Zinfandel's — Creative Croatian / European, Zagreb
Zinfandel’s occupies the fine dining room of the Hotel Esplanade — Zagreb’s most famous hotel, built to receive passengers from the Orient Express in 1925 and that has been one of the great European Art Deco hotels ever since. Executive Chef Ana Grgić Tomić crafts an enticing à la carte menu that combines creative flavours, traditional Croatian cuisine, and fresh seasonal ingredients from the Croatian market tradition.
The cooking at Zinfandel’s reflects both the Croatian ingredient landscape and the Central European culinary heritage that the Esplanade’s Orient Express origins provide: the Adriatic seafood, the Slavonian truffle, the Istrian olive oil, and the exceptional Croatian cheese and charcuterie traditions all appear in dishes that speak both Croatian and European simultaneously.
The wine list is a comprehensive engagement with Croatian viticulture alongside the European classics that the Esplanade’s cosmopolitan clientele expects. The Croatian indigenous varieties — Plavac Mali, Graševina, and the white varieties of Dalmatia and Istria — are presented with the confidence of a cellar that regards them as worthy of the Esplanade’s historical standards.
Zinfandel’s is the hotel restaurant that justifies being a hotel restaurant in a city where the independent kitchens of Noel and Dubravkin Put set a challenging standard. The Esplanade building is itself the argument; the cooking maintains it.
Best Occasion: Birthday
The Hotel Esplanade’s Art Deco splendour, Chef Grgić Tomić’s creative Croatian cooking, and the institution’s century of managing important occasions: Zinfandel’s provides a birthday dinner in Zagreb of genuine historical and culinary distinction.
Best Occasion: Impress Clients
The Hotel Esplanade and its Orient Express heritage, combined with Ana Grgić Tomić’s creative Croatian kitchen: Zinfandel’s communicates both the depth of Zagreb’s hospitality tradition and the quality of the contemporary Croatian dining scene.