Restaurant La Grisa Bale has been on my wish list for a while. I’ve known that the restaurant was run by Karin Perdec. Karin was an owner of a nice wine bar Tinja near Pula. I’ve eaten there and I loved it. Wine bar Tinja went out of business few years ago. Now Karin is a restaurant manager in La Grisa.
For me that alone meant good wine list and elegant, yet unpretentious food. And I was right!
Update: Karin now works as a manager at Dobrovac Guesthouse in Rovinj. However, La Grisa Bale remains as good place to eat as before.
Restaurant La Grisa is located in a small village Bale, at 4star hotel of the same name. We had a table at the superb courtyard terrace. The place is sleepy and really relaxing.
My review of the restaurant La Grisa Bale
We’ve started our lunch with a nice aperitif. For starter we ordered a plate of seafood: salty anchovies, marinated sardines, octopus salad, tuna carpaccio and some fresh cheese curd, just for a sake of it.
The waiter suggested white wine Malvasia Radovan to accompany the starter and our first course. The first course included seashells (small scallops) risotto. Risotto was tasty and perfectly cooked al dente. For the main course we chose a grilled tuna steak served with fried zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese curd. Tuna was medium raw. Not really at my taste. But the rest of the table loved it. I didn’t ask for well done because I didn’t want to be that guy all the cooks hate.
Our main course was accompanied by Bolfan’s Pinot Noir. It was a perfect choice. Dessert was a real treat. Plate of different homemade sweets included: chocolate souffle, black truffle ice cream with olive oil, lavender ice cream with dried figs and red wine, and sweet fried gnocchi.
Restaurant La Grisa is a very nice restaurant. The food is elegant, yet unpretentious; wine list is extensive, service is attentive and prices are affordable. The only thing this restaurants lacks a little bit is an atmosphere. But then again, you can always create a good one yourself. Highly recommended!
Sorry to hear that Mitja, and thanks for sharing your experience with us. We haven’t been to La Grisia since 2013 or so, and we know that since then restaurant staff has changed. But don’t know much more about the place.
Recently been in La Grisa restaurant and it was a disaster. The only good thing about it is design, however it has nothing to do with Istria and it’s heritage and it is a bit tasteless.
Boskarin cold starters was a … carpaccio was filled with oil, boskarin salami cut 5mm tick, cooked tongue was just a average.
Cold tomato soup with cucumber: so much cucumber that only color was left of tomato.
“Pljukanci with donkey ragu .. was as someone cut big piece of meet into 10mm cubes .. no taste at all. Desert peers with vanilla ice cream: first of all it is not a season of peers jet, they were bought and tasteless, vanilla ice cream was made with artificial vanilla aroma. One would expect that in such as restaurant which ranks themselves into the best in Istria, they would at least buy ice cream made with real vanilla.
On top of it, waiter did not know that orange wine shall be served at temperatures similar red wines are served. His comment was “it will warm up”.
Sure if one has never been in top restaurant or Michelin star restaurant, La Grisa looks excellent, but is way bellow average. And for approximately 110 euro we would eat in almost any real top Istrian konoba.