Marina Restaurant

The menu follows what is available each day, with respect for the seasons and the catch. Shellfish, reef fish and pasta dishes with original sauces make up most of it, finished with extra virgin olive oil from the restaurant’s own production.

The cooking is fresh, careful and honest rather than showy, and the position, directly facing the harbour with the boats a few metres away, is one of the restaurant’s greatest assets.

Start with oysters, raw or steamed with Malvasia, raw Adriatic scampi, sea bass carpaccio or tuna tartare. The cold seafood platter brings octopus salad, salt cod spread and sardines “in savor”, the old Venetian marinade.

Then try the fish brodetto, mussels alla busara, or the “sea” pasta with shrimps, prawns and clams. Homemade Istrian ravioli with fresh truffles, grilled octopus and calamari, grilled or fried, are reliable choices too.

The restaurant faces Izola’s old town harbour. Marina Izola, the town’s main marina, is about 10 minutes’ walk away along the seafront. Parking by the hotel is limited, so if anyone in the party comes by car, the restaurant suggests the public car parks and a stroll along the promenade.

The restaurant is open every day from noon to 10pm. From November to March it closes at 6pm on Sundays. Reservations are mandatory, by phone or email, and a window table is worth asking for.