Zadar Traditional

The konoba began as a cellar where a family kept its wine and cured meat, and the better ones here still read that way: stone walls, a short menu and a kitchen that cooks a handful of dishes properly. Varos, the quarter immediately behind the walls, holds most of them within a few minutes of Kalelarga. The repertoire is regional rather than national. Pasticada is beef marinated for a day then braised with vinegar, wine and prunes and served over gnocchi. Peka means meat or octopus baked under an iron bell buried in embers, and it nearly always has to be ordered several hours ahead.

What lands on the plate has travelled a short way. Lamb and sheep cheese come from Pag across the bridge, olive oil from the Ravni Kotari fields inland, salt from the pans at Nin, and Maraschino, distilled in this city since the eighteenth century, closes the meal. Portions are large, bread and oil arrive without being asked for, and the smaller rooms still shut for a few weeks in winter.