Andalucia Diary – Seasonal Travel Notes

Restaurant Km 0 in San Pedro de Alcántara endeavours to make eating out a local affair

To the west of Marbella is its less swanky neighbour, San Pedro. It’s a town that in the past has struggled at little with its identity. Yet now it most certainly has got back its mojo. Nowhere is that more visible than within its burgeoning bar and restaurant scene.

The A7 highway, the Autovía del Mediterráneo that once scarred the town, dividing it from the sea and choking it with slow moving traffic has gone; now hidden within a new tunnel. Since December 2014 San Pedro has been reunited with its coastal paseo by the striking, lineal Boulevard Park which runs above the new subterranean highway. It’s created a new axis for the town, a centre of gravity for socialising and eating out. One of the streets to have benefited most from the renewed focus on San Pedro is Avenida del Mediterraneo that runs down from the park to the sea.

It’s one of the new foodie avenues and it’s where you’ll find Restaurante KM 0. As reflected by the restaurant’s name, it’s inspired by the growing movement towards slow food, and consuming locally. This relaxed and informal eatery offers a tasty, colourful and creative menu made from produce sourced locally, predominantly from Malaga province. Basically it’s field to fork in less than 60 kilometres. Of course there a few exceptions (why wouldn’t you want to bend the rules, so a delicious Rioja red wine could make it on the menu) but remarkably it’s true that almost everything is local. There’s beef from happy cows, grass fed in Cadiz to fresh mozzarella made by an Italian living in Malaga – it’s a local affair.

Amanda Gedeon, the energy and creative force behind KM 0 is already known for her pioneering ideas. She opened Ballaria, an organic food café and artisan cake shop in Marbella and her latest project, KM 0, is an opportunity to work more with organic, local suppliers as well as offer a menu that endeavours to cater not only for vegetarians and vegans but also one that has a broader appeal, for those who enjoy meat and fish.

(Smoothie of moscatel grape, strawberry, raspberry and water melon)

I’m certainly looking for a number of things when I eat out – the foodie mantra of ‘fresh, local and seasonal’ is all well and good, but dishes have to be creative, tasty and look great.

So it was good to have the opportunity yesterday to try a range of dishes from the menu, (prepared as sharing plates for an invited press group).

The dishes I tried were certainly ones I would order and enjoy (with the exception of the cauliflower and pine nut ‘sushi maki’, which would be a favourite I’m sure for those loving raw food).

(Quinoa and vegetable salad with sundried tomatoes, fresh orange, black olives, activated nuts. kombu powder and nut and mustard dressing)

The restaurant has a contemporary, light filled style with wooden, shaker style furniture, décor in natural tones and a few creative, quirky design touches including a small interior, vertical garden. There’s a terrace seating outside too. Prices (Oct 2015) range from 7 euro for a soup to 9,90 euro for a typical starter like the quinoa and vegetable salad. Main dishes vary from 15,50 for the chicken breast stuffed with plum, dates and almonds; 16,50 for slow cooked loin of cod, to 19,90 for an entrecote steak. Check out the restaurant’s website or Facebook for latest menu.

(Free-range chicken breast filled with plum, dates and almonds with a mirin and cocnut sauce, served with potatoes, dried apricots and asparagus)

(Fish of the day – mackerel)

(Mozzarella, cherry tomato, strawberry and anchovy salad with salmorejo ressing and basil icecream)

In the past, European kingdoms and empires fought wars over control of the trade in foods like spices from far-flung foreign lands – now it’s all about KM 0.

Restaurante KM 0

Avda. del Mediterráneo. Edif. los Arqueros 18

29670 San Pedro de Alcántara

Email: info@restaurantekm0.es

Tel: (34) 951 48 05 49

(title picture is the ‘Vegetable Garden’ starter with sprouts, flowers, and Romescu sauce)

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