Where and What to Eat in Fužine?

Good food, for active people! The most interesting thing about this region’s cuisine is that it came from a variety of influences and through the long history this area was always the poorest in Croatia, but the diversity and the amount of dishes which are traditional in this region is actually fascinating and will make you very hungry for sure!

Taste some local dishes

So lets get to the chase:

• frog legs – fried or breaded, a famous speciality of Gorski kotar region; 
• snails prepared in many ways: roasted on hot coals or in ashes, cooked in wine sauce, braised with onions; 
• dormice; 
• freshwater fish; 
• forest mushrooms;
• variety of game dishes; 
• the famous “goranski nadjev” (Gorski kotar stuffing, a traditional Easter dish); 
• stew made of beans and sour turnip;
• pork belly stuffed with a mixture of bread cut into little cubes; 
• ham or smoked pork neck; 
• chopped spring onions and beaten eggs; 
• kalja–cooked and smoked meat with sauerkraut; 
• knedle – potato dumplings stuffed with plums, apricots; 
• kračica (ham hock) with sauerkraut – the bottom part of pig’s leg; 
• lamb: roasted on the spit;  lamb under peka – lamb baked with potatoes and vegetables under the baking lid; 
• Lika-style casserole – lamb or mutton soup with various vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, tomatoes, paprika, parsley); 
• lički uštipci – small donuts made of dough fried in hot oil, sprinkled with powdered sugar; 
• lovačke knedle (hunter’s dumplings) – dumplings made of bread, ham, onion, eggs, milk, flour and spices, usually served as a side dish with stews and various meat dishes; 
• masnica – a dish prepared from dough stuffed with melted seasoned pork fat; 
• police/pole (potato halves) – baked unpeeled potato halves, can be baked with slices of bacon; 
• povatica – strudel made of dough stuffed with braised minced red onions; 
• škripavac cheese (“Creaky” cheese) – soft full fat cheese which creaks when you chew it; 
• wild game pršut – dry-cured wild game ham, salted and dried on air;  juices, liqueurs and wines made from forest fruits; 
• wild boar prepared in the traditional way “pod pekom” (under a baking lid); 
• sarma cabbage rolls

And now that you got an idea what you can eat in Fužine and nearby, it’s time to pack and head to Gorski kotar and find a place to taste all that delicious food!

Where to eat in Fužine?

1. Restaurant Bitoraj

The oldest restaurant in this area in preparing exclusively domestic meals specific for this climate. Very visited place in the whole year period. Their home made cuisine will astonish all your senses beacuse it’s based on ingredients strictly from the Gorski kotar region and it’s quite different from the other regions in Croatia. For starters try a deer salami and salami of wild boar with local cheese. Some of their meal delicacies are iota with sausage, dry ribs, horse radish soup with „škripavac“ cheese, mushroom soup, froglegs, deer or bear goulash and many more. Don’t miss on the desserts, their famous blueberries/apple/cheese strudel will make you go back for more!

Official page: Hotel Bitoraj

2. Konoba Volta

A great restaurant settled in Fužine centre in the 19th century house. There you’ll get that mountain hideaway feeling plus food you won’t forget! Everything is totally fresh and hand made on strictly traditional recipes of this beautiful mountain area, and on descent prices. Must tries are smoked deer prosciutto, deer steak in cranberry sauce, wild boar on a domestic way, horse patties filled with cheese, sausages in red wine, but the one which can not be missed is the typical local lunch called Goranski lunch. It’s a traditional meal of the local people through centuries: pork steak, sausage and sour cabbage with potatoes. For the dessert we highly recommend their home made aronia-vanilla strudel.

Official page: Konoba Volta

3. Pizzeria Landravec

Wanna eat great pizza in Fužine? This the place! Fantastic pizza with excellent taste, crispy, fresh ingredients – pizzas with local flavour. Try a different kind of pizza in a homely enviroment of this local pizzeria.

4. Hounting home Arnika

A small unpretencious restaurant in a hunting home Arnika located only eight hundred meters from the centre, this is a place with strictly home made food without a menu. If you go there, be sure that what you’ll taste is a real local food. This family restaurant is being held by one local family for twenty five years, so the atmosphere is like at home, and the food as well. The offer is not wide but it’ll give you everything for what you came for, and more! Goulash and oyster mushrooms with home made cakes for the dessert will leave you speechless!

Official page: Lovački dom Arnika

5. Vagabundina koliba

Just 14 km and 15 minutes of drive southeast from Fužine, taking the road via Lič, you’ll find a mountain hut Vagabundina koliba (Vagabundo’s cottage). This mountain hut is at 864 m in place called Ravno. It is open every day from April until October 15th, a on weekend during the rest of the year.

They have a nice terrace and they prepare delicious food from seasonal ingredients and herbs like the nettle patty, a strudel with wild berries, mushrooms, cheese in oil…

6. More offers

Visit nearby places such as Lokve (just a 20 min drive, 13 km) or Delnice (15 km) where you’ll find a few more restaurants where you can try local dishes.