Island of Vis, Croatia Dining: Luka Nižetić’s Restaurants

While konobas* offer a great opportunity to experience Dalmatian culture through cuisine, sometimes one needs a break from them.  In fact, konobas are so ubiquitous throughout Croatia’s Dalmatia region that when I travel there I often find myself wondering, is there anything else???  In the town of Komiža on the island of Vis, there is! 

*To learn more about konobas, see my blog post at the following link: https://findingbalanceontheedge.blog/2023/09/12/dalmatian-dining-experiences-and-traditions-on-the-island-of-vis-croatia-part-1/

My family and I discovered a welcome change of pace from the traditional konoba in the two Komiža restaurants owned and operated by Croatian singer Luka Nižetić.  Nižetić is a native of the coastal city of Split, the capital of the Dalmatia region, so it is perhaps not surprising that he would choose an idyllic Dalmatian locale for his two restaurants, Fabrika Bistro and Pizza&Pasta Fabrika. He is also the owner of the boutique Fabrika, located on Komiža’s Ribarska Ulica and dedicated to promoting and selling the creations of Croatian designers.

Nižetić’s two restaurants, Fabrika Bistro and Pizza&Pasta Fabrika (the latter name he recently changed from Pizza&Bar Hum), are located at the far end of Komiža’s “riva” – the Dalmatian word for a walkway along a harbor front – next to the Venetian fortress.

We enjoyed our dining experience at Fabrika Bistro, where Nižetić departs from the traditional Dalmatian morning routine by serving breakfast. It is often difficult in Dalmatia to find dining establishments where breakfast is served because Dalmatians tend to eat breakfast at home and then head to a café for their morning coffee. At Bistro, it is possible to combine breakfast and the coffee ritual, and we did so, happily!

I ordered fresh squeezed orange juice and scrambled eggs atop avocado toast accompanied with a little pico de gallo. While breakfast felt a bit more SoCal than Dalmatian, it was delicious! We appreciate that Nižetić has provided another option for the start of the day. And bonus, the orange juice was served with a compostable straw. Kudos to Nižetić for keeping the island’s natural beauty and environment in mind!

Lunch and dinner at Bistro are a continued departure from traditional Dalmatian norms and include a variety of creatively-concocted gourmet hamburgers (think mushroom and blue cheese with baked potato wedges), cheese sandwiches, and salads, among other items. We haven’t yet dined at Bistro for lunch or dinner but look forward to doing so on a future trip!

We’ve dined at Nižetić’s Pizza&Pasta Fabrika on several occasions, both at lunch and at dinner. Given its convenient hours of operation from the late-morning to the late-evening hours, Pizza&Pasta is a great place for a casual afternoon lunch or a dressier dinner.

The above two photos are of us at Pizza&Pasta for dinner. In the photo on the left, the buildings lining the opposite side of Komiža’s horseshoe-shaped harbor are visible in the background, as well as a small hill composed of the karst limestone characteristic of Dalmatia’s hills and mountains. On the right is a selfie… as the unofficial photographer, journalist, and archivist of our trips, I’m hardly in any of the photos! On this particular evening (and not unlike many evenings), Nižetić was in situ and at times delivering the food to the tables himself. It is evident that his restaurants are a labor of love for him, a special touch that adds to the dining experience.

Above are a couple of the pizzas we ordered at Pizza&Pasta, inspired by the pizza of Italy’s Naples but expanded upon with unusual and creative collections of toppings. The pizza in the foreground is topped with tuna along with olives, purple onions, grape tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese. The pizza to the right is topped with sausage, olives, jalapeno peppers, and mozzarella cheese. Nižetić recently updated the menu to include a tuna carpaccio pizza, which I look forward to trying on our next trip.

The above photo is of us dining at Pizza&Pasta in the afternoon, after having spent an extended morning at the beach. The restaurant was empty because most people were, in fact, still at the beach! One dining cultural norm I would like to point out in the photo is that everyone, including my niece who was eight at the time, is eating their pizza with a knife and fork, and not with their hands as Americans tend to do. It is common in Dalmatia and the rest of Europe to consume all food with a knife and fork and to deliver the food to the mouth with the fork turned downward, using the knife to cut the food and push it onto the back of the fork. This is in dignified contrast to the seemingly unrefined American way where the fork is often used to scoop up the food, and, even more horrifying, to cut the food itself!

I decided to break from my tradition of ordering one of Pizza&Pasta’s more unusual pizza options and opted for the simple and traditional Napoletana (Naples-style) Pizza Margherita, topped with fresh mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes. Sometimes less is more, especially when travelling and trying a lot of new things.

My husband and I shared a glass of rakija, a traditional Croatian aperitif (pre-dinner drink) made from distilled and fermented fruits. The one we ordered was made from plums, one of the most commonly used fruits in rakija. While we are not avid drinkers of hard liquor, we ordered the drink in honor of my late father-in-law, who was a firm believer in an aperitif before every special dinner. His liquor cabinet was always stocked with a variety of aperitifs, most of which were homemade and gifted to him by friends.

My husband and I also enjoy the bar at Pizza&Pasta for drinks in the evening when we engage in the beloved Dalmatian after-dinner tradition of the “šetnja,” or “stroll” in English. Stay tuned for my next blog post in which I explore the šetnja in detail. The below photos were taken at one of the high top tables in Pizza&Pasta’s bar area. My husband is enjoying a Karlovačko lager from the brewery in the town of Karlovac in north-central Croatia. I am enjoying a glass of rosé. I gravitate toward chilled wines on hot Dalmatian summer nights!

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