Split is a city where people still live inside a Roman emperor’s palace. Diocletian built it around 300 AD as his retirement home, and today its walls hold apartments, bars, washing lines and three of the best vegan kitchens on the Dalmatian coast, including a bistro inside a 17th-century palace of its own.
This is a small list, and a good one: pancakes worth getting up for, truffle pasta in a stone courtyard, a crispy tofu sandwich people cross town for, and vegan pistachio gelato with a queue outside. For more cities, have a look at my other city guides.
Vegan Split at a Glance
- Best breakfast: the pancakes at Pandora GreenBox
- Best dinner: truffle mushroom pasta at Barakokula, open 8AM to midnight every day
- Best lunch: the crispy tofu sandwich at VEG
- Biggest plate: the protein meal at Upcafe
- With non-vegan friends: Feel Green, a couple of minutes from the Riva
- Best gelato: vegan pistachio at Gelateria Emiliana
- The local dish to find: soparnik, a Dalmatian chard pie that is vegan by definition
Best Vegan Restaurants in Split
1. Pandora GreenBox: The Pancakes to Get Up For Vegan
Order the pancakes. They come in chocolate or berry, and people who eat a lot of vegan breakfasts call them some of the best they have had in a restaurant. There are açai bowls, cold-pressed juices and homemade iced teas at breakfast too, and later in the day the menu turns to burgers, pasta and hummus plates.
It is a green, plant-filled café near the Green Market, a minute from the walls of Diocletian’s Palace, and much of what goes into the food comes from the local farmers’ markets. Everything is vegan, so order anything.
💡 Tip: Open from 9AM. Book for dinner, because it is small and fills up, and message them on Instagram if you want to check the hours on the day.
📍 Obrov 4, 21000 Split | ☎️ +385 21 236 120 | 📸 @pandora_greenbox
2. Barakokula: Truffle Pasta Inside Cindro Palace Vegan
The truffle mushroom pasta with vegan parmesan is the dish everyone comes back for: rich, earthy and with a proper chew to the pasta. The other one to order is the Sexy Tofu, crispy tofu with sweet potato, and the cocktails are good enough to make an evening of it.
Barakokula sits inside Cindro Palace, a 17th-century palace in the old town, and the stone walls and courtyard make it the most beautiful place to eat vegan in Split. The cooking is Mediterranean and entirely plant-based. It is where I would book for a special dinner.
💡 Tip: Open 8AM to midnight every day, which makes it the one to remember in winter, when a lot of Split shuts early. Book for dinner in summer.
📍 Ul. kralja Petra Krešimira IV 3, 21000 Split | Cindro Palace, old town | ☎️ +385 98 448 476 | 🌐 barakokula-plant-based.eatbu.com | 📸 @barakokula_st
3. VEG: The Crispy Tofu Sandwich Vegan
The crispy tofu sandwich is the thing to order, and plenty of people call it the best sandwich in Split. After that, the Game Changer bowl with tempeh, grains and sweet potato, or a sushi burrito. There is a whole raw menu too, and the raw cakes are worth leaving room for.
VEG is fully vegan, relaxed and good value, with a lot of gluten-free options, and it opens early, so it works for breakfast, lunch or a quick dinner between the palace and the beach.
💡 Tip: Open 10AM to 10PM all year and 8AM to midnight in summer. Get a raw cake to take away for later.
📍 Ujevićeva poljana 5, 21000 Split | ☎️ +385 99 3444 648 | 📸 @veg_st
4. Upcafe: Big Plates and Raw Cakes Vegetarian
Order the protein meal, a big plate of tofu, seitan and tempeh with sides, and one of the best-value lunches in town. The falafel plate is the other favourite, though it is not on every day. Breakfast runs to chia pudding with berries, and the cabinet of raw cakes and gluten-free desserts is the reason to come back in the afternoon.
Upcafe opened in 2011 and it is a deli-style vegetarian café, with the vegan dishes marked (V) and a lot of them gluten-free too. There are two branches in the city, the original and Upcafe Kraj Dalme.
💡 Tip: It is vegetarian, so order from the dishes marked (V). The falafel is not available on Saturdays.
📍 Domovinskog rata 29a, 21000 Split | ☎️ +385 95 3667 251 | 📸 @upcafe.split
5. Feel Green: Vegan Pancakes by the Riva
The vegan pancakes are why people come here twice. Three of them is a filling breakfast, and the fresh juices are excellent. It is a small family-run restaurant two minutes from the Riva, the palm-lined promenade along the harbour, and it stays open until 11PM.
Feel Green serves meat and fish too, including beef burgers, tuna steak and grilled salmon, so this is the one to take a non-vegan friend to. The plant-based half of the menu is clearly separate and the kitchen knows it well.
💡 Tip: Order from the plant-based side of the menu. It gets busy at breakfast in summer and service can be slow, so do not come in a hurry.
📍 Ban Mladenova 3, 21000 Split | ☎️ +385 95 196 3306 | 🌐 feelgreen.hr | 📸 @feel_green_split
6. Gelateria Emiliana: Vegan Pistachio Gelato
Get the vegan pistachio. The vegan gelato is clearly labelled and usually runs to pistachio, hazelnut, chocolate and vanilla, and the pistachio is the one people rave about. The gluten-free cone is vegan too.
It is a family-run gelateria making Italian-style gelato in small batches since 2019, a short walk from the palace and the seafront. There is nearly always a queue, and it moves quickly.
💡 Tip: Open 10AM to 10PM every day. Pistura 1 is the only official location. Take your cone down to the Riva.
📍 Pistura 1, 21000 Split | ☎️ +385 98 9311 002 | 🌐 gelateriaemiliana2019.com | 📸 @gelateriaemiliana2019
Picigin, Marjan and a Palace People Live In
Diocletian’s Palace is a neighbourhood, and people still live inside its walls. Walk in through the bronze gate from the Riva and you are in the old cellars, then up into the Peristyle, the colonnaded square where the emperor used to appear to his subjects, with people drinking coffee on the steps.
On Bačvice beach, a few minutes east of the old town, you will see people standing waist-deep in the shallows hitting a small ball to each other with the flat of their hand and diving to keep it off the water. That is picigin, and Split considers it a sport. Nobody keeps score.
For the view, walk up Marjan, the pine-covered hill at the west end of town. The steps from Varoš take about 20 minutes to the first viewpoint, where the whole city and the islands of Brač and Šolta are laid out below you.
Vegan Split: What to Know Before You Go
- Hours follow the season. Everything runs longer in summer and shorter from November to March, so message ahead in winter. Barakokula keeps the same long hours all year.
- Look for soparnik. It is a thin pie of chard, onion and garlic baked under embers and brushed with olive oil, and the traditional recipe is entirely vegan. Blitva, chard and potato with olive oil and garlic, is the everyday side that is vegan too.
- Watch the doughnuts and the peka. Fritule, the little festival doughnuts, contain egg, and a vegetable peka, the dish slow-cooked under a domed lid, is usually cooked under the meat.
- Everything is walkable. The whole list is within about 15 minutes on foot of the palace.
- Carrying on? Ljubljana is about four hours inland, Venice is across the Adriatic, and Budapest is the next stop into Central Europe.
When to Visit Split
June and September are the sweet spot: the sea is warm, every restaurant is running summer hours, and the old town is not yet or no longer packed. July and August are hot and very busy. In winter the city is quiet and lovely, but go knowing some places shorten their hours or close for a few weeks.
Vegan Split FAQ
Is Split good for vegans?
Yes, for a city its size. Pandora GreenBox, Barakokula and VEG are all fully vegan and all within a few minutes of Diocletian’s Palace.
Where can I get vegan pancakes in Split?
At Pandora GreenBox, in chocolate or berry, and at Feel Green by the Riva.
What is the best vegan restaurant in Split?
Barakokula, inside Cindro Palace in the old town. Order the truffle mushroom pasta with vegan parmesan.
Where can I eat vegan late in Split?
Barakokula is open until midnight every day, and VEG stays open until midnight in summer.
Is Upcafe vegan?
It is vegetarian. Upcafe marks its vegan dishes with a (V), and the protein meal and raw cakes are the ones to order.
Is there vegan gelato in Split?
Yes. Gelateria Emiliana labels its vegan flavours, usually pistachio, hazelnut, chocolate and vanilla, and the gluten-free cone is vegan too.
Is soparnik vegan?
Traditionally, yes. Soparnik is a Dalmatian pie of chard, onion and garlic between two thin sheets of dough, brushed with olive oil, with no dairy or egg.