Restaurant Diana, Steak House in Lussinpiccolo

You’d probably think that in Lussinpiccolo you can only eat fresh fish, but I discovered that here, as well as the excellent scampi (in the months of May and June), you will also find excellent meat dishes!

We’re in the pine woods of the bay of Cigale, which is considered one of the most beautiful inlets, in fact it was home to many private villas where the nobles would spend the winter during the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the first years of the 20^th century it was customary to spend the winter month here; yes, it’s quite strange, but they used to spend their winters here. From the sixties the trend changed and tourism started arriving during the summer season.

But let’s get back to us. I’m now here, sitting in the shade of pine trees and admiring the sea from a wonderful terrace and I’m about to take you to discover the best Steak House of the island: Restaurant Diana 🙂 As I was telling you in this lovely island of Croatia they don’t only have fish…initially I was amazed. Meat in Lussinpiccolo? After thinking about it a little I came to the conclusion that it must be a winning decision, because there are lots of people that prefer a good steak to a fish fillet. And I must say that after all these scampi I also felt like trying something different.

I found it a lovely place, the service was excellent, professional but at the same time it wasn’t too fancy; I found it PERFECT because I felt cuddled in everything and every way.

I was lucky enough to have the Executive Chef Davor Fornazar guide me in the food choice; I let him decide everything, trusting him completely. To start the dinner I was served an antipasto with all the flavors of Istria, A carpaccio of Boscarin ( a species of local cattle) accompanied by prosciutto crudo from Dalmatia, local goat and sheep cheese and an excellent sheep prosciutto!

With this wonderful oval plate of cold cuts I could have been quite satisfied. But Davor had prepared some other interesting dish like the homemade ravioli with squid ink and a filling of lamb ragù, served with butter and sage.

All perfectly cooked and the ragù… well, it was one of the best I have ever tried.

And I’m not particularly keen on spicy and well-seasoned meats; but these meats well exceptional and I really liked how they had been processed.

To accompany these excellent dishes I mainly tasted some Croatian wines; but in the list of over 50 labels, they also have French wines, spumante and champagne.

If you have a look inside the restaurant you’ll notice the very particular Dry Ager, a special fridge in which to conserve meat, because it keeps it dry by using Himalaya salt.

The meat is then cooked inside the Big Green Egg, a special grill which runs on wood carbon and has a particular top which keeps the temperature low so that it can cook slowly and properly without burning the meat 😉

I devoured a dish of grilled beef with lovely vegetables from the island!

The desserts are excellent too, I tried a chocolate cake and an orange cheesecake which is served luke-warm. Excellent.

That’s all for today. If you’re in the area, allow yourself a stop at Restaurant Diana. You won’t regret it!

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Ph. Andrea Zangrando