Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia, Island of Losinj

Last week we went camping to the island of Losinj. A plan was simple: go somewhere not to far, but where we’ve never been before, and spend a nice weekend outdoor, camping. We chose the Island of Losinj and Camping Cikat.  

We’ve been reading on internet about an interesting restaurant Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia and its chef Sasso. And this was one of the reasons we decided on Lošinj.  Unfortunately, the restaurant haven’t lived up to our expectations.

Bora Bar Tartufferia is located in Rovenska, a small village within walking distance from Veli Lošinj. There are just dozen of houses in Rovenska, and three restaurants right at the seafront. A perfect setting for dining al fresco.

One of those three restaurants is Bora Bar. Other two places are more traditional Croatian seafood restaurants. Both other places were pretty busy with diners, while Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia was deserted. It should have been a sign already, but we haven’t paid attention. We were so convinced that the food here would be so good, based on all positive comments we’ve read on internet. Besides, we really liked a lot the look and feel of the restaurant.

Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia: Review

Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia is a nicely decorated place, a bit in a shabby chic style. While chairs are mostly uniform, the tables are playful and colorful, so it seems like you cannot pair two of the same kind.

Big sign at the entrance of the terrace was reading: Italian Chef Sasso. We found that rather weird.

Our first disappointment came with the menu. We did find it a bit too classical, a bit like in many others Croatian restaurants in any tourist resort. Honestly, we found it just boring (not bad, but boring). There were nothing original or exciting about it. Some pasta, some fish and meat dishes. The same ones you find anywhere else.

Since the menu was completely uninspiring, we tried to get some suggestions from the waiter. We were still hoping that there is more than a person can actually guess from the menu. Waiter was as uninspiring as the menu itself. “We have pasta, meat, fish. It is all fresh. Everything is good.” No luck with this approach either. So we just decided to choose something from the menu. We used an eliminating method when choosing our dishes. And we ended up ordering some mussels in a wine sauce, bruschetta with tomato and mozzarella for starter, Adriatic calamari and veal steak for the main course. I planned on having dessert too, but gave up once I didn’t really enjoyed my savory dishes.

Mussels in a wine sauce were served cold. Beside that, they were fairly tasty, and definitely the best of all dishes we’ve eaten that evening at Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia.

Next was bruschetta. Bruschetta was really bad, totally overstuffed with oily cheese. And the main dish was so badly prepared that we didn’t know should we cry or laugh.

Veal steak was very chewy that I was seriously concerned about loosing my teeth. Potatoes, served as a side dish, were prepared in advanced and warmed up in a frying pan prior to serving. Uneatable just as much as any old potatoes can be. And Adriatic calamari – it was actually one huge squid served in the plate. It looked scary. It was not attractive neither to eye nor to mouth. It was chewy.

We were disappointed beyond the words with the Bora Bar Trattoria & Tartuferia. Funny to think that we chose the island of Lošinj partly because we really, really wanted to eat here. Maybe our timing was just too bad. It was the last working weekend for the restaurant as it works only seasonally from April to October. Maybe it was just a bad luck (everybody’s entitled to have a bad day in the kitchen). However, meanwhile we found out about other decent places to eat on Lošinj, and it will be a long time before we find the courage to try Bora Bar  Trattoria & Tartuferia again.