Croatians do not really eat breakfast. They drink it. The morning ritual is a coffee that lasts an hour — black, no rush, sometimes with a cigarette, almost never with a plate of eggs. Anything more substantial usually comes from a bakery counter on the walk between home and work.
This is changing, slowly. A few brunch spots have appeared. A few cafés have started serving sourdough and avocado. The classic ones are still around, doing what they have always done. Here is the local map — from the working person’s burek to the photographers’ brunch.
The pekara round — burek, krafne, štrukli
The Croatian bakery (pekara) is the cheapest, most honest breakfast in town. Open at 06:00, busiest at 08:00, picked clean by 11:00. The classic order is a slice of burek (filo pastry filled with meat, cheese, or spinach) and a yogurt to drink it down. In the morning add a krafna — a Croatian doughnut, usually filled with jam or vanilla cream.
You will see Pekara Bobis branches across the city — the working person’s chain, fast, reliable, three euros gets you breakfast and walking lunch. Pekara Marina, just north of the Palace, has the best burek consensus locally. Skip anything that calls itself a “Croatian bakery” on the Riva — those exist for tourists; the real ones are tucked into residential streets.
Kruščić — sourdough and the good pastries
Just north of the Pjaca, Kruščić is what happens when a young Split baker spends time in Copenhagen. Sourdough loaves, croissants that flake properly, focaccia with rosemary and sea salt, a small selection of pastries that change by the day. Counter seating only, but two minutes from our Palace apartments if you want to bring it home.
Get there before 10:00 — the good things are gone by lunch.
Mazzgoon — the brunch the photographers come for
If you came to Split with a craving for avocado toast, eggs benedict, or a pretty bowl of açaí, Mazzgoon is your spot. Just off the Pjaca, all white walls and good lighting, a brunch menu that runs until 14:00. Strong flat whites, fresh juices, a small terrace if you arrive before the crowd.
It is the most “out of Split” feeling place on this list. That is either a feature or a bug, depending on how much you came here to feel like you are somewhere else.
Bajamonti — Riva-side, with view
The grand café on Trg Republike, just off the western end of the Riva. Marble floors, brass fittings, white tablecloths in the morning. Breakfast plates are competent — eggs, cured meats, fresh juice — and the view of the square is worth the price tag, which is roughly double the local average. Locals come for the coffee and the people-watching, not the food, but for one tourist breakfast in Split, this is a reasonable splurge.
The Pazar route — fruit market and morning walk
Skip restaurants entirely. Walk east from the Palace to the Pazar — the open-air green market that has been here for a century. Buy a bag of figs, a handful of cherries (in season), a wedge of cheese from a stall holder who probably made it. Add a fresh burek from any of the bakeries nearby, walk to the seafront, eat on a bench.
This is what Croatians have done for generations and it is still the best breakfast in town if the weather is good. Total cost: around six euros. Total experience: significantly higher.
D16 Coffee — third wave, with a pastry
For coffee people, D16 is the Split standard. Single-origin pour-over, properly trained baristas, a small selection of pastries on the counter. Not a real breakfast spot but a real coffee one — and if you are the kind of traveller who needs a flat white with character before facing the day, this is the place. Closer to the Palace’s silver gate than the Pjaca.
See our Split coffee guide for the rest of the third-wave map.
A word on what locals actually eat in the morning
If you ask a Splitter what they had for breakfast yesterday, the honest answer is usually: coffee, and maybe nothing else until 11:00. Maybe a piece of bread with prosciutto or cheese at home. Maybe a krafna picked up between two errands. The “big breakfast” concept is mostly imported, mostly hotel-shaped.
You can absolutely sit down for eggs and pancakes here. The point is not to expect it as the default. Match the rhythm — coffee first, food when hungry — and Split’s mornings open up in a way that a 09:00 buffet never quite does.
Staying with us? All four Sika apartments are within a five-minute walk of at least one bakery and one café on this list. Coffee in your kitchen, burek on the corner, the Adriatic in the middle distance — Split mornings are at their best the slower you take them.