Located in a village Petrovija, just few kilometers from Umag (Istria), on the road to Buje, konoba Nono is not difficult to find. It is a big, orange house at the entrance of the village.
It has a spacious parking, although it’s often completely full, just like the restaurant is too. Even on Saturday afternoon at the end of January. If you visit coastal town in Istria at this time of the year, you’ll find that 90% of restaurants are closed for winter. And yet, konoba Nono, and other restaurants in inland Istria, remain open and often full.
Our experience at Konoba Nono Umag
We waited for 10 minutes to get a table. Excellent start, since we never made a reservation in advance.
We ordered Istrian plate for two persons consisting of variety of homemade cold cuts: dry cured ham (prosciutto), bacon (pancetta), salami, dry cured pork loin and pork neck, sheep cheese, cheese with truffles, fresh cottage cheese, …
At the table, we found extra virgin olive oil Sapparis of excellent quality – made and bottled by Branko Ceko from neighboring village Finida. His olive oil 2011 is listed in Flos Olei Guide and it scored 82 points.
Konoba Nono specialty is an Istrian cattle called Boskarin, and on one other occasion, at Istria Gourmet 2011 in Umag, I had an opportunity to try their Boskarin carpaccio and it was extremely delicious.
Nono also offers a great choice of grilled meat, fish and sea food. Seeing Italians ordering crab meat and shells at konoba Nono assured us that it must be fresh and of a good quality, otherwise, at least in my opinion Italians would stick to meat or pasta. These guys know what a good seafood is all about.
Anyway, after a good plate of cold cuts, we ordered a plate of pasta with black truffles. Pasta was fresh, home made too, and it was perfectly cooked a la dente, grated with black truffles, a timeless and simple, but yet sumptuous Istrian dish. We ate it to the last piece. Excellent, excellent meal!
At Nono they have very good choice of local wines, but this time we just went with a glass of table wine Malvasia, genuine Istrian white wine, and it was very good (10 kn a glass).
Service at Nono is excellent. Atmosphere is very friendly and you feel really welcome. Also you feel a family atmosphere. Italian family eating next to our table even played a game of Uno while waiting for a dish. Cute!
Konoba Nono is a great place for summer too, because they have a large terrace, and also a little farm adjacent to the restaurant, where chicken, hens and roosters, gooses, rabbits, goats, sheep, peacocks and dogs walk around free. There are also slides and swings where children can play.
It is really well thought place with great food, friendly atmosphere, excellent service and fair prices.
