Restaurant Diagonal

diagonal

I was back in Pineda on Wednesday and went straight to Diagonal – an interesting restaurant that I’d noticed previously.

farm and mountains

As I mentioned before, Pineda de Mar, is about a 30 minute walk from Calella. Initially the two towns meet, but after a couple of streets there’s a 15 minute or so stretch that’s just fields of vegetables. There’s a quiet road between the crops – the sea is on the right and the mountains on the left. At the end of the farmland the town starts again and within a couple of streets, there are lots of shops and restaurants.

diagonal menú

I liked the look of the Diagonal menú del día on a previous visit to the town, but Ibèrick’s looked slightly more exciting that day. I’m always interested in discovering new restaurants, so this week I went back to see what I’d missed. The menú del día here is €13.50 for 3 courses, including wine or beer.

diagonal interior

Diagonal is a very modern looking restaurant, with a dinning room to the left of the bar.

diagonal awning

I chose to sit outside on the terrace, which is covered with an awning. It was fantastic sitting out of the sun and with a gentle breeze blowing from the sea.

vi rosat

I’d stopped earlier on for a refreshing vermut, after crossing the Pineda farmland, so here I promptly started in on the vi rosat – they give you a half liter jug of house wine with the menú. It’s quite drinkable.

carbassó farcit de marisc

I ordered a fantastic carbassó farcit de marisc amb salsa de gambes (courgette stuffed with shellfish in a prawn sauce) as my starter.

pa

I made sure I mopped up all the delicious prawn sauce with the rustic bread!

guatlles en escabetx

My main was an excellent guatlles en escabetx – quail in escabeche sauce (see here for my escabeche recipe).

comtessa

For pudding I had a guilty pleasure – Comtessa. This famous ice cream cake became known by it’s international name, Viennetta in 1998, but 20 years later, has been relaunched with it’s original title.

el pero

I couldn’t help noticing a hungry little dog while I scoffed my dessert.

carajillo

As usual I finished my meal with a carajillo de cognac for courage and a caffeine kick.

factura

You will see that the total bill came to €15.85.

I thoroughly recommend Diagonal – the food is excellent and the staff are very helpful. I will be returning.

Restaurant Diagonal is at: Avenida Montserrat 19, 08397 Pineda de Mar, Barcelona.

yzaguirre

Fortified, I strolled down the road towards the sea and found a nice little square surrounded by pine trees, with a convenient bar. Here I enjoyed my second vermut of the day – Yzaguirre from Tarragona, to the south of Cataluña. This gave me the required energy to walk home.

gegants

Last weekend (14th – 17th June ) Calella celebrated it’s Festa Major de Sant Quirze i Santa Julita (the main town festival, for Saint Quirze and Saint Julita). There were fireworks, dinners in the street and a parade of gegants (giants) on Sunday. The above are Calella’s gegants in front of the adjuntament (town hall). All the nearby towns of Maresme, brought their own giants and the parade went down the main street – C/ de l’Església.