Montenegro Part 2

We are staying in a small town near Kotor, along the shores of the Bay of Kotor. This bay is surrounded by mountains and is not on the open ocean, therefore it is protected from severe weather, making it an ideal stopping point for yachts traveling along the coast. We have seen some amazing boats docked here for a couple of days before moving on with their travels.

Since this area is so driven by tourism, with very little farmland to speak of due to the mountains, the restaurants reflect a more international flavour with the majority offering mainly Italian food like Pizza and Pasta. Among these of course, there are better and worse varieties and the prices are considerably more expensive than in Serbia and the currency here is the Euro. In the pizza/pasta places, the prices are around 8 Euro for a pizza, or about $14 AUD. The first place we went to was along the beach and served frozen seafood on the marinara pizza and the base was quite disappointing. I chose the lasagna and that was fine.

During our walk along the shore we saw a whole group of people gathered around a small boat which was pulled up and had a net hanging over the side. It turns out that these fishermen had netted so many fish that they were unable to load them into the boat, so they brought the net in to shore and were filling up the bottom of the boat with fish. They were alive and jumping around, you can't get much fresher than that!

People were coming down and buying fish right out of the net.

The second night we went to the Old Town which is an ancient stone town built at the base of the cliff leading up to the ruins of the original Kotor, which is about a 1-2 hour walk uphill. No, I didn't go up there. The old town is a maze of very tiny alleyways and tiny shops (some as big as a bedroom) selling brand name clothes, shoes and other fashion items. Interspersed among these are courtyards with cafes and restaurants which you might walk around the town for an hour without ever realising they are there. I walked past a bar which could probably fit no more than about 10 people. There are several larger buildings in the town which are hotels with restaurants and bars and in the larger courtyards there are usually one or two larger restaurants with plenty of outside seating. We chose one of these for our dinner this night.

I had a delicious riblja corba (fish soup) to start and while we were deciding on mains, one of the waiters came around with a tray of raw fish for us to take a look at which they grill and then bring out to fillet at the table. The fish looked very fresh and while we were tempted, I decided on a pizza this day. This was better than the previous night, but not as good as I had in Sremska Mitrovica.

The next day was my mum's birthday, so I booked her in for a massage in one of the hotels in old town. Of course, I needed a massage too, so I booked myself in as well. I also had a restaurant in mind for dinner, which looked very nice and a little bit more fine dining than many of the other we had seen. The massage was very relaxing and well worth doing.

That night we headed to Restoran Galeon for dinner. It's right on the water with a gorgeous view out over the marina and the bay. It definitely looked more styish than the other restaurants we had seen and the prices were almost double, but still not more expensive than a decent restaurant in Melbourne. Main courses were around 20 Euro.

For appetisers, dad and I had Bouillabaise, a french seafood soup with a saffron broth. The plates were brought to the table with just the seafood in the bowl and the waiter poured the broth over the top. This had a fantastic flavour and some very nice seafood in it.


Mum ordered the antipasto plate, which is a good option in this region as they are well know for their prsut (prosciutto). This looked great, and the few tastes that I managed to steal were delicious.


For main course, the waiter brought out their fresh fish of the day and they all looked amazingly fresh and dad really wanted to try one, so we selected the sea bass. This is prepared for two people and priced per kilo so you can select the size that you want. They grill the fish and serve it with three dipping sauces on the side, one a delicious ailoi, one a chopped tomoato and the third was a pesto style sauce.


This fish was delicious. Very moist and well cooked, the sauces were very nice too. The vegetables were a dissapointment however as they were all boiled and uniform in taste and texture.

Mum selected the Grilled Prawns.

I didn't taste this, but since mum finished the lot and she usually doesn't eat more than one or two prawns, I'd say that's a good sign that it was great. The vegetables were as bad as those served with the fish.

Where this restaurant drops the ball in my opinion (apart from the vegetables) is in the dessert selection. They had chocolate selections and an apple crumble, but no local dishes.

Mum chose the dessert sampler which is a selection of three small desserts. This consisted of a chocolate rum-ball, chocolate icecream and a small biscuit-based chocolate cake with walnuts.


Dad chose the Apple Crumble (I would have selected this too, but there was only one serve left). This also had walnuts in it and the only compaint from dad was that it was way too big (but he managed to finish it).


And, even though I'm not a big fan of chocolate desserts, I went for the Chocolate Trilogy (their version of death by chocolate). Don't say I never do anything for all you chocolate-loving readers out there...


This is a dense chocolate tart topped with chocolate icecream and chocolate mousse. It looks very unappetising, but wasn't too bad and I'm sure chocolate fans would enjoy it.