Restaurants close to Plitvice Lakes National Park

Just south of the park there's something like a town but not much there. As I recall, the place that rents ski equipment also has a little pizza place. (It's obvious, there's a sign out or something.) I assume it's still there - that was 2015, who knows now?

I drove to Plitvice on one of my visits coming from Bosnia. I visited Una national park (very different than Plitvice - in 2015 at least, it was very rugged and undeveloped with some unpaved roads, but the falls were amazing) and the nearby town of Bihać before crossing the border into Croatia, close to Plitvice. I'm not sure how long the border crossings would take now, since that's an EU/Schengen border crossing now which it wasn't in 2015. Otherwise, it's very doable as a day trip if you have the time.

Bistro Vucnica. It is in the small town just off the road south of the park. It is a pizza place, but they have other things. We went there twice. They had the best pizza we had in a month of traveling Croatia, and the pizza is equal to any we have had in Italy, or anywhere. They make everything there.
The staff is very nice. You can look out over the small ski slope that goes up from the restaurant window.
Prices are so much cheaper than in Dubrovnik or Split. Almost another world.

Yes, that's the place I was talking about.

Do you mean ventured to Bosnia specifically from Plitvice? I did an overnight in Mostar in 2021 from Dubrovnik (quite a few people here have done an overnight there), then on to Zadar. It was enough to send me back for another 2 weeks this coming September.

It was years ago, but I think Plitvice Park itself has a (advance reservation only) restaurant that serves trout from the river. Maybe it's lunch-only.