- 1 × two star · 13 × one star
- New star
- Harry's Piccolo Poreč, Istria
- New Bib Gourmands
- 3 — Đakovo, Osijek, Zagreb
- Special awards
- 4 individual MICHELIN awards
Harry's Piccolo Poreč
- Location
- Poreč, Istria, Croatia — inside Valamar's Pical Resort
- Chef
- Goran Hrastovčak (resident chef); concept by Matteo Metullio and Davide De Pra
- Award
- One MICHELIN Star — NEW in the 2026 Croatian selection
- Cuisine
- Contemporary Mediterranean, northern Adriatic
- Concept
- Fine-dining restaurant on the first floor of the resort, open for dinner only, with tasting menus built around the historic Parenzana railway line that once connected Trieste, Istria and Poreč.
What the guide highlighted
Michelin described the cooking as a meeting of sea and land, Italy and Istria, tradition and contemporary expression, and singled out the colour, aroma and balance of the dishes as well as the young, notably friendly floor team.
About the chef
Goran Hrastovčak is a local Istrian chef with long professional experience who runs the Poreč kitchen day to day. The project was created with Matteo Metullio and Davide De Pra, whose Harry's Piccolo in Trieste holds two Michelin stars. Metullio and De Pra publicly credited Hrastovčak and the Poreč team with translating their approach into daily service.
Why it is worth watching
The Parenzana idea gives the tasting menu an actual argument — a route through Croatian, Italian and Slovenian cooking rather than a generic Mediterranean menu. It is also a hotel restaurant that was built as a destination rather than as an amenity, with its own identity, dress code and wine programme.
Sava’s take
The detail I keep coming back to is the timeline. Earning a star within months of opening means the kitchen was consistent from week one, which almost never happens. That is a training and staffing achievement before it is a cooking one.
Agli Amici Rovinj
- Location
- Rovinj, Istria, Croatia
- Chef
- Emanuele Scarello, with resident chef Simone De Lucca
- Award
- Two MICHELIN Stars — retained for a third consecutive year
- Cuisine
- Creative Italian-Adriatic
- Concept
- Croatia's only two-star restaurant, the Adriatic outpost of the historic Agli Amici in Udine, on a waterfront site.
What the guide highlighted
Inspectors credited a sustained level of excellence over three years, a strong authorial signature, and a location that shapes the whole guest experience.
Why it is worth watching
It set the benchmark that the rest of Istria is now being measured against — and Istria is where most of Croatia's fine-dining growth is happening.
The rest of the 2026 Croatian selection
Twelve one-star restaurants were reconfirmed alongside the new Poreč star. Three restaurants took a new Bib Gourmand: Bistro Loora in Đakovo, Lulu Fusion Bistro in Osijek and Nuré in Zagreb — two of those in Slavonia, a region that has been almost absent from the Guide until now. Four individual MICHELIN awards went to professionals in the selection.
Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Guide, pointed to 20 new entries this year and to two parallel trends: Istria consolidating as a high-end destination, and a growing number of simpler, traditional restaurants being recommended for authenticity and local produce rather than technique.
What this actually means if you work here
Two Bib Gourmands in Slavonia matter more to the industry than they look. Inland eastern Croatia has watched the coast take the guests, the money and the seasonal staff for twenty years. A guide entry in Đakovo or Osijek is a reason for a cook from that region to stay and build something at home instead of doing a summer season in Istria and going back to nothing in October.
The other side of it is the same problem Slovenia has: recognition arrives faster than staff. Istria is short of cooks every summer, and a new star raises the standard everyone in Poreč is expected to hit. If you are a young cook in this region, a kitchen like this is currently one of the best-paid classrooms on the Adriatic.
Original media unavailable
Photography of the restaurant belongs to Valamar and the MICHELIN Guide. We have not licensed it, so instead of using an unrelated stock image of a kitchen we link straight to the official material.
Sources & further reading
- The MICHELIN Guide Croatia 2026 Is Unveiled! — guide.michelin.com (25 June 2026)Awarding organisation
- MICHELIN Guide Croatia 2026 — official press releaseAwarding organisation
- Michelin Guide Croatia 2026: Croatia now has 14 Michelin-starred restaurants — HrTurizamHospitality media
- Harry's Piccolo — a look at Croatia's newest Michelin-star restaurant — Croatia WeekNews publication
- Valamar Riviera — Pical Resort, Poreč (restaurant operator)Restaurant group
Facts were researched from the public sources listed above and rewritten in savamander’s own words. No paragraphs are reproduced from other publications. Commentary marked as Sava’s take is opinion, not reporting. Facts last checked 29 August 2026.
