Restaurant La Riva

Had a family dinner here with kids. The service itself from beginning was fast, friendly and efficient. The food was average, not a bad experience, but nothing exceptional. My only remark would be about risotto with seafood - it has crab sticks inside, which is quite strange considering the availability of fresh products. The prices are corresponding the location and not outrageous.

Me and my girlfriend came here without looking this restaurant up, only but regretting we would have. She ordered a squid to only find sand inside. We got no apology and had to force them not to charge us, also received plenty of dirty looks from the staff.

Picked the place for lunch by coincidence and started to worry after reading the ratings. But we already ordered by the time I read them, so we took our chances. Our worries were baseless, the service was professional and quick, the food was excellent, and it was served very fast. No complaints.

We sat down at this restaurant only to check the reviews then. Well, we didn't want to move so we stayed. The waiter overheard us commenting the bad reviews and said that they were new restaurant, that those reviews are old. Ok, we hoped that was the case. After some time of waiting we got our food. Kids ate fried chicken and fries. Adults ordered lasagne, pizza and filled and grilled calamari. Lasagne were good but the portion was miniature. The squid were ok but I did notice sand in them like other reviewers said. Not much but that is not something you should get in a restaurant. Waiter said the squid are filled with rice and some other ingredients I can't remember now, but all I found in them was cheese. Side dish with the squid was great. Croatian cooked chard and potatoes. Very delicious. Also if you are very hungry don't order this dish because the portion is also too small for adults. The pictures in the menu are very accurate so basically WYSIWYG. Didn't try pizza and nobody complained so I guess it was ok. All in all - a mediocre meal in the center of Rovinj with high prices. Would of given 3 stars but when we got home and looked at the bill we saw that they charged us a meal we didn't eat. They switched it with that fried chicken we ordered for the kids. And of course that meal was more expensive than what we ordered for the kids. Could of been an honest mistake but still - watch out what the bill says when you are paying.

My squid was full of sand. When asking why I was told “because they come from the sea”. I’m a local and I have never had this much sand in my food. This is not due to the sea, it is due to poor cleaning of the squid. I wasn’t even given a compensation or discount but had to say I will not pay for the squid, however, was charged the full price for the rest and didn’t even get an apology. Just avoid this place please.