Split can feed you well or lazily. Sit down at the first menu on the Riva and you will often pay for the view; walk a few streets farther, slip under Marjan for brunch, or take a narrow lane inside the Palace, and you start finding the places people actually remember afterward.
The best restaurant days in Split are built by mood and timing: a slow brunch in the shade, a healthy late lunch after the beach, then a dinner in Old Town that feels worth dressing up for.
How to eat well in Split
Split is not one single dining scene. Old Town offers classic convenience and atmospheric dinners; the Marjan side serves calmer daytime dining; and smaller side streets often deliver better service and more personality than the busiest central stretches.
A smart approach is to split your meals by time of day. Save the historic core for a long dinner or a relaxed breakfast in a lane with stone walls on both sides, and use the quieter neighborhoods for brunches, bowls, and places where locals actually linger.
Best brunch and daytime restaurants in Split
Kat’s Kitchen is one of the easiest restaurant recommendations in Split because it feels earned. Set under Marjan Hill, a 15 to 20 minute walk from Old Town, it helped pioneer the city’s organic brunch culture, and the terrace alone explains why people happily make the walk.
The menu leans plant-based but not preachy. Vegan pancakes, avocado toast, chickpea omelets, granola bowls, wraps, juices, and smoothies dominate, while the owner’s own organic garden supplies part of the produce — a freshness tied to an actual routine rather than just a branding line.
This is the place to go when you want a slower morning. It closes by late afternoon and is shut on Sundays, so treat it as a brunch destination rather than an all-day fallback.
Address: Ul. Antuna Mihanovića 33, 21000, Split
Feel Green fills the all-day healthy niche. Away from the Old Town crush, it serves bowls, wraps, oat breakfasts, salads, salmon, steak, cold-pressed juices, and vegan cakes — useful when one person wants something light and another wants a more substantial plate.
It is also one of the more flexible options for dietary preferences. Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free choices run through the menu, and the outdoor seating is part of why regulars rate it so highly.
Address: Ul. ban Mladenova 3, 21000, Split
For easygoing local dinners in Split
Roko & Cicibela is the sort of place that works best when you are not in a rush. The restaurant leans into Dalmatian cooking without staging it for tourists, making it a reliable choice for an unhurried evening meal away from the Old Town’s busiest corridors.