Monte

Is Monte in Rovinj worth booking?

Yes — if you are looking for the most technically ambitious dinner in Rovinj, Monte is the answer. Holding a Michelin star in both 2024 and 2025 and scoring 84.5 points on La Liste 2025 (81 pts in 2026), this is the address that puts Rovinj on Croatia's serious dining map. Chefs Remo and Mario Capitaneo run a creative kitchen that operates at a level you won't find elsewhere in Istria's coastal towns outside of a handful of competitors. The question isn't whether Monte is good — it is , but whether the experience suits your trip, your group, and your budget.

About Monte

Monte has been the reference point for fine dining in Rovinj long enough to accumulate back-to-back Michelin recognition, a meaningful signal in a market where the competition for that star is real. The Capitaneo brothers lead a kitchen focused on creative cuisine, which in this context means a menu that works with Istrian ingredients and Adriatic produce without being constrained by regional tradition. That positions Monte differently from a restaurant like Agli Amici Rovinj, which leans into Italian contemporary, or Wine Vault Restaurant - Levante Edition, which anchors itself in regional cuisine. Monte is the option when you want cooking that is explicitly forward-looking.

The restaurant sits at Ul. Montalbano 75 in Rovinj's old town perimeter, and the setting is part of what makes this a strong special-occasion choice. The room is compact and intimate , the kind of scale that makes the cooking feel personal rather than theatrical. Stone walls and considered layout give the space a quieter register than the terrace-heavy restaurants that line Rovinj's waterfront. For a celebration dinner or a serious date night, the spatial proportions work in your favour: close enough for conversation, formal enough to signal occasion. If the room's intimate scale is part of your calculation, it's worth noting that very small capacity venues at this price tier book out fast in high season, particularly July and August when Rovinj fills with visitors from across Europe.

Lunch vs. Dinner: How the Two Experiences Compare

This is the practical question most visitors get wrong. At a €€€€ price point with Michelin recognition, the instinct is to treat Monte as a dinner-only destination , but lunch here deserves serious consideration, especially if you're visiting in peak summer. Dinner in July and August comes with the full weight of Rovinj's high-season pressure: harder reservations, a town full of tourists, and a premium on the atmosphere that the old city delivers at night. Lunch sidesteps most of that friction.

From a value standpoint, Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe frequently offer a lunch format , whether a set menu or an abbreviated version of their evening programme , at a meaningfully lower per-head cost than dinner. If Monte follows that pattern (and the category norm strongly suggests it does), lunch becomes the sharper option for diners who want to experience the kitchen's technical range without the full evening spend. You get the same chefs, the same sourcing, the same Istrian ingredient focus , and, in summer, you might also get the added advantage of an afternoon that remains yours for Rovinj's harbour and old town. For couples or pairs treating this as a trip centrepiece, a long lunch here followed by an evening at one of Rovinj's bars is a better structure than rushing a dinner booking between activity and accommodation logistics.

Dinner at Monte has its own case: the setting reads as more occasion-appropriate in the evening, candle-lit intimacy plays better for an anniversary or milestone meal, and the full menu length is typically available. If your reason for booking is a significant celebration , a birthday, an anniversary, a milestone trip , the dinner experience is the right call. For a 10th or 20th anniversary in Istria, Monte's evening service is among the most fitting choices on the coast. Croatia's Michelin-starred table count remains small enough that booking Monte for such an occasion carries real weight. For broader context on fine dining across Croatia, venues like Alfred Keller in Mali Lošinj, Boskinac in Novalja, and Nebo by Deni Srdoč in Rijeka give a sense of the national tier Monte operates within.

Booking and Practical Details

Reservations: Book well in advance , 4 to 6 weeks minimum for peak summer months (June through August), and at least 2 to 3 weeks out in shoulder season. This is a hard booking, not a walk-in venue at this level. Dress: Smart casual to formal; Michelin-starred context in Croatia typically means well-dressed rather than black-tie, but shorts and beach cover-ups are not appropriate. Budget: €€€€ , expect a meaningful per-head spend at dinner; a tasting menu format with wine pairing will push the bill significantly higher than à la carte. Getting there: Rovinj's old town is compact and walkable from most central accommodation; check our full Rovinj hotels guide for proximity options. Group size: The intimate room scale works leading for couples and small groups of 2 to 4; larger parties should contact the restaurant directly well ahead of travel. Phone/online booking: Contact details are not available in our current listing , check the restaurant directly for current reservation channels.

Monte in the Context of Croatian Fine Dining

Monte is the strongest argument for Rovinj as a serious food destination rather than just a scenic one. Within Croatia, it sits alongside Dubravkin Put in Zagreb, Korak in Jastrebarsko, Krug in Split, and LD Restaurant in Korčula as the country's top-tier dining options. At the international creative-cuisine level, it operates in a very different weight class from addresses like Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen or Arpège in Paris , but within its regional context, the Michelin recognition is meaningful and earned. For visitors to Istria, Monte is the meal worth planning your itinerary around. Explore the full picture via our Rovinj restaurants guide, Rovinj experiences guide, and Rovinj wineries guide.