Anyone even slightly familiar with Croatian gastronomy knows that Murter’s Konoba Boba is not an "ordinary" Dalmatian tavern, but rather better described as a fine dining tavern, which is admittedly an imprecise and subjective term. For us, that means we expect a combination of top seasonal and local ingredients, culinary technique, and creativity. That combination usually (and in this case) means you’ll have to spend a bit more money for the experience, but that a visit to this beautiful place in Murter will be an experience.
That’s why we’re sorry that at Boba, it seems, we arrived at a time when they acted as if they weren’t quite ready for action, i.e., that they were in some limbo between the Easter part of the season and the "real one," when everything kicks off with the first true "summer" long weekend. To be fair, everyone was sleepy except the kitchen, which was the only one working at a brisk pace. That’s all that matters, someone might say, but at places like this, the overall experience is what makes them magical.
It took us a while to get on the same wavelength as the waiter, who at first didn’t seem inclined to explain much. So, when discussing aperitifs, we ask if there are any local brandies—there aren’t, but they have Serbian brandies. Fine, give us two Serbian ones and one cherry from Kornati. When the brandies arrive (in beautiful Nonino glasses), we realize we’ve received some serious monster we weren’t prepared for—barrel-aged, matured, as if we were drinking at least cognac. Only upon checking the bill did we realize it was a three-year-aged quince and a Gorda XI Grand CRU, an 11-year-aged plum (which costs 13 euros!)—not exactly appropriate aperitifs for a lunch that was sure to be mostly seafood. Such a serious, elaborate brandy was a strange introduction to the lunch that followed.
We opt for two seafood starters, oysters, and beef tartare (since there’s no beef salad, unfortunately). While we wait, amuse-bouches arrive from the kitchen, almost identical to last year’s: cod arancini with salsa, toast with ricotta cream and salted anchovy, and an innovation—tapioca crisp topped with octopus salad and onion gel. The best bite of all is the salted cod arancini, a perfect comfort food that has it all: warmth, saltiness, crunch, and the acidity of the salsa. We could eat a mountain of them. The tapioca crisp melts and falls apart from the moist salad, so skill is needed to get it into your mouth, and the octopus salad is dominated by capers. The anchovy and ricotta are a true classic, a salty bite, which brings us to the need for a sip of wine. Here, too, we encounter problems with the waiter, who, when asked to recommend something with the small bites and starters, asks what we like. We like all sorts of things, but we think it’s his job to suggest what would pair well with the starters, especially since the wine list doesn’t indicate what’s available by the glass. It’s simply not listed (a new wine list is also coming for the long weekend), so we’d say it’s up to him to explain what they offer, what’s open, and what would make sense with the starters and amuse-bouches we’ve already eaten. We end up with Kopjar Sauvignon, Pošip Sv. Ivan, and Bibich’s new wine, R3, of which the fresh and mineral Pošip Sv. Ivan worked best with the starters.
Sea bass carpaccio with lemon gel and samphire is a classic (€24), made with top-quality ingredients and in one bite offers us fat, salt, acidity, crunch, and softness, which go well together. Ceviche of greater amberjack and shrimp (€22) was a bit spicy because of the jalapeño peppers, which took over along with strips of fennel, both in the sauce and sliced. An interesting dish and a step forward, although we lost the shrimp and amberjack a bit to the peppers and fennel.
The beef tartare, as a much duller substitute for beef salad, comes already plated; it’s coarsely chopped, and in the taste of fresh raw meat, we detect mustard, pepper, parsley... all in all, a classic well-balanced dish. The tapioca crisp and onion gel serve more as decoration than as something that adds to the flavor of the tartare itself. The oysters (€5 each), which come with a bit of lemon gel, are perfectly meaty, juicy, and refreshing. We also keep an eye on not overdoing it with the homemade focaccia and olive oil (Chiavalon and local oil), which dangerously compete with the cold starters.
In the second round, we have three first courses, but also one second course for the person who doesn’t eat seafood. As agreed, everything arrives at the table at the same time, and the competition begins as to who did best. Kornati manistrun with cuttlefish and chickpeas (€25) is a classic of classics, just made so lightly that you can’t stop eating it: cuttlefish, chickpeas, pasta, broth, ink. Served in a clay pot, it exudes patina and tradition. Really good.
Ravioli with monkfish, scampi bisque, parsley pesto, anchovy crumble, and hazelnuts (€27) is a very fun dish where powerful flavors and textures alternate. It works really well and is very memorable.
Spaghetti with blue crab (€32), on the other hand, is a rather one-dimensional dish that could use something to make it more interesting. It is powerful and full of flavor, but the crab meat needs something livelier and fresher than the exotic name and reputation of the Adriatic invader. Veal chop with sage, pancetta, and sautéed potatoes (€34) is a delightful combination of flavors. The perfectly tender meat, with a hint of sage and the kick from pancetta, only lacks a slightly larger portion of the excellent sautéed potatoes (served as perhaps too small a stick).
Here, we finally got on the same wavelength with the waiter, who recommended Grabovac Chardonnay and Grabovac Modro Jezero from 2016. However, he didn’t say or explain why he was pouring it using the Coravin system, or that the wine is from a special Coravin list, and therefore a glass costs 12 euros. This wine also deserved a bit more presentation.
And we’ve come to the end, so we order all three desserts available (each €9). Let’s call them colloquially lemon, strawberry, and chocolate, because the desserts themselves are total classics. The "tartare" of strawberries marinated in maraschino and mint, with classic pastry cream and puff pastry crackers, paid homage to spring slowly turning into summer—we couldn’t help but love it. Sponge cake, lemon curd, and chantilly cream are the main elements of this very lemony and refreshing cake, while the chocolate hamburger, doused in a generous amount of melted chocolate, sealed the deal. The desserts seem to target all our weak spots—impossible to go wrong with, but also not bringing anything truly new.
Trying to sum up and reconcile everything we experienced, here’s our reasoning. We feel as if we fell into a gap in Boba’s normal operation. The season seems not to have started for them, but is just ticking over until the real thing begins. It would be fairer to close for a month, then start tutta forza at the beginning of June, when, as the waiter told us, "everything starts." The kitchen still knows what it’s doing, does it precisely and with top ingredients, but if we remember correctly, much of the menu is the same as last year. It’s clear that some dishes are hits and should be kept, but we get the impression that the menu contains too many safe-bet options at a place where we expected a bit more playfulness and surprise. Will that change with the start of the "real season," we don’t know, but we’d love to experience Boba in its full glory. Until then, it would be good to educate the staff on wine presentation, and perhaps completely renovate the restroom, which in neither appearance nor functionality matches a restaurant at this level.
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