Restaurant in Lovrečica, Croatia
Two Michelin Plates. Book before you arrive.
Badi holds two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024-2025) and a 4.7 Google rating, making it the most credible dining option on Lovrečica's quiet stretch of the Istrian coast. At €€€ pricing, it delivers Mediterranean cooking that punches above its village setting. Book for lunch if you want flexibility; book for dinner if the occasion calls for it.
Yes — and if you're staying anywhere near the Umag coast this summer, Badi deserves a place on your shortlist. Two consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025) confirm this isn't a lucky seasonal find. It's a Mediterranean restaurant that has earned consistent professional validation in a region where good food competes hard for attention. At €€€ pricing, it sits at a level where you'd expect to pay for quality — and the evidence suggests you're getting it.
Badi sits in Lovrečica, a small coastal settlement along Croatia's Istrian peninsula, a few kilometres south of Umag. The surrounding area is quieter than Rovinj or Poreč, which matters for how the dining experience feels: less tourist traffic, a more local pace, and a room that isn't competing with a thousand other options for your attention. For anyone who has already done the bigger Istrian restaurant circuit , Agli Amici Rovinj in Rovinj, or Nebo by Deni Srdoč in Rijeka , Badi offers a lower-key alternative that still carries real culinary credibility.
The cuisine is Mediterranean, which in Istria means a kitchen working with Adriatic seafood, local vegetables, olive oil, and produce that reflects the peninsula's Italian-inflected food culture. Croatia's northern coast has always sat in a culinary overlap zone between Central European and Italian traditions, and the leading Istrian restaurants use that to their advantage. Badi's Michelin Plate recognition signals a kitchen that executes with care: the Plate is not a star, but Michelin's inspectors only award it to restaurants where the food quality clears a meaningful bar. Two years running suggests the kitchen is stable, not just a one-season highlight.
This is the question worth asking before you book. In Istria's coastal restaurants, the lunch experience is often genuinely different from dinner , not just in atmosphere, but in value and pace. Lunch at a Michelin-recognised Mediterranean restaurant on this coastline typically offers better light, a less rushed room, and in many cases a lunch menu or daily specials that represent sharper value than the evening carte. If you're visiting Lovrečica during high summer, a midday sitting also means you can pair the meal with the beach without burning the whole evening on a reservation.
Dinner at Badi, on the other hand, is the format to choose if you want the full experience , more time at the table, a setting that slows down as the evening cools, and the kind of Mediterranean meal that makes sense when you're not planning to go anywhere afterwards. For a special occasion or a celebratory meal with a partner, dinner is the right call. For a solo traveller or a couple who wants to keep the day flexible, lunch is the more practical choice. Either way, given that Lovrečica is a small village rather than a destination city, booking in advance is advisable: there aren't enough covers in a place this size to assume walk-in availability on a summer evening.
Booking Badi is rated easy. You don't need weeks of lead time the way you would for a starred restaurant in Dubrovnik or Split, but in the July-August peak season, same-day availability is unlikely. A few days to a week ahead should be sufficient outside peak weeks; aim for at least two weeks' notice if you're travelling in high summer. Check our full Lovrečica restaurants guide for up-to-date context on what's busy and when.
If you've been to Badi once and are wondering what to focus on next, the answer is to go at the opposite time of day from your first visit. If you did dinner, try lunch , the pacing and value proposition shift enough to make it feel like a different restaurant. If you came for lunch, the evening sitting will give you a better read on the kitchen's full range.
Badi works well for two people who want a proper meal without the formality of a starred restaurant. The €€€ price point means it's a step up from casual, but not so refined that it demands a jacket or a special occasion as justification. Solo diners can eat here comfortably , Mediterranean restaurants in Istria generally handle solo covers without issue, and a midday booking makes solo dining feel more natural than a solo dinner table in a room designed for couples. For groups of four or more, check ahead on table availability: small coastal restaurants in villages like Lovrečica sometimes have limited large-table configurations.
For the wider Croatian Michelin circuit, Badi is a useful regional data point. Across Croatia, restaurants earning consistent Michelin recognition include Pelegrini in Sibenik, Noel in Zagreb, Boskinac in Novalja, and Krug in Split. Badi holds its own in that company at a price point that doesn't reach the top tier. It's also worth looking at LD Restaurant in Korčula and Alfred Keller in Mali Lošinj if your itinerary takes you further down the Adriatic coast.
For Mediterranean comparisons outside Croatia, La Brezza in Ascona and Il Buco in Sorrento sit in a similar culinary register , coastal Mediterranean cooking with a formal edge. Badi is in that conversation at a lower price tier.
For local context during your stay, see also our Lovrečica hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide for the full picture of what the area offers.
Badi is a credible, well-priced choice for anyone eating along the northern Istrian coast. Two Michelin Plates in consecutive years confirm the kitchen is consistent, not coasting. Google reviewers back that up at 4.7 across 284 reviews , a score that holds more weight when the sample size is meaningful. Book it for lunch if you want value and flexibility; book it for dinner if the occasion calls for it. Either way, it earns its place on a serious Istrian itinerary.
A few days ahead is usually enough outside the July-August peak. In high summer, book at least two weeks out. Badi is rated easy to book compared to starred Croatian restaurants like Pelegrini or Restaurant 360, but Lovrečica is a small village and covers are limited , same-day walk-ins on a summer evening are a gamble.
Yes. Mediterranean restaurants in Istria generally handle solo covers without awkwardness, and a midday lunch booking makes solo dining feel more relaxed than an evening table built for two. At €€€ pricing, it's a reasonable solo splurge rather than a full occasion-meal commitment.
Mediterranean kitchens typically work well with pescatarian, vegetarian, and gluten-aware requests given their reliance on seafood, vegetables, and olive oil. That said, no specific dietary policy is confirmed in available data. Contact the restaurant directly ahead of your visit to confirm , particularly for allergies, where assumptions are worth avoiding.
Lovrečica is small, so your real alternatives are nearby rather than in the village itself. For similar €€€ territory with Croatian-focused cooking, Foša in Zadar is worth knowing. For a step up in formality and price at €€€€, Agli Amici Rovinj is the strongest Istrian comparison. See our full Lovrečica restaurants guide for the most current local options.
Yes, with the right expectations. Two consecutive Michelin Plates and a 4.7 Google rating confirm the kitchen delivers a quality experience. At €€€ it's a step up from everyday dining without reaching the full-formality level of a starred restaurant. Dinner is the better choice for a celebration; the evening format gives the meal more room to breathe. For a milestone occasion where maximum culinary ambition matters, Restaurant 360 in Dubrovnik or Pelegrini in Sibenik sit higher on the formality scale.
No confirmed tasting menu data is available for Badi, so this can't be answered with certainty. What is confirmed: at €€€ pricing with Michelin Plate recognition across two years, the value-to-quality ratio is solid relative to the local competition. If a tasting format is available, the kitchen's consistency record supports giving it a try. Confirm directly with the restaurant before booking if a tasting menu is specifically what you're after.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Badi | Mediterranean Cuisine | Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Restaurant 360 | International, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Pelegrini | Mediterranean, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| Nautika | Modern European, Classic Cuisine | Unknown | — | |
| Foša | Croatian, Classic Cuisine | Unknown | — | |
| Agli Amici Rovinj | Italian Contemporary | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Book at least two to three weeks ahead if you're visiting in summer — the Istrian coast fills fast between June and August, and a two-time Michelin Plate venue in a small settlement like Lovrečica draws visitors from across the region. Weekend dinners are the hardest slots to land. If you're flexible on timing, midweek lunch tends to be the easier ask.
Badi is a reasonable solo option — Mediterranean restaurants at the €€€ price point in Istria typically offer counter or smaller table formats that work for one. That said, the experience is likely better shared: the Michelin Plate recognition points to a kitchen with ambition, and that format plays best with someone to compare notes with.
No specific dietary policy is listed in Badi's records. check the venue's official channels before booking — at €€€ with Michelin Plate recognition two years running, the kitchen is likely capable of accommodating common restrictions, but confirming ahead is the practical move rather than assuming.
There are no direct competitors in Lovrečica itself — it's a small coastal settlement. For the broader northern Istrian coast, Agli Amici Rovinj is the higher-stakes choice if you want Michelin-starred territory. If you're staying near Umag and want something more casual, the options thin out quickly, which makes Badi the default serious-meal option in this stretch.
Yes — two consecutive Michelin Plates at €€€ pricing makes Badi a credible choice for a birthday, anniversary, or any meal where you need the kitchen to carry the occasion. The coastal Istrian setting does the rest. For something more formal with a longer track record in Croatia, Pelegrini in Šibenik or Nautika in Dubrovnik are the higher-profile alternatives.
No tasting menu details are confirmed in Badi's current records. What is confirmed: two Michelin Plates at €€€ pricing, which suggests a kitchen operating with consistency above the casual coastal restaurant category. If a tasting format is available when you book, it's the logical way to get the full picture of what the kitchen can do — ask when you reserve.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
