Mala Hiza

A nineteenth-century oak farmhouse, dismantled and rebuilt inside an old orchard, is now a warm, romantic family restaurant in the Međimurje countryside. The kitchen follows the seasons and leans hard into the region: filled pastas, slow-cooked meats, and the layered cheese-and-pumpkin cake called gibanica that turns up at the end of most meals here. Local wines fill the list. The kind of place that makes you want to drive into rural Croatia more often.

One honor, in evidence: