Produced with the Zagreb Tourist Board, the guide moves from Dolac Market and traditional štrukli to Michelin-starred dining and wine-country day trips around the Croatian capital.
Dolac Market, Zagreb’s central food market and a focal point of the city’s culinary culture. — Credit: Ernest Mazarekic
- A new Virtuoso guide produced with the Zagreb Tourist Board presents Zagreb through its markets, bakeries, traditional dishes, contemporary restaurants and nearby wine regions.
- Dolac Market remains a central stop, with local food traditions including štrukli, Zagrebački odrezak, turkey with mlinci and the inexpensive lunch custom known as gablec.
- The guide spans casual institutions and contemporary dining, including Noel in Zagreb and Korak in nearby Jastrebarsko, both represented in the Michelin Guide.
- Wine regions within roughly an hour of Zagreb, including Plešivica, Zelina and Moslavina, extend the culinary itinerary beyond the city centre.
(NEWS) ZAGREB, Croatia, 2026-Sep-16 — /Travel PR News/ — Zagreb is being presented to food-focused travellers as a city best understood across several tables: beneath the red umbrellas of Dolac Market, over a plate of baked štrukli, at an old-school lunch counter, and in the tasting rooms and Michelin-recognised restaurants that now broaden the Croatian capital’s culinary range.
A new Virtuoso culinary guide produced with the Zagreb Tourist Board, published on September 16, brings those layers together in an itinerary that stretches from neighbourhood markets and bakeries to fine dining and wine-country day trips. Rather than treating Zagreb’s food scene as a collection of destination restaurants, the guide puts everyday rituals — shopping, coffee, pastries and lunch — alongside its more ambitious kitchens.
Dolac Market remains the natural starting point
At the centre is Dolac Market, the open-air market just above Ban Jelačić Square that has operated since 1930. The Zagreb Tourist Board describes Dolac as the city’s best-known central market and a longstanding part of local daily life, with outdoor fruit and vegetable stalls complemented by indoor sections selling meat and dairy products.
For visitors, the market is also a compact introduction to products arriving in the capital from across Croatia. Virtuoso’s guide points to Adriatic sea bass, Slavonian kulen sausage and fresh dairy products, while the surrounding cafés make it easy to combine food shopping with Zagreb’s well-established coffee culture.
That market-to-café rhythm is one of the guide’s recurring themes. Virtuoso advisor Cate Caruso encourages travellers not to reserve every meal around formal restaurants, arguing that a bakery stop followed by coffee can offer a more revealing glimpse of everyday city life. Her Zagreb recommendation includes Korica, an artisan bakery known for sourdough, while the guide also highlights neighbourhood markets such as Trešnjevka and Kvatrić for visitors who want a less central alternative to Dolac.
Štrukli, mlinci and Zagreb’s comfort-food traditions
The city’s traditional dishes reflect the meeting point between inland Croatian cooking and Central European influences. One of the most recognisable is štrukli, pastry filled with fresh cheese that can be boiled or baked and served in savoury or sweet forms. The Zagreb Tourist Board lists it among the city’s defining foods, while Virtuoso points travellers toward Le Bistro at Esplanade Zagreb Hotel for a classic baked version and La Štruk for a menu devoted to the dish.
Another local staple is Zagrebački odrezak, a breaded veal cutlet filled with ham and cheese. The guide suggests Stari Fijaker near Upper Town for a traditional version. Turkey or duck with mlinci — thin baked dough softened in roasting juices — is another enduring inland Croatian combination, with Ficlek near Dolac offering it alongside home-style dishes such as ajngemahtec chicken soup and faširanci meat fritters.
Lunch brings a particularly Zagreb ritual: gablec, an inexpensive, filling midday meal with roots in the working day. At Purger, a city-centre restaurant dating to 1932, the guide points to dishes such as goulash, stuffed vegetables, liver with onions and tripe stew with bacon. Seasonal cooking adds another layer, from squash-filled bučnica in summer to plum dumplings, mushrooms and cabbage-wrapped sarma in autumn.
Contemporary Zagreb moves beyond nostalgia
Zagreb’s dining scene is not confined to preserving traditional recipes. At Vinodol, Croatian ingredients and familiar flavours are treated in a more contemporary restaurant setting, while Michelin-recognised kitchens demonstrate how far the city’s fine-dining offer has developed.
The Michelin Guide’s current Zagreb-area selection includes Noel in the capital and Korak in Jastrebarsko. Noel’s modern cooking combines Croatian references with a broader European approach, while Korak’s restaurant sits on a family wine estate in the Plešivica area and builds its tasting menus around local and estate-linked ingredients.
Virtuoso’s guide uses the two restaurants to illustrate different expressions of contemporary Croatian dining: an urban fine-dining room in Zagreb and a destination restaurant embedded in wine country. That contrast makes it possible for travellers to move from market food and classic lunches to tasting menus without leaving the broader Zagreb region.
Wine country makes an easy extension to a city break
The culinary itinerary also reaches beyond the capital. Plešivica, less than an hour from central Zagreb, is highlighted for sparkling and orange wines, with the guide naming Korak, Ivancic Griffin, Jagunic and Tomac among producers worth exploring. Zelina and Moslavina offer additional routes through smaller wineries and native grapes, including kraljevina and škrlet.
That proximity gives Zagreb an advantage for short food-focused stays: travellers can spend a morning in Dolac, lunch on traditional dishes, book a contemporary dinner and still devote another day to vineyards and cellar tastings in the surrounding countryside.
The result is a food story that is less about a single signature dish than about the way the Croatian capital connects markets, cafés, inherited recipes, modern restaurants and nearby wine regions. For travellers planning around meals, Zagreb’s culinary identity is increasingly broad enough to fill an entire city break rather than simply accompany one.
