Our restaurant is not a classic Thai place. We keep some dishes and pizzas inherited from the old Lira, but our offering is authentic. The cooks are from Thailand, and we have a fairly broad list of Thai dishes. In time there will be even more, says Jura Doncic, who together with his wife Yada, a Thai national, has run the restaurant Thai Me Up by Lira in central Zagreb, at Teslina 5, since the start of this year. They met while working on cruise ships, sailing the world’s seas. For a while they settled in Bangkok, where their now grown children still live, and life later brought them to Zagreb, where in their own way they strive to elevate the dining scene. Jura jokes that their life, too, is a kind of fusion, much like the food they prepare. 
Yada and Jura took up the challenge of Renata Cisar and Mustafa Topcagic, organisers of the Vino uz Zlicu events, to pair Thai dishes with selected Croatian wines. The evening opened with fruit brandies and liqueurs from Destilerija Skender in Kondric near Djakovo. David Skender presented his Sljivovica (plum brandy), Williams pear brandy, sour-cherry and apple brandies, plus honey brandy and walnut, sour-cherry, elderflower, hazelnut and strawberry liqueurs. The Skender family originally grew hazelnuts and today also cultivates plums, sour cherries and pears. The new label design, inspired by the golden Djakovo embroidery, evokes the beauty and abundance of Slavonia.
The dishes were further enriched by extra virgin olive oils from the Vias Oliveti brand of Vilma and David Brcic from Vizinada in Istria. They tend 3,500 olive trees across the Porec area, in Kastelir and Vizinada. David Brcic presented the single-variety oils Buza, Istarska bjelica, Frantoio, Pendolino and Leccino, plus a Premium Blend. Produced by cold pressing, they have won awards in New York, Berlin and Novi Sad. Guests tasted them with fine homemade bread rolls. 
The wine portion opened with the Rose brut sparkling wine of the family winery B. Jakobovic from Vetovo in the Kutjevo vineyard district. The Jakobovic family has worked with wine for a full century, and the modern winery was founded some twenty years ago by Branko Jakobovic. The business was joined by his sons Filip, who runs the winery, Nino as head cellarman, and daughter Maja in charge of marketing. In bottle they hold Grasevina, Rajnski rizling (Rhine Riesling), Pinot sivi, Chardonnay, Muskat zuti, Cuvee Vetovo, Pinot crni, Cabernet sauvignon, Cuvee Stari bokter, Rose and a select-berry harvest of Grasevina. The sparkler was made by the traditional method from Rajnski rizling (50 percent), Chardonnay and Frankovka, produced in a limited run of 2,500 bottles from the 2020 harvest. It was served with crispy spring rolls filled with glass noodles, cabbage, carrot and mushrooms and pieces of chicken.
Tom kha, a mild soup of coconut milk with chicken, Thai herbs and mushrooms, was accompanied by the white blend R5 of the Bibich winery from Plastovo near Skradin. It is made from Debit, Marastina, Posip, Chardonnay and Pinot sivi in roughly equal proportions. The grapes come from the finest sites, and the wine is made by partial maceration and cold fermentation. Full-bodied, finely balanced and rounded, it shows aromas of butter and almond, with notes of vanilla, toast and Mediterranean herbs on the finish. Bibich is a boutique winery whose family winemaking roots reach back to the 15th century. 
From Belje, one of our largest wineries, and hot on the heels of its premiere in Osijek, the wine Savoj Orange 2023 arrived at the Zagreb Thai restaurant. Lukica Martic, Belje’s sales representative, noted that it is a lightly macerated blend of four varieties: Grasevina, Chardonnay, Pinot sivi and Pinot bijeli. Amber in colour and richly bodied, it was raised in stainless steel and then in oak barrels. The wine won a gold medal at the prestigious Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. It proved a good match for prawns seared in a rich curry sauce with peppers, onion and spring onion.
Next came pad thai: fried rice noodles in sauce with egg, tofu, pieces of pork and vegetables, finished with ground peanuts. Jura Doncic recommended a rose, and the choice fell on Vislander Rose 2024. Journalists and bloggers declared this food-and-wine pairing the most successful of all and asked for seconds. Sanda Vojkovic of the Vislander winery said their Rose had been an experiment that the market embraced extremely well. It is made from Plavac Mali, cut with 10 percent Kuc, a rare white Dalmatian variety that lends a gently measured acidity.
The convivial gathering was sweetened with the exotic dessert mango sticky rice of rice, sweet coconut milk, mango and ice cream. It found a superb partner in the wine Cuvee blanc Angelica 2024 of the Erdut winery K55. It is an off-dry blend of Traminac (60 percent) and Muskat zuti, from grapes grown on the Aljmas mountain site. K55 was formerly known as the Janecic winery, and the couple Ivana and Krunoslav Dugalic, both agronomists and holders of doctorates in biotechnical sciences, took it over in early 2023. They produce around 20,000 bottles. Among the eight varieties they grow across four hectares, in a 105-year-old vineyard, they also keep the nearly forgotten Kadarka, once the favourite wine of the Slavonian gentry. 
Text: FAMA / Photographs: Julio Frangen
29.10.2025.
