Machrí al Mare — Restaurant in Pula

Incredible experience at this place from start to finish! If you love unpretentious fine dining, seafood, & spectacular service, you need to book this place. I came away not only having had a beautiful meal but also with knowledge of Sardinian wine & cheese. We were welcomed in warmly by the maître d/sommelier, Simone, who thankfully, given our appalling grasp of Italian/Sard as typical Brits, spoke fluent English. Although a tasting menu was available, there were a couple of dishes that some of our party couldn't have, so we decided to kind of create our own, with the intent to share dishes. Simone was fantastic; he recommended 2 gorgeous local wines that worked perfectly with our menu choices. He took time to think about pairings & came back with a variety of options. He took great pride, articulately explaining the wines of the region. His professionalism & passion for wine & local produce really shone; clearly a front-of-house asset to this lovely restaurant (& am still in awe of the fact that this multi-talented gentleman had expert knowledge of food & wine... & was a physics graduate... & spoke so eloquently outside of his native language - self-taught, no less!!).

Stand out dishes for me were the selection of artisan cheeses, which Simone talked us through, the stunning cuttlefish dish, & the amberjack with pumpkin, which literally melted in the mouth. My dessert was also delicious: chocolate pear with eggnog. Great flavors & once again, the wine we took with it worked well (our sommelier had already thought of that, of course). Also have to mention the delightful amuse bouche.

We met the chef at the end of the night, who clearly loves what he does & was pleased to see happy diners, generously treating us to a shot of mirto. Love this place: really easygoing & unobtrusive yet attentive, thoughtful service. This is our second time in Pula but our first at this place. Will definitely be coming back if we visit again (& have just discovered that the owner also has a lovely little wine bar/bistro called Chari on Via Nora). THANK YOU to all the team: your passion & warmth is evident in your food &...

Our visit to this restaurant was a good decision, though thinking back on it now after it there are some points to note... First of all the service, place itself and the menu is all there. The people attend you very nicely and the informal Mediterranean atmosphere in the rather calm restaurant is really a nice calm place to enjoy a diner at night. As the pictures show the presentation is all good and the quality of what’s being served also good. Nevertheless in the end it leaves me a bit ‘just not that’... for example the menu is missing more choices, there are maybe 10-12 choices in total on there which is fine, and they are all inventive, new and nicely thought about but the thing is, last year we just had the exact same menu?! So for such a place I expected more. So good? Yes definitely you will enjoy but it will leave you with a little feeling of expecting more for how upscale the restaurant wants to...

I have mixed feelings about this place. Bottom line is, I think they try really (I think too much) hard to get a Michelin star. I think their menu is a bit disjointed with flavours that do not necessarily complement each other. I think that their tasting menu is too expensive for the offering.

I think that every dish from the tasting menu needs to be brought in separately and not four-five dishes all at once. All Michelin Guide restaurants we have ever been to follow the “one dish at a time” practice. We were seated outside and they brought four or five appetisers all together, which was confusing, especially when you have three people, linearly increasing the number of dishes on the table and confusion what to try first.

The wine tasting was on point. The “tomato” and “olive” thing were good. I just do not think this place was memorable, not like other...