Konoba Otprilike Ovako — Restaurant in Grad Split

My travel partner and I spent 10 days traversing Croatia from Zagreb to Dubrovnik by car. On our way southward, we had just a handful of memorable food experiences but none such as the beautiful seafood we had the pleasure of eating at this family-run konoba. Our meal consisted of locally produced house wines, a tasty starter, delicious bread that was grilled to perfection and (the star of the night) a family-style Gregada (Croatian seafood and potato stew). The Gregada that my travel partner and I shared that evening has to be the best seafood dish I have ever had; as I struggled to find another in my memory that could stand up to it. The Gregada was prepared with monkfish, squid, garlic, olive oil and other ingredients common to the region of Dalmatia. For the record, I am a Greek-islander, so for this konoba to have served me the best seafood dish I have ever tasted is no small feat. For dessert we enjoyed a traditional walnut cake with a chocolate layer. This style of dessert common in Balkan cuisine displayed common threads which unite the peninsula. I am forever grateful to have eaten here. This was hands down the best food experience I had during my stay in Croatia. I cannot recommend this...

I'm sorry to say but since they have changed ownership, the food is no where near the standard it was. I dined here 3 times in July 23 and the food was amazing, served by a family who owned it. It was authentic, interesting and dishes were prepared from scratch and cooked with love! The staff were lovely when I went this time around but it has lost its charm. The menu has expanded and many traditional dishes have been replaced with less time consuming and more touristy dishes. I had this wonderful marinated Adriatic tuna last year- this year replaced with common tuna tartare. My seafood/bean stew was not bad but very acidic from the tomatoes and the seafood was chewy. I also found it astonishing that they said they were not allowed to serve tap water. Every restaurant is Split serves tap water as they are surrounded by the Adriatic. Instead they charged me €4 for 750mls of water. He said he wouldn't charge me as I wanted tap water- strange. The local Konzum charges €1 for 1.5litres. Appreciate bottled water is more expensive in a restaurant but this isn't a Michelin starred restaurant. Bring back the old chef and restore the...

We came as a big group for dinner, looking to get some traditional Croatian seafood as the places tries to sell.

As a local, I think some of the dishes were traditional, although some were a bit experimental, as the case was for the octopus salad which I wouldn't recommend. However I would recommend the tuna tartar, was great in my opinion. I had spearfish pasticada for the main which was ok, maybe a bit overdone. Perhaps the more traditional mains like the gregada are better to try. So food was ok but nothing fantastic!

However the service bothered us a lot, the place wasn't busy aside from two other couples and the 2 waiters seemed very not attentive, often going outside or behind to the kitchen and staying there for quite a while. Also not really being friendly at all, with some kind of stiff attitudes. When it came to delivering mains, they confused 3 different beef steaks as to which one is how well cooked which created a ton of confusion and meals send back, and they still didn't get it right.

Unfortunately this made for a bad experience, when I wanted to show traditional Croatian hospitality and food to my...