Olive Garden Ulika, Punat: An Evening in a Working Olive Grove on Krk

Some evenings on Krk you want the sea. On others you want the opposite of it: a table between olive trees, a bay far below, and food that came from the ground you are sitting on. Olive Garden Ulika is that evening. It has been in our five favourite restaurants on the island for years, and enough guests have asked for the details that it deserves a page of its own.

What Ulika is

Ulika is the local word for the olive tree, and maslinik means olive grove — so the name is simply what it says. The Bonifačić family planted and tend the grove on the hillside above Puntarska draga, the deep bay that shelters Punat and the small wooded islet of Košljun with its Franciscan monastery. They press their own extra-virgin oil in a modern mill on the estate, and at some point the obvious thing happened: people who came to taste the oil wanted to stay for dinner.

So there is a restaurant now, set between the rows of trees, with a terrace that looks west across the bay. The mood is nothing like a harbour-front konoba. It is quiet, rustic and slow, and when the sun drops behind the hills of Kornić the whole grove turns gold for a quarter of an hour. Ask for a table outside and arrive before that happens.

The food

The rule of the kitchen is that what reaches the plate came from the estate or from farms nearby. That means the menu moves with the season and the cooking is direct: grilled meat and fish, vegetables from the garden, bread baked in-house and everything finished with the oil from the trees around you.

The dish we send our guests for is the grilled lamb with their own olive oil — for us one of the best plates on the island. The homemade bread with cheese and prosciutto is the way to start, the octopus is the other favourite, and the house wine does its job. Expect to pay roughly €30–40 per person for dinner with wine at the time of writing; it changes, so take that as a guide rather than a promise.

What is on the menu

People search for the Ulika menu more than for anything else about the place, so here is the honest answer: it changes with the season and with what the estate and the neighbouring farms have that week, and the current card is the one they hand you on the terrace. What you can count on:

• To start: homemade bread with the estate olive oil, local cheese and prosciutto — the plate half the terrace orders first.
• From the grill: lamb with their own oil (our pick), beef, mixed grilled-meat platters, tuna steak and the day's fish.
• From the sea: octopus, prepared differently through the season.
• Sides and vegetables: polenta, garden vegetables, salads dressed with the oil you tasted an hour earlier.
• To drink: house wine by the carafe, Krk Žlahtina by the bottle, and the estate oil to take home.

Budget roughly €30–40 per person for dinner with wine. Vegetarians are well looked after by the bread, cheese, vegetable and pasta side of the card; tell them when you book.

The olive oil tasting

If you have never been told what a fresh, well-made olive oil is supposed to taste like — grassy, bitter, with a pepper that catches the back of your throat — this is the place to learn. The estate runs guided tastings on weekday afternoons in season: a short walk through the grove and the mill, an explanation of how the olives are grown and pressed, then the oils themselves with toasted bread, salted fish and cheese, and a glass of wine. It takes about 45 minutes and has to be booked at least a day ahead. Children are welcome, and the tasting works well as the first stop before dinner on the terrace.

Getting there from the villas

From Villa Moana and Villa Manatis in Vrbnik: about 20 minutes by car. Take the road out of Vrbnik towards Krk town, then the D102 towards Punat; Ulika sits on the right just before the road drops down to Punat. On a warm evening the Vespa that comes with Villa Moana is the nicer way to go — the road is quiet and the light is beautiful — but someone has to stay sober for the ride home, so most couples take the car and let the wine flow.

From Villa Marim in Stara Baška: about 25 minutes. The road from Stara Baška leads through Punat anyway, so Ulika is the natural dinner stop on the way back from Krk town.

Without a car: tell us the evening you have in mind and we arrange a driver there and back, as we do for airport transfers and other outings.

Make an afternoon of it

Ulika opens in the late afternoon, which leaves the day free. Our favourite combination: drive to Punat, whose marina is one of the largest on the Adriatic, take the little taxi boat across the bay to Košljun and walk around the monastery island in the shade of its pines, come back for a swim, and be on the terrace at Ulika an hour before sunset. It is the kind of unhurried Krk day that guests remember longer than any single meal.

When to go

The restaurant is seasonal — roughly May to October — and it is an evening place, opening in the late afternoon. In July and August reserve a few days ahead and be specific about wanting the terrace. In May, June and September you will often have the grove almost to yourself, and the light is lower and softer. Opening days can change through the season; check before you drive over, or ask us — we usually know.

And if you would rather not go anywhere at all, the alternative is to bring the olive grove to you: a private chef dinner on your own terrace, with Krk lamb, Žlahtina from Vrbnik and the same island olive oil.