Cuisine, wine and olive oil are all part of the culture of a territory and in my opinion for every visitor of Istria could be interesting to learn and taste our food, wine and olive oil. Istrian people have been cultivating this tradition for thousands of years and each olive oil - wine producer and restaurant holder can tell you a particular story.

Istrian Cuisine is a product of the Istrian history and is part of Istrian cultural heritage. The richness of the Istrian cuisine is considerably vast. It’s a centuries old sedimentation of different cultures and it has characteristics of: Italian cuisine (particularly from Rome and Venice), Mediterranean cuisine, Slavic cuisine and also the Austro Hungarian – Central European cuisine.

All this different cultures have mixed over the centuries in Istria and also the cuisine is a product of this historical mix. Istrian cuisine is based on genuine ingredients such as aromatic Mediterranean spices, shellfish and meat. 

Istrian extraordinary geographic position and moderate climate create the conditions to produce top quality food ingredients, of which some, like olives and grape – wine have been known outside the Istrian region since the Roman period.

There is an old say that is good to repeat more times a nice story and I would say that a good food, a good wine and a good olive oil can be tasted more times. All this goods are the products of nature. It is a combination of the land, sun and water and every year is a little bit different story that you can hear and feel from our wine, olive oil and food. As I said it depends of the nature combination and every year the gift that our land give as is a little bit different.

I will introduce to you some typical Istrian dishes just to have an idea when you enter the recommended restaurants what dishes could be tasted. It would be impossible to gather all the Istrian dishes because there is a long variety of each dish.

There are more and more people that are investing their passion in finding new combinations and new flavours so almost every house and family has something particular that can prepare for you.

Every place you visit can be a different story for the visitors, a meeting with different tastes, and every taste is a different culture of the family that is sharing with you their products and passion.

Every season produces the different fruits so also the cuisine changes over the seasons. The cuisine is for sure linked with the seasons and every season has its own charm and flavour.

I have tried to gather some of the best Istrian olive oil and wine producers, and I also selected some places where you can taste good Istrian food. Every place and every family included in this list has the outstanding quality of their products and contributes to spread the Istrian culture and tradition outside the Istria region.

Near some of the names you will find the three stars sign (***) that indicates that this restaurant is considered among the best at the Istrian level.