How to open a restaurant in Croatia in 2026: permits, costs, the first 90 days.

Opening a restaurant in Croatia takes six steps. The order matters, because a mistake in step two costs rent for every month until it is fixed.

1. Choose a legal form and register the business.
2. Check the documentation of the premises before you sign the lease.
3. Apply for the decision on minimum technical conditions.
4. Prepare the HACCP plan and send staff to the food hygiene course and the sanitary health check.
5. Set up the fiscal POS.
6. Before the first guest, set up recipes, the shift schedule and records.

Most new operators choose a limited liability company (d.o.o.) or a simple limited liability company (j.d.o.o.). A j.d.o.o. needs very low share capital and is quick to set up, but it has limits that matter as the venue grows.

A sole proprietorship (obrt) is an option for a small venue where the owner also works. It is simpler to run, but the owner is liable for its obligations with all personal assets. Decide with an accountant before registering, because changing the form later costs more than one meeting today.

The most expensive mistake of the first year is not staff wages, it is renting premises that cannot get a decision for hospitality use. Before you sign, ask the landlord for the documents you will submit with the application anyway.

• Proof that the building may be used, that is, the occupancy permit.
• A floor plan with areas, heights and a description of the rooms.
• The state of ventilation, electrical and gas installations, with certificates that they are in order.
• Connection to the public sewage system.
• Whether a decision on noise protection measures can be obtained.

Agree when the rent starts

If the documentation of the premises does not fit hospitality use, you will not get the decision until it is fixed, and the rent runs in the meantime. Agree that the rent starts when the decision is issued, or agree a grace period for the first months.

Under the Hospitality Industry Act (Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti, Article 19) an operator may run a hospitality business only after obtaining a decision from the competent administrative body. For a restaurant that is the county's administrative department, or the City of Zagreb. The conditions are set by the Ordinance on the classification and minimum conditions of hospitality establishments in the groups Restaurants, Bars, Catering and Simple service establishments.

For a restaurant the Ordinance requires, among other things, a service area with furniture for longer guest stays, a kitchen, a bar counter and a storage area for food and drinks. The application comes with proof of registration, proof of the right to use the premises, a floor plan, proof that the building may be used, the decision on noise protection measures, certificates for installations and ventilation, and proof of the sewage connection. An on-site inspection usually follows.

Submit the application as soon as you have the premises and the documents, and plan the fit-out so that the inspection finds the premises ready.

Every business that handles food must have procedures based on HACCP principles and keep records appropriate to its size, under Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs. You can write the plan yourself or with a consultant. A plan built with a consultant costs 1,000 to 2,000 EUR, depending on the size of the venue.

Staff who handle food must complete the food hygiene course before they start work, and new staff also pass a sanitary health check for their health certificate. Both are set by the Act on the Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases. The course is renewed every five years, and health checks repeat during employment.

The plan is a document, the records are daily work. In the HACCP module you keep temperatures and checklists on the phone from day one, with the person's name and the time on every record. What inspectors look at during a visit is in our guide HACCP checklist: what inspectors check.

A guest's receipt is issued through the fiscal POS, so it must work from day one. Choose a POS that is compliant with Fiscalization 2.0 and has support during your working hours. A vendor who does not answer at 10 pm on a Friday, when the POS stops, is not a serious option for hospitality.

What changes with Fiscalization 2.0 and who does the update is explained in our guide Fiscalization 2.0 for restaurants.

The ranges depend on the state of the premises and the level of equipment. For a restaurant with 80 seats in Zagreb it looks like this.

Example: a reserve for the first three months

On top of the investment you need a reserve for the months when revenue does not yet cover costs. The simplest rule is a reserve of three months of fixed costs. Example: rent 3,500 EUR, wages 11,500 EUR, utilities 1,600 EUR and other costs 1,400 EUR (bookkeeping, insurance, software) make 18,000 EUR a month, or a 54,000 EUR reserve for three months.

Example: how much revenue you need

At a food cost of 30%, every euro of revenue excluding VAT leaves 0.70 EUR for fixed costs. To cover 18,000 EUR you need 18,000 / 0.70 = about 25,700 EUR of revenue a month, or about 860 EUR a day over 30 working days. With an average receipt of 18 EUR excluding VAT that is 48 receipts a day.

The same calculation shows why food cost is tracked from week one. On 25,700 EUR of revenue every percentage point of food cost is 257 EUR a month. How food cost is calculated per dish is in our guide Recipes for dishes: how to build them.

The first month tests the real systems: the shift schedule, ordering, cleaning, the opening and closing routine. The goal is not profit, it is to see what works in your premises and what does not.

The second month is optimization. Food cost is measured weekly, the menu is trimmed of dishes that do not sell, and the schedule follows revenue per shift. In the food cost module the margin of every dish follows purchase prices, and with shift scheduling staff see their shifts on their phones, with swaps in two taps.

The third month tests the model. The numbers show whether revenue covers the costs from the calculation above, where the losses are and where margin can grow without lower quality. If the numbers are close to plan, the model works. If not, make structural changes now, while the reserve still exists.

Systems before the first guest

Recipes, the schedule and records are easiest to set up before opening, while it is still quiet. Papoy brought in Patrono right after trading started and the whole setup fit into a single day, and the Papoy case study shows what daily work looks like after that.

If you are opening a venue, create an account before your first guest. Setup is 0 EUR, and scheduling, checklists and HACCP records work straight away.