TRATTORIA CAPRICCIO, DUBROVNIK (MATTYB RECOMMENDS)

For the last day of our holiday to Croatia we decided to spend the night in Dubrovnik to really take in the sights rather than just passing through on the way to the airport as we had done last year. There are hundreds of restaurants up and down the alleyways of the old town so it can be quite overwhelming trying to decide on one place to go and eat. After consulting Tripadvisor we decided to head over to Italian restaurant Trattoria Capriccio located behind the aquarium on the east side of the city. Being highly rated on Tripadvisor we had high hopes as we headed over late to take in one last meal in this beautiful country.

Trattoria Capriccio is situated down one of the little side alleys of Dubrovnik and it is a case of blink and you'll miss it but luckily we had good old google maps on hand to help us find the way. As it was a warm night we decided to take a seat outside. The tall walls of the old town loomed over us as we sat down but it actually made for quite an intimate setting. You almost feel like you are dining on the streets of Rome. Our server was incredible attentive making sure we had our menus and giving us those good old complimentary bread and oils which seems to be the done thing in Croatia. The menu looked so appetizing. It was hard to decide what to go for!

But decide we did and for our first starter it was a good old caprese salad. I've spoken in the past about the quality of the ingredients in Croatia in my previous posts about Lopud and Sipan but its great to see that the quality is also present in the restaurants on the saturated mainland. The tomatoes were once again vibrant and packed full of flavor whilst the mozzarella was soft and creamy. The two worked perfectly together but in a slight twist to what we'd experienced over the week this caprese salad came with a splash of green pesto that really had some oomph whilst a drizzle of balsamic gave it a sweet tang. All the elements worked together perfectly and it was a great start to the meal.

Then came my starter of ham, ricotta and fig. I'm not too sure why I ordered this as it is a little outside the norm for what I would tend to choose when dining out but I'm so glad that I did as it was one of the best dishes of the whole holiday. The ricotta was so light and creamy and once you stuck a bit of the fig jam on the fork with it and put it in your mouth; that's when the magic happened! The creaminess of the ricotta with the sweet tang of the fig was a combination to die for and once you add that to the sharp meaty flavor of the thin slices of ham underneath, well I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. An absolute treat, I could of eaten another portion!

But, we had mains to tuck into and seems as we were at an Italian restaurant it would of been silly not to give some of their pasta a go. I'm pleased to report this did also not dissapoint. The pasta was perfectly cooked, each piece gently coated in oil so none of it was claggy or stuck together. The pasta was tossed with an array of vegetables and topped off with a good sprinkling of coriander to finish. Not much sauce here to talk off but it wasn't missed as the quality and flavor of the vegetables was all you needed. We tried many pasta dishes on our holiday to Croatia and this has to be one of the best. Great vegetarian food is hard to find in Croatia but Trattoria Capriccio have got it down!

For my main I couldn't really have anything else than another couple of fillets of Croatian Sea Bream. I'd enjoyed beautiful seafood all the way through my holiday and these bad boys were no exception. Cooked to perfection so that they just melted in my mouth, they may of been slathered in butter but it was the last day of my holiday and I was looking to indulge so I didn't really care. The little splodge of pesto on the side was different but really worked well with the fillets. A simple plate of food but as I've said before, when the ingredients are as fresh as this you don't need lots of bells and whistles as the food does all the talking for itself.

With that, it was time to leave. No room for desserts tonight aS we sadly had to go and pack ready to go home but what a treat it was to finish our trip at Trattoria Capriccio. The setting was perfect, the service spot on and the food top notch, naturally as we had come to expect from Croatia. Hunt out this little jewel in the feast of restaurants inside the walls of the old town of Dubrovnik and I promise you will not be disappointed. "Che Bella Cena".

For more information on Trattoria Capriccio I'd head over to their Facebook page by clicking here which has lots of food pictures for you to go and drool over. Book yourself a flight over to Dubrovnik this year and go check them out!