Sushi in Zadar: Where to Eat It and What to Order

Where to eat sushi in Zadar: the short answer

Book Maguro if you want the full performance: a dedicated sushi bar with nigiri sold by the piece, rolls by count and sashimi by weight, plus ramen and poke for anyone at the table who would rather not eat raw fish. Our guide to Cheap Eats in Zadar covers the lower-cost options when the budget is tighter. Choose NOMU sushi & wine if you want a sushi meal with wine alongside.

Sushi in Zadar is a short list rather than a scene. If sushi is the reason for the evening, decide the venue first and build the rest of the day around it, and treat it as a dinner plan rather than a spur-of-the-moment stop.

Maguro Restaurant & Sushi Bar: the Borreli ulica address and full sushi bar

Maguro sits at Borreli ulica 10 in Zadar, and the reservation line published on its site is +385 23 313 870. The menu is long for a city this size: cold starters, soups and ramen, mains, fish and meat plates, vegetarian dishes, poke bowls and a separate sushi bar list. That breadth makes it the easiest Zadar sushi address for a mixed group, because nobody is stuck with raw fish if they do not want it.

The sushi bar is built from formats rather than a set menu, so you build a meal from nigiri, uramaki, hosomaki, futomaki and sashimi. That structure rewards a little arithmetic: a few pieces of nigiri, one roll to share and a bowl of sashimi makes a generous meal for two without pushing into the priciest plates on the list.

What to order at Maguro: nigiri, sashimi and uramaki

Nigiri is priced per single piece, which makes it the clearest way to control the bill: tuna at 4,95€ sits above salmon, seabass and hamachi at 4,50€. Order two or three pieces each to start and add more once you see the size of the cut.

Sashimi is sold by 100g, with tuna maguro and otoro, salmon, hamachi and white fish listed, plus a mixed plate at the same level as the single-fish portions. Uramaki come four to a portion and hosomaki six, which is worth knowing before you order three rolls for two people and end up with a table full of rice. The Philadelphia, tuna avocado and Maguro rolls are the ones to weigh against a mixed sashimi plate if you want fish rather than rice.

For a first course with more punch, the tuna tataki and tuna tartare both appear as cold starters, and the tuna steak with black sesame, crispy rice and coriander mayonnaise is the most expensive plate on the menu at 26,90€. Order it as a shared centrepiece rather than a solo main.

Poke bowls and cooked Asian plates at Maguro

Poke bowls at Maguro are not garnishes but full meals: a Hawaiian bowl with tuna, prawns, avocado and spicy dressing, a salmon version on sushi rice, and a vegetarian bowl with smoked tofu and wasabi mayonnaise. They suit a lunch stop or a lighter dinner, and they sit at a mid-menu price rather than the top of it.

Cooked dishes give the non-sushi half of the table something substantial: ramen with pork belly, miso chicken and a ramen egg, pad thai with chicken or prawns, green curry, katsu chicken and Korean fried chicken. Vegetarian dan dan noodles and vegetable gyoza keep the meat-free side covered. A shared bowl of edamame or a round of gyoza is the sensible way to open the meal while the sushi order is decided.

NOMU sushi & wine: a sushi and wine restaurant in Zadar

NOMU sushi & wine is the second name to know in Zadar, a sushi and wine restaurant for an evening where a bottle matters alongside the rolls. Ask how the rolls are portioned before ordering, since a wine-led sushi menu usually rewards sharing.

How a Zadar sushi meal compares with a konoba dinner

A konoba dinner in Zadar is built around grilled fish priced by the kilo, blitva with potatoes and a carafe of local wine, and it is the more modest way to eat fish. Sushi buys precision and variety — many small pieces, several fish types, cooked options for the whole table — where the konoba buys simplicity and a single large fish. Neither is the more authentic choice; they answer different appetites.

If the group splits, settle on a fallback before anyone commits to a table, and choose a venue by cuisine rather than by view. A steak house covers anyone who wants a plate of meat rather than rice, and our guide to steak Zadar sets out the options for the night the sushi order loses the vote.

Burgers and pizza are the other easy compromises when one person at the table is fish-shy. Our round-up of the best burger in Zadar lists the burger spots around town, and the best pizza in Zadar covers the cheaper fallback for the sushi sceptics. Settling the cuisine before the venue saves an hour of debate.

Booking and price level in high season

Sushi sits high in Zadar's price range rather than at its middle: at Maguro, starters sit in the single figures, nigiri is sold per piece, uramaki portions are available, and sashimi is sold per 100g, so two people sharing sashimi, a few nigiri and one cooked main adds up quickly. Budget for it as the main meal of the day rather than an add-on.

Maguro lists a reservation line on +385 23 313 870, and reserving ahead is sensible in high season, when Zadar fills with visitors and sushi counters are small. An early sitting gives you more room to linger.

Sushi night or konoba night?

Pick Maguro for a full sushi bar with cooked plates alongside, and NOMU for a sushi meal with wine. If the group wants grilled fish and blitva, a konoba is the better Zadar evening.

Either way, reserve in high season, order sashimi and nigiri before the rolls, and keep one cooked dish on the table for the sceptics.