The 2026 dining guides are out, and Šibenik county has quietly become one of the most rewarding stretches of the Dalmatian coast for food lovers. You do not need to drive to Split or Zadar to eat at the top of the region. Three of the tables that matter most sit within an easy drive of Villa LAVA in Pirovac: one at the fine-dining summit, one a hill konoba that has quietly held its ground for years, and one brand new this year, in a village almost nobody arrives having heard of.
Here is what changed for 2026, and how to build a proper food day around it.
Pelegrini keeps its star, and crowns a Sommelier of the Year
Pelegrini, tucked into the stone of Šibenik’s old town about 25 km south-east of Pirovac, holds on to its single Michelin star in the 2026 Croatia guide. Chef Rudi Štefan’s kitchen also carries four Gault & Millau toques, a 17.5 out of 20 score that puts it firmly among the country’s best.
The headline this year sits with the wine list rather than the plate. Pelegrini’s sommelier, Branimir Vukšić, was named Sommelier of the Year 2026 in the Croatian recognitions. If you have ever wondered whether a tasting menu with the wine pairing is worth it, this is the address where the answer is clearly yes.
Pelegrini is a special-occasion restaurant. Book well ahead, give yourself a full evening, and let the sommelier lead. It is the sort of dinner that becomes the story of the holiday.
Konoba Vinko keeps its Bib Gourmand for its peka
At the other end of the register, and roughly 30 km east of Pirovac in the village of Konjevrate, Konoba Vinko holds on to its Michelin Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide, a distinction it has carried since 2019. The Bib is Michelin’s mark for genuinely good food at a fair price, and Vinko has earned it the honest way for years now.
This is a rustic countryside konoba built around peka: meat or octopus baked slowly under a metal bell buried in embers. The one catch is that peka takes hours, so you order it a day in advance. Call ahead, agree on your dish, then show up hungry. It is about as close to real inland Dalmatia as a meal gets.
Konoba Campanelo is the new name, and it is a long way inland
The genuinely new arrival for 2026 sits about 55 km east of Pirovac in Mirlović Zagora, reached by roughly half an hour of winding road up from Šibenik. Konoba Campanelo joins the guide in the Selected category, and local coverage made a point of it being the first family konoba from the Zagora — the stony inland belt behind the coast — to get there.
It is run by Mate Sučić and his wife, and Michelin’s inspectors picked out the peka, which tells you what kind of place it is at heart. What separates it from Vinko is register rather than repertoire. Vinko is generous, meat-first and unfussy. Campanelo plates carefully: tasting menus, a handful of dishes of the day, and — improbably, for somewhere this far from the water — black risotto and grilled squid sitting alongside the peka. The other guides back it up, with 15 out of 20 from Gault & Millau and 88 points from Falstaff, both strong for a village konoba.
Book ahead, and raise the peka when you do. It takes hours wherever you eat it.
The wider picture for 2026
The Michelin Guide Croatia 2026 added twenty new restaurants this year: one newly starred, three new Bib Gourmands and sixteen new entries in the Selected category. That takes the national total from 99 tables to 112. The country now counts fourteen starred restaurants, one of them with two stars, and Dalmatia holds a prominent place on the map.
For guests at Villa LAVA that trend is worth watching. Šibenik and its hinterland keep gaining recognition, which usually means more good kitchens open in the years that follow.
A high and low food day from Villa LAVA
The neat thing about this year’s results is that they hand you a ready-made itinerary. In a single stretch of Šibenik county you can pair the region’s starred fine dining with its most authentic hillside cooking:
- Lunch or an early booking at Konoba Vinko in Konjevrate for peka, ordered the day before. Around 30 km east of Pirovac.
- Dinner at Pelegrini in Šibenik’s old town, with the Sommelier of the Year’s pairing. Around 25 km south-east of Pirovac.
Two tables, one region, one memorable day, and both an easy drive from the villa. Reserve both in advance, especially in peak summer, and treat the peka pre-order as non-negotiable.
If you would rather the hinterland half of that day were modern than rustic, swap Vinko for Campanelo. At around 55 km it is a longer run, so give it the whole afternoon rather than treating it as a stop on the way to somewhere else.