360° by Jeffrey Vella (Dubrovnik, CROATIA) ★★★☆☆

Jeffrey Vella is the man behind 360°, the latest addition to Dubrovnik's culinary scene. For those familiar with fine dining in Croatia, they should be no stranger to Chef Vella, who has worked as the Executive Chef at the prestigious Regent Esplanade Zagreb starting in 2008.

But even before then, the Malta-borned chef has already cultivated his cooking techniques after extensive stints in famous hotel chains in Malta, Italy, UAE, Jordan, and Slovenia.  During those years, he got to work with some of the biggest names in the business including Alain Ducasse and Heston Blumenthal.

The most amazing feature of 360° by Jeffrey Vella has to be the view. The restaurant is housed in a fortress-like environment with the main dining room and bar set deep into the city walls of the Dubrovnik Old Town while the outdoor terraces stretched out to embrace the beautiful harbour. 

The first thing we noticed was the service put on display by the team here. Even the dropping of a fork did not go unnoticed (despite that our waiter was miles away) and it was replaced in a matter of seconds.

Seared scallops, 4/10
Vella's cooking philosophy has always been to preserve the natural taste of ingredients and it was quite evident here with our first dish (and the next 2).

Thin slices of seared scallops were served with apple carpaccio, young spinach and shoots. It was refreshing but no element of surprise at all.  

Tuna Tartar, 4.5/10

Following the scallops was a Japanese influenced tuna tartar which was dipped in a wasabi soy sauce and served with warm tomato focaccia and herb extract. Like the previous starter, the presentation was quite attractive but unfortunately the seasoning was way too overpowering on the tuna cubes.

Adriatic langoustines, 5.5/10
Almost a carbon copy of the scallop dish but scallops were replaced by Adriatic langoustines instead.

Lightly smoked langoustines, about half of the size of my little finger, were served with young leeks, lemon caviar and egg yolk carpaccio.

I thought using egg yolk to go with the langoustines was clever but there was a genuine lack of cooking techniques being shown from all three dishes so far.  They all looked strikingly similar.

The Croatia classic, 5/10
Finally a dish with a little bit of cooking involved. They called this the "Croatia classic".

It's a 72-hour slow-cooked beef shank done 2 ways. One piece of beef shank was smoked while the other roasted. Adding a bit of horseradish film helped to slightly enrich the flavor.

The harbour view of 360° was magnificent but the food was a bit off-the-mark (and a little pretentious). However, considering this is one of the very few fine dining options in town, perhaps it's still worthwhile to take a chance.




Food Rating: 5/10

Price: €€€€

Address: Svetog Dominika BB, 20 000 Dubrovnik, Croatia
Tel: +385 20 322 222
Website: www.360dubrovnik.com

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