Bar Los Diamantes

Plaza Nueva and the Geometry of Granada's Tapas Circuit

Plaza Nueva sits at the point where Granada's tourist current runs hardest — coaches queuing for the Alhambra, visitors crossing between the Albaicín and the city centre, locals cutting through on the way to work. A square this trafficked could easily become a graveyard for serious eating, lined with places that trade on footfall rather than cooking. Bar Los Diamantes, at number 13 on the plaza, does something that relatively few bars in high-volume European squares manage: it holds the attention of serious diners alongside the casual crowd. With a 4.3 rating drawn from nearly 13,000 Google reviews and a trajectory on the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe list that moved from Highly Recommended in 2023, to #395 in 2024, to #204 in 2025, this is a bar that the crowd and the critics have reached similar conclusions about.

That OAD ranking places it within a competitive set that spans the continent's most respected casual addresses. In Spain alone, that peer group includes bars in the Basque Country where pintxos culture has been refined over generations, and Andalusian counters where the line between a working tavern and a cooking destination can be difficult to locate. For a tapas bar operating off a major tourist plaza, a top-250 Casual Europe ranking is an unusual result — and one that rewards attention.

The Fino Framing: How to Drink Here

Andalusia is sherry country in the way that Burgundy is Pinot country: not just geographically proximate but culturally shaped by it. The fino and manzanilla tradition that runs through Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and into the province of Granada provides the natural lens through which a bar like Los Diamantes reads most clearly. These are not wines consumed alongside food as an afterthought. In the Andalusian tavern tradition, a cold glass of fino is the structural partner to fried fish, brined olives, and vinegar-sharp salads in the same way that Chablis structures oysters or a dry Riesling structures charcuterie.

A well-kept fino served cold and young , flor-fresh, saline, and taut , cuts through batter and oil without announcing itself. The broader wine education available at a bar like this extends to Rioja and beyond, but the foundational drink here is sherry, and the foundational vocabulary is Andalusian. For a visitor building knowledge of Spanish wine through eating and drinking rather than through cellars and tasting rooms, a counter like this functions as a working classroom in a way that a formal wine bar cannot replicate. The informality is precisely the point. There is no ceremony to get through before the learning starts.

For those extending the wine thread across the city, [Taberna La Tana](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/granada) operates as Granada's most explicitly wine-focused address, while [Bodegas Castañeda](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/bodegas-castaeda-granada-restaurant) offers a more traditional bodega format a short walk away. The contrast between these approaches , specialist wine bar versus historic bodega versus tapas counter , maps the range of ways Granada absorbs its drinking culture.

Fried Seafood as a Critical Category

Across Andalusia, pescaíto frito , the tradition of flash-frying small whole fish, rings, and pieces in a light, dry batter using olive oil at high temperature , functions as a technical benchmark. The variables are the oil temperature, the dryness of the batter, the freshness of the fish, and the speed from fryer to plate. Done correctly, the result is greaseless, crackling, and clean-tasting. Done poorly, it is heavy and dull. The tradition runs from the chiringuitos of the Costa Tropical east to Málaga's celebrated friturías and west to the sherry bodegas of Cádiz, where fried seafood and fino are as linked as any food and wine pairing on the peninsula.

Bar Los Diamantes operates within this tradition, and its recognition by OAD , a guide whose Casual list specifically values the craft embedded in unpretentious formats , reflects that the kitchen is operating within the upper range of the category. This is a useful framing: the bar is not competing against [Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/aponiente-el-puerto-de-santa-mara-restaurant) or [El Celler de Can Roca in Girona](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/el-celler-de-can-roca-girona-restaurant). It is competing against every other Andalusian tapas bar, and within that specific peer group, the ranking says something concrete.

Bar Los Diamantes in Granada's Broader Dining Frame

Granada's restaurant scene has evolved considerably in recent years, adding contemporary addresses that sit in a different register from the city's traditional tapas culture. [Arriaga](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/arriaga-granada-restaurant) and [Atelier Casa de Comidas](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/atelier-casa-de-comidas-granada-restaurant) represent the contemporary Spanish end of the market, while [Albidaya](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/albidaya-granada-restaurant) brings a farm-to-table approach that reads differently from either. [Bar FM](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/bar-fm-granada-restaurant) occupies the seafood small plates niche with a format that, like Los Diamantes, keeps the cooking tight and the format accessible.

The point is not that these venues compete with each other directly , they serve different moments and different appetites , but that Granada now has enough range across its casual and mid-market tiers to build a serious multi-day eating plan without repeating a format. Bar Los Diamantes anchors the traditional tapas end of that plan, providing the kind of reference point against which the rest of the city's cooking can be measured. It also connects Granada's dining scene to the wider Spanish context: the deep tradition of the counter bar that runs from Basque pintxos houses like [Bar Bergara](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/bar-bergara-san-sebastin-restaurant) and [Antonio Bar](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/antonio-bar-san-sebastin-restaurant) in San Sebastián to Andalusian tapas counters in Granada, Seville, and Cádiz, and up to the fine dining register occupied by [Arzak](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/arzak-san-sebastin-restaurant), [Azurmendi](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/azurmendi-larrabetzu-restaurant), [Cocina Hermanos Torres](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/cocina-hermanos-torres-barcelona-restaurant), and [DiverXO](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/diverxo-madrid-restaurant) at the other end of the country's dining spectrum.

Planning a Visit

Bar Los Diamantes is open every day of the week from noon to 11:30 pm, which makes it one of the more consistent options on Plaza Nueva for both lunch and late-evening visits. The address , Pl. Nueva, 13, in the Centro district , places it at walking distance from most of Granada's central accommodation and a short uphill from the Alhambra complex. Given its OAD ranking and the volume reflected in nearly 13,000 Google reviews, the bar is clearly well-used; arriving at the edges of peak lunch and dinner windows gives a better chance of counter space. For a broader view of where this bar fits in Granada's hospitality picture, see [our full Granada restaurants guide](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/granada), [hotels guide](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/hotels/granada), [bars guide](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/bars/granada), [wineries guide](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/wineries/granada), and [experiences guide](https://www.enprimeurclub.com/experiences/granada).

What Do Regulars Order at Bar Los Diamantes?

The bar's OAD recognition and its position within Andalusia's fried seafood tradition point toward the kitchen's strength: pescaíto frito in its various forms is the category this type of counter builds its reputation on, and the ranking reflects consistent execution rather than a single standout dish. A cold fino or manzanilla is the natural pairing , both because it suits the food and because it reflects the bar's Andalusian register. Regulars at bars ranked in this tier tend to anchor their order in whatever the kitchen does leading by volume and repetition, which at a Granada tapas counter almost always means fried fish over composed or dressed plates. The 4.3 average across nearly 13,000 reviews suggests that expectation is being met consistently across a large, varied audience.