What do you do if you see a restaurant that’s empty of customers? Can’t be much good, can it, if no one’s eating in it? So you walk on past. I’d have missed a treat, twice, if I’d done that in Dubrovnik (above) at the weekend.

First, there was Wanda – on Prijeko, parallel to the main street of Stradun – where my wife and I went for lunch. Not another soul about, inside or out. But we stayed, because we had read good reviews – which I’ll be endorsing a bit later in a piece for the Telegraph. Then, round the corner, there was Dubrovacki Kantun. Again it had been well reviewed, but when we went in at lunchtime to book a table for the evening there was only one couple eating there.

Yet other restaurants on Prijeko – not a patch on these two – were busy in comparison. Why? Was it because they had barkers wandering up and down waving their menu? Was it because tourists, however much they profess to hate tripping up over other tourists, feel safer eating in crowds?