Alla Beccaccia

Season before habit

Corn sets the timing before the pot goes on. Annamaria Kolić, chef at Alla Beccaccia in Valbandon, cooks maneštra as a seasonal argument, not an all-year comfort. She has held the chef role here since 2023, keeping the kitchen close to land and calendar, with dishes that read the moment rather than forcing it. Her own example is maneštra od bobići: in Istria, she has said, corn belongs to summer, so the dish belongs to summer. That is not nostalgia. It is method.

Alla Beccaccia gives that discipline a konoba frame, warmed by a wood-burning fireplace and built around Istrian materials that ask for patience. Kolić works with a traditional range rather than a decorative one: maneštra s koromačem, pečena skuta, homemade pasta, Boškarin, game, liver with apples, truffle when the season allows. Her lineage at this address is stated through the station she holds, not through a published chain of mentors. The restaurant does name the recognition attached to the house: a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2024, part of its 3 listed awards. On the bench, restraint governs the plate and availability governs the menu.

Peka, pasta, and the long heat

The house technique is slow cooking under peka, the bell-shaped dome drawn into Istrian practice by embers and time. At Alla Beccaccia, Boškarin neck and free-range rooster sit in that register, with the rooster described as taking 4-5 hours under embers. The point is not softness alone. The dome traps heat, smoke, and moisture, turning connective tissue into depth without moving the dish away from its rural grammar.

Pasta carries the same refusal of shortcut. Posutice appear with cabbage, prosciutto, and Kumparička goat cheese; fuži and ravioli sit beside white truffle pasta and a peasant-style preparation with tomato, Istrian sausage, pine nuts, and capers. Kolić’s cooking keeps meat and dough in conversation: beef liver cut against sweet and spicy apples, Boškarin treated as ragout, steak, or slow braise, game folded into the colder side of the year. The wine program, led in the room by Ivor Kolić, stays regional in feeling, with Kabola Malvazija and Merlot among the named bottles that meet the weight of the food.

The fireplace holds the room

The room works like a konoba that has learned polish without losing its wooden grain. A large traditional ceiling sits over cozy indoor tables, and the fireplace is not scenery; it belongs to the kitchen’s grammar. In winter, it gives the pass its heat. In warmer months, the garden terrace loosens the meal without turning it casual in the wrong way.

Service has the ease of a family-run house, with Ivor moving through wine and the kitchen holding its own rhythm behind him. The noise stays conversational, which matters for food built on quiet changes: cabbage beside posutice, horseradish against tongue, olive oil and chili in Čokooliva. Nothing needs to announce itself. The next plate is governed by the same constraint Kolić names in maneštra, the season of corn at Alla Beccaccia.