# Gallo izbornik: what the menu tells you
The menu at Gallo is one page. Not because there is nothing to cook, because there is nothing unnecessary on it. Eight categories. Seasonal fish. Hand-rolled pasta. A rooster dish named after the restaurant itself. If you have been searching for the Gallo izbornik before your visit, here is what you will find when you sit down in the Castellum courtyard on Hebrangova.
The kitchen is open. That is not an accident.
You see the kitchen from your seat. The counter is visible from the sala. This is not a design choice made in a mood board meeting. It is a statement about how the food is made.
Pasta is rolled by hand every day. You can see it happen, or you can take it on faith. Either way, the tagliatelle arrives with the texture that only comes from a wooden pin and someone who knows what they are doing. The fuži with truffles, black or white depending on the season, comes from the same counter.
Fish is not kept in a box and listed on a laminated card from three weeks ago. The Adriatic catch varies. Škarpina, kovač, brancin, orada. What is on the menu today is what arrived today.
Pasta rolled by hand. Fish from the Adriatic. A kitchen you can watch. That is the izbornik in three lines.
Category by category: what to expect
The menu opens with cold starters (hladna predjela) in the 15 to 25 € range. Octopus appears here, and so does salata. Soups (juhe) run from 9 to 12 €, short and seasonal.
Warm starters (topla predjela) sit at 24 to 26 €, with scallops (kapice) priced individually at 10 € per piece. This is where the kitchen shows restraint: four dishes, each with a reason to exist.
Pasta runs from 26 to 35 €. Four dishes. Fuži, tagliatelle, pappardelle, agnolotti. The pairing changes with the season, truffles in autumn and winter, asparagus in spring.
Plodovi mora (seafood) is the widest category: eight dishes, 35 to 125 € per kilogram for whole fish. The gregada (Dalmatian fish stew) is priced at 125 €/kg and is the most demanding item on the list, slow, layered, not for anyone in a hurry.
Ikejime fish appears at 85 €/kg. The technique is Japanese: the fish is killed precisely at the moment of catch to stop the stress hormones from tightening the muscle. The result is a cleaner, softer flesh. You do not need to know the word to notice the difference.
Meat (meso) is three dishes: the signature pjetlić, an ossobuco, and a biftek with gratin at 42 €. Desserts are six, priced at 8 to 11 €: panna cotta, tiramisù, semifreddo, crostata di mele, and sladoled.
Pjetlić s mlincima: the dish that names the restaurant
Gallo means rooster in Italian. The restaurant has been at this address since 2002. Somewhere in those twenty-three years, the decision was made to put the rooster on the menu not as a curiosity but as the dish that explains what this place is.
Pjetlić s mlincima (Gallo con mlinci) costs 35 €. Mlinci are dried pasta sheets, originally from central Croatia and Slavonia, pressed thin and then dried. They are rehydrated in the cooking liquid of the bird. The result is a plate that sits between Italian and Croatian without apologising to either.
The Tomlinović family, who took over the house in October 2025, kept this dish. They kept the address. They kept the courtyard. The menu changed where it needed to and stayed where it did not. That is the logic of a place that has been open since 2002.
The wine list runs parallel to the food
The wine card at Gallo holds 85 labels across 11 categories. Seventeen are available by the glass (0.125 l). Prices by the bottle run from 29 € (Ego Babić Fjaka) to 690 € (Dom Pérignon Rosé).
Croatian regions are well represented: Dalmacija, Istra, Slavonija, Bregovita Hrvatska. Producers like Tomac, Galić, Krauthaker, Saints Hills, Coronica, Kozlović, and Matošević appear on the list. French and Italian bottles sit alongside them, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, Tuscany, Piedmont.
The sommelier matches the glass to the fish or the pasta without a speech. If you want the explanation, ask. If you want the wine, it arrives.
What the menu does not say
A short menu is a decision made under pressure. Every dish that stays is one that someone defended. Every dish that left made room for something better placed.
The Gallo izbornik does not list every possible variation. It does not offer a tasting menu with fourteen courses and a printed narrative. It does not have a section for dietary lifestyles. What it has is coherence: Mediterranean fish, Italian pasta technique, Croatian tradition in one dish, and a wine list that takes the food seriously.
The courtyard in Castellum is hidden from Hebrangova. You walk through a gate. The sala inside is brick and wood. The kitchen is visible. The menu is one page. These are not coincidences. They are the same decision made in different materials.
Gallo has been at this address since 2002. Twenty-three years is long enough to remove everything that does not belong.
— Frequently asked —
- What categories are on the Gallo izbornik?
- The menu has eight categories: cold starters, soups, warm starters, pasta, seafood, meat, sides, and desserts. Each category is short, four to eight dishes, with prices ranging from 6 € for a salad to 125 €/kg for whole fresh fish.
- How much does pasta cost at Gallo?
- Pasta dishes run from 26 to 35 €. All pasta is hand-rolled in the kitchen each day. The menu includes fuži, tagliatelle, pappardelle, and agnolotti, paired with seasonal ingredients like truffles or asparagus.
- What is Pjetlić s mlincima?
- It is the signature dish of Gallo, priced at 35 €. Pjetlić means rooster, and gallo means the same in Italian, the dish is a direct reference to the restaurant's name. It combines slow-cooked rooster with mlinci, dried pasta sheets from central Croatian tradition.
- Is the fish on the Gallo menu fresh?
- Yes. The fish changes based on what arrived from the Adriatic that day. Škarpina, kovač, brancin, and orada appear regularly, but the selection varies. The menu reflects what is available, not what was ordered in bulk.
- What is ikejime fish and why does Gallo serve it?
- Ikejime is a Japanese technique of precisely killing fish at the moment of catch to prevent stress hormones from affecting the meat. The result is a cleaner, softer texture. Gallo lists it at 85 €/kg.
- Does Gallo have a tasting menu?
- No. Gallo serves an à la carte menu. The philosophy is a short, coherent list rather than a long fixed-course format. You choose from eight categories and the kitchen cooks each dish to order.
- How many wines does Gallo have?
- The wine card holds 85 labels across 11 categories, with 17 available by the glass. Croatian producers from Dalmacija, Istra, and Slavonija are well represented alongside French, Italian, and Slovenian bottles.
- Is Gallo open on Sundays?
- No. Gallo is open Monday to Saturday, 12:00 to 24:00, with the kitchen serving until 22:00. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.