A fish konoba on the Kornati islands.

Getting to Opat takes a boat — and a little luck with the weather. Once you tie up in the cove, the noise of the mainland disappears. The Kornati archipelago is, by most counts, the most striking national park on the Croatian coast: clear water, minimal infrastructure, the kind of view that doesn't need filters.

Inside the konoba, Ante Božikov — known to everyone as Dupin — runs his kitchen the way a Dalmatian fish restaurant should be run. The catch is local, often delivered straight from the fishermen he has worked with for decades. The menu changes a little every season. The welcome doesn't.

What you remember after a long lunch at Opat is rarely just the food. It's the sun setting behind the outer islands, the grill burning a few metres from your table at the Bunja bar, the chef stopping by with a joke and a glass of something cold.

"Opat is what a Dalmatian konoba should look like," wrote Plava Kamenica in 2026. We'd rather you came and decided for yourself.