Restaurant 360

The return held at the pass

Foam is poured at the pass before the scampi reaches the room; Marijo Curić, chef at Restaurant 360 in Dubrovnik, keeps the gesture tied to service rather than spectacle. His kitchen sits inside the old city walls, but the authority of the place comes from repetition: culinary school first, then the same Dubrovnik house, with executive responsibility marked in 2015 and wider recognition following in 2018. Curić began cooking at 17, left for significant European experience, including London kitchens under Phil Howard and Marcus Wareing, and returned to work the local materials through a more exacting frame.

That line matters because Restaurant 360 is not built on a touring biography. It is built on a return. Adriatic seafood, mountain lamb, Croatian produce, French structure and Asian accents meet at the station, not as a travelogue, but as a working method. The Michelin star awarded to Restaurant 360 in 2018 belongs to this address, and the house has held one star through 2024. Curić’s role remains unusually concentrated: chef and executive chef responsibilities in the kitchen where his public record is centered.

Foam, cabbage leaf, cuttlefish ink

The menu moves through tasting formats and à la carte with a disciplined preference for texture. Scampi arrives lightly fried in vermicelli noodles, set on Jerusalem artichoke foam, then finished with a cappuccino-textured pour at the table. Sea bass may sit over fagotini with cuttlefish ragu and ink, sharpened by a sweet-sour fish sauce, or be roasted in cabbage leaf with dill-mint oil. Mountain lamb carries potato terrine, sheep’s cheese custard and pickled beetroot. The signatures named by the house and its diners, Calamari Peskafonda, Mountain Lamb, Sea Bass, Oyster Starter and Popara, keep the register close to the coast and hinterland even when the technique looks outward.

Curić uses foams, brûlées, spheres, slow cooking and precise frying as tools, not decoration. A carrot dish, cooked four ways with black garlic and pine nut crumb, shows the kitchen’s interest in making a modest ingredient hold the center of a course. The wine program follows the same regional argument, leaning into Croatian bottles and pairings that place Malvazia Istriana, Terrano and Plavac Mali beside the tasting menu.

A room cut into the walls

The room is formal without losing the weather. Service moves between the pass and a terrace laid along Dubrovnik’s medieval fortifications, where the old port, the marina and St. John’s Fortress enter the meal without needing to be staged. In summer evening light, the stone holds warmth while plates leave the kitchen in a quieter rhythm than the view might suggest. The noise stays conversational. The work can be heard.

From the counterpoint of sea air and polished service, Restaurant 360 reads as a kitchen set into a civic structure rather than placed beside it. The harbor is not background for the craft; it is part of the pressure on it. Each course has to survive the room, the walls and St. John’s Fortress.