Restaurant Istra — Restaurant in Grad Poreč

We arrived for a late lunch to an almost empty restaurant. A beautiful ambiance inside featuring wood beams and classic architexture. The host was very nice and seated us directly. Our order was taken straight away. The first course of soup arrived and was oversalted. It lacked the cream per the menus description. A few drops of creme fraiche on top does not make a cream soup. In addition, there were small peices of uncooked starch in the soup. Not sure if it was roux or modified starch but they appeared as tiny little dumplings almost looking like uncooked burre manie. The was a puree of mushrooms evident, but no cream. The bread that was served was excellent and no doubt not made at this restaurant. The second course arrived and was an even bigger disappointment. The frito misto platter consisted of fried shrimp, calamari and a healthy portion of old pomme frittes. Not only were the fries tasteless, they were old and appeared as though they had been sitting under a heat lamp and no doubt on the plate to decrease the amount of fried seafood served. The calamari nicely cooked but again oversalted. The shrimp were heavily oversalted and appeared to be old frozen small hrimp in the shell fried with no batter. They were inedible. In my opinion this plate was a diaster given the quality of the seafood presented. The pizza was okay however not a good crust at all and not as we have experienced throughout Istria as we live here. Overall I understand now why the restaurant was mostly empty. Although the host was very nice, that does not make up for the poor quality food. There are many places between Porec and Koper that serve great quality food at reasonable prices however this is not one of them. My suggestion is find another restaurant. Until they find a chef who knows what they are doing in the kitchen as it pertains to actually cooking, this place is just another summer tourist trap serving mediocre food and screwing people as they won't be back. This place is a good example of why Istria is getting a bad reputation with tourists from other countries for poor quality product, not matching the high prices they are charging. There is better food at gas stations between here and Koper...

The Istra Restaurant of family Petretti is the first address especially for fish dishes in Porec. You can have your dinner at the terasse outside or enjoy your meal inside with a beautiful view to the marina of Porec. I always visit this restaurant when I am in town, even only for a drink or espresso. You are welcome at any time without a reservation; it can be rather difficult in case you like to eat spontaneous with huge groups of more than twenty persons. Then it makes sense to pre-order your table and maybe the menu. You can also chose menus for special events; in this case it makes sense even to pre-order special likes belonging to fish and special seafood. Goldbrasse with mangold or steaks with truffle at its best! Try the calamari with grilled vegetables and garlic in oil! And if you are a lucky guests you maybe have the chance to say buonasera to my friend Giorgio when he is downstairs! Enjoy and send...

Arrived around 9.00 pm and still got great service and a first class meat platter and escalopes. Lovely atmosphere, good service, and good quality meats and side servings. I would highly recommend this restaurant on the basis of my experience of it. Been on a road trip from Vienna through Slovenia, and this meal, our first in Croatia, was head and shoulders above all other meals we had, and most of them were fine, but this was very...