Dubravkin Put

Precision before the forest room fills

The sea bass is cut for carpaccio, then set against beetroot before the room gathers pace. Tibor Valinčić, Executive Chef at Dubravkin Put in Zagreb, works from that kind of control: clean composition, seasonal Croatian ingredients, and technique held close enough that it does not announce itself before the dish does. His cooking at this Tuškanac restaurant carries the training of Intecci Academy and the early pressure of a kitchen life begun at 16, with Boškinec sitting in the line that led him here.

At Dubravkin Put, the role is not only to refine Mediterranean fine dining for a woodland dining room. Valinčić reads traditional Croatian flavors through a modern kitchen, keeping the old structure visible while changing the cut, the temperature, the garnish, the weight of richness on the plate. One MICHELIN Star in 2024 marked the work he was doing here, but the measure inside the pass is more immediate: precision, care for the ingredient, and the cohesion of the team. Those are his own terms for the station, and they suit a restaurant where restraint matters more than display.

Seasonal Croatian cooking on the pass

The program moves between tasting menu, set menu and à la carte, with the kitchen drawing on Adriatic fish, Croatian produce, Pag island lamb and a wine list built around Croatian and international bottles. The signature dishes give the shape of the method. Sea bass and beetroot carpaccio stays light and aromatic. Black risotto with cuttlefish keeps a coastal grammar on the menu. Pag island lamb chop with peas, shallots and thyme brings the plate back inland, while Kobe beef and Louis XV chocolate with foie gras ice cream sit at the richer end of the register.

The kitchen has tasting progressions of 3 to 7 courses, often with fish at the center. It is pacing. Raw fish, risotto, lamb, chocolate, citrus, almond; each course has to hold its place without crowding the next. Valinčić uses technique as the hinge, not as ornament. The cooking can be contemporary, but it does not erase the Croatian line underneath it.

The room at the edge of Tuškanac

The room sits close to the Tuškanac forest, minutes from Zagreb’s center, and that nearness changes the service. Natural light comes across the terrace, the park holds the edge of the view, and the room keeps a quiet pitch even when the pass is working. It is formal service without theatre, warm contemporary décor without the stiffness that can come with polish.

That setting gives the kitchen a particular discipline. A dish like black risotto with cuttlefish does not need a heavy frame when the trees are already in the glass and the wine program can carry Croatian bottles beside international ones. The terrace, the counterpoint of forest and city, and Valinčić’s controlled pass are the grammar of Dubravkin Put.