LA VILLA, LOPUD (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

Time for dinner at the pretty little konoba known as La Villa which stands out against the other restaurants along the Lopud sea front with it's beautiful terrace decorated with green vines which twist and turn all around the walls and roof. It's a gorgeous place to sit down and enjoy dinner but does the food match up to the setting?

We arrived on a dry Tuesday evening and took a seat on the terrace facing the sea so that we could once again enjoy the sounds of the lapping waves as we tucked into dinner. Amazingly, our server recognized us from our visit from last year which was an amazing piece of customer service especially when it lead to some free dessert (more about that later!). With the vines not providing the best cover from the rain for the tables below we were glad to be able to finally revisit La Villa after a couple of days worth of rain the days before. There is an indoor dining area but with the view that you can experience outside it is better to wait for a rain free evening so you can take it in whilst tucking into your food.

For my starter I went for the grilled prawns. A relatively small dish arrived at the table and initially you might think it's a bit of a stingy portion but as with most seafood on the island it's the outstanding quality of it that is that star of the show and not the quantity that you get. The prawns were grilled to perfection in a balsamic glaze that gave them a stunningly sweet edge that made me literally ooh and ahh with culinary pleasure. I savored every last bite, trying to use the prawns to wipe up every last drop of that sticky sauce and matching it up with the peppery rocket on which they sat on. A masterclass in simple but effective cooking if ever there was one.

Onto the mains and for our vegetarian option it was another plate of tomato based pasta. After a couple of nights enjoying pasta on the island you might think that we would be bored of this by now but as I've mentioned in other posts about our food in Croatia, the pasta around here is as good as what I imagine you would get in Italy. The pasta was covered in every nook and cranny by a simple tomato sauce but you can taste the quality of the tomatoes in the sauce which is what makes the dish truly sparkle. No excess vegetables or unnecessary Parmesan here to mask dodgy ingredients here, it's not needed!

I went for another catch of the day for my dinner. This time it was a whole sea bream and once again it was stunning. Freshly caught that day, the fish is placed on the BBQ to give the skin a scrummy charred flavor that punctures into the white flesh underneath. Speaking of the flesh, it slipped away from the bones which I could pull out in one go to leave behind a Tom and Jerry style whole fish bone on my side plate. No need to worry about stray shards of bone here. The meat melted in my mouth and I closed my eyes and imagined that this is what fish in heaven would taste like. On the side was another crushed potato and chard dish that perfectly compliments the fish. Pure Perfection!

Next up came our free dessert. It was so generous of our server to offer this to us for free. He was so friendly and genuinely interested in our return visit to Lopud. It's touches like this that are the reason we came back to the island and is the reason that we will probably come back again. My dessert was a summer berry cheesecake which was properly tart and tangy, the perfect palette cleanser to finish off a meal. The biscuit base was buttery and crumbly whilst the chocolate sauce drizzled on top was probably a bit of a mismatch but it was still rich in flavor and I finished every last dribble so it couldn't of been that bad. I would of quite happily paid the price tag for it!

With three courses down it was time to take another walk along the sea front to burn off those calories. La Villa is a gorgeous little restaurant, perfect for a romantic meal for two watching the sunset over the island. The food is on point and the immaculate service is up there with what has become standard on the island (with or without free dessert!). As mentioned above, if we do come back for a third trip to Lopud we will definitely be coming back. Viva La Villa!

To find out more about this little piece of heaven on Lopud go and check out their website here or have a nose over their Facebook page by clicking here. Then you should go and book yourselves a holiday to Lopud immediately, it'll be the best thing you ever do I promise!