If you had told me 2 years ago that I would be running a restaurant, I might have laughed and dismissed the idea. Fast forward to today and there’s nothing more exciting for me to get up in the morning and prepare for a day of wow-ing our guests with the traditional dishes I enjoyed when growing up in Zagreb.

Last month we celebrated the restaurant’s 2 year anniversary. It was a proud moment for me because Dubrovnik Restaurant has made a name for itself as a premier dining spot in KL in the 2 short years which we have been in operation. Moving forward, we will strive to continue with our mission to deliver an authentic taste of traditional European/Croatian cooking without any compromise on quality.

What’s Cooking, Gourmet Chef?

Croatian pancake: Members of the media preparing the Palacinke

In addition to the anniversary party, we also held an exclusive event for members of the media. The event was a cooking workshop led by Head Chef Zoran Djumic who showed the guests how to cook some of our dishes here at the restaurant. Our guests were taught to create Palacinke, make their own pasta and were treated to some of our special dishes. The Star wrote up a great report on the workshop and you can read it on their website – Media members learn exotic recipes from Croatian chef.

I would like to thank all of our customers who have stood by us in our journey to where we are today. I would also like to thank all the media who has supported us and provided great coverage of our 2nd anniversary celebrations. Here are some of our appearances in the local media:

New Straits Times @ 7 May (click for larger picture)

Vanity Shack – Set for life at Dubrovnik

Voize.My – Free Food @ Dubrovnik Restaurant

Once again, thank you to everyone for another great year. Hvala vam!

Dina made a video to tell you about our wood fire oven. Click the button above to view the video on Facebook.

One of the unique features of Dubrovnik Restaurant is our wood fire oven. It’s a big and bulky item in the kitchen and quite expensive to maintain, but we wanted to create the most authentic flavours we could. We use the oven to cook many of our popular dishes including Peka, pizzas, palacinke, and Lamb Samobor.

In the video, Dina describes one of our most popular dishes–the Chicken Peka. Please watch the video and leave a comment or ‘Like’ it on Facebook. Also, make sure you come and taste one of our dishes cooked in the oven. See you soon!

Last month, I was kindly invited by the Croatian Professor, Dr. Andjelko Simic, to give a guest lecture to his students at HELP University on running a restaurant in Malaysia.

The lecture was organised by the School of Hospitality and Tourism and the theme was Introducing Tourism and Hospitality Business in Malaysia. I was very honored to present in front of 70 students and a couple of professors. At first I was a bit worried at how all this is going to look like as it was my first time lecturing, but I was impressed by how quietly everyone was sitting and paying very much attention to my lecture.

As this topic is very close to my heart the information was spilling out without a problem. The students had some very interesting questions which I was very happy to answer and share some of my experience with them. Dr. Simic was also very kind and gave me a present which really made me nostalgic. It was one of his sons paintings of the city which I’m from called Samobor. Overall it was a great experience and it really made me reflect back on what I have done and achieved in the last two years.