Breakfast in Pula is not a plate of eggs. It is coffee, and if you are hungry, a pastry, and the two are treated as separate events. The Croatian macchiato is a small coffee taken slowly, and sitting with one for an hour is a normal way to spend a morning, not a waste of one. The wider eating picture is in the where to eat guide.
Coffee first
Order a macchiato and you get a small cup, a glass of water, and no pressure to leave. On the Forum or along the Giardini promenade you will see the same people at the same table every day, because the cafe is the living room. Prices on the square are the highest in the city; step one street back and they drop. The coffee is the same.
The bakery burek
For something to eat with the coffee, the bakery is the move. Burek, the flaky pastry coiled around meat or cheese, is the standard breakfast on the go, sold warm from the window and eaten standing up. Sweet versions, strudels and kifli, sit beside them. A burek and a macchiato is a real Pula breakfast and costs little.
Where to sit
The Forum is the obvious spot, and it is worth one morning for the Roman frame, but the side streets behind it and the harbour front have quieter tables. In summer the shade matters, so pick a spot under the awnings by late morning. The drawback is the square’s prices and the tourist shuffle; the back-street cafes are calmer and cheaper.
What hotels do differently
If you want a cooked breakfast, the hotels serve it, most cafes will not. A hotel buffet in Pula is the place to get eggs, fruit and yoghurt; out in the city you are on coffee and pastry. So the breakfast you picture from home is a hotel thing here, and the local thing is the macchiato. If you are self catering, the market hall and the bakeries cover the rest.
