Majorca, bite by bite
ALCÙDIA
The Ducks Meson (Camino de la Casa Azul, 42 tel. 971 89 02 65) €€
In the (spectacular) Playa de Muro, in the Natural Park of s'Albufera , is where this great classic of Majorcan cuisine is located.
With the recipes of Doña Leonor Barceló, the founder of this house (with a history of more than 40 years), Jose Magan , the current chef, prepares all the specialties of the island: coca de peppers, sobrassada with honey, tumbet, Majorcan fried, as well as rice dishes, fish of the day or various cuts of grilled meat.
The eels from La Albufera are especially recommended , which are served in different preparations. And also the snails.
the great paella
Garden Restaurant (Tritons, s/n tel. 971 89 23 91) €€€€€
Perhaps the restaurant that best defines the "new Mallorcan cuisine": Maca de Castro is revolutionizing Mallorca.
We do not know if this new culinary concept exists on the island, but if it does, this would be the proof: small avant-garde nuances and creative cuisine without ever leaving its territory; temporality, common sense and absolute respect for local suppliers. That is the DNA of Macarena de Castro (also that of Ca Na Toneta, Zaranda or Andreu Genestra) .
So maybe this young cook is right when she says that Mallorca can already be considered an international gastronomic destination.
In the Jardín de Ella, it offers dishes to remember such as the belly of the moray eel with chickpeas, the smoked goat's milk with cuttlefish roe and peas or the white prawn with grilled fig. Good, Mac.
In addition to the Garden, this chef offers a more popular cuisine and with an informal air in 'El Bistró'. Both mounts.
The elaborations of Maca de Castro are sublime
CALA BLAVA
Strength. Hotel Cap Rocat (Ctra. de Enderrocat, s/n Cala Blava tel. 971 74 78 78) €€€€
The most gastronomic proposal of the overwhelming Cap Rocat hotel.
Víctor García interprets, in his own way, the Majorcan tradition through two tasting menus that speak of his territory from two different prisms: “A walk around Majorca” , with the most creative approach (cheating with mussels from Mahón, squid with sobrassada or black pork) and "The product" (sardines and almonds, red shrimp with bacon or Majorcan suckling lamb) .
At this point we are left with the second, but what difference will it make, in such a scenario, on any given spring day? A must if you pass through the island.
The room is fabulous, in the hands of the elegance and discretion of Bruno Sellés . Let yourself be advised by him.
The most overwhelming proposal on the island
Be club. Hotel Cap Rocat (Ctra. de Enderrocat, s/n Cala Blava tel. 971 74 78 78) €€€€
An unspeakable beauty on the most spectacular terrace in Mallorca. Stendhal in handfuls.
The scenario is already overwhelming, this hotel located in an old military fortress in the most private area of the bay of Palma, restored by Antonio Obrador, next to a marine and bird reserve.
The Sea Club is the “casual” restaurant (La Fortaleza is the most gastronomic), but the kitchen is also a thing of the Majorcan Víctor García: a proposal more based on Mediterranean products and supported by his traditional Majorcan oven and a large wood-burning grill. Wonderful, of course.
The table, as close as possible to the sea.
CALVIÀ
Astir. Iberostar Grand Portals Nous (Falconer, 19; Portals Nous tel. 871 77 46 42) €€€€
"The best meat in the world", This is how the newly opened restaurant at the Iberostar Grand Portals Nous is presented.
Iván Crespo commands the kitchen of this space, designed by the peculiar Marcel Wanders, to accommodate both race gastronomes and passing guests (and that's how it should be).
The boutade of the headline has a trick: the intelligent alliance with José Gordón and his Leonese winery “El Capricho”, where they experiment with long maturing of oxen and old cows, which sometimes reach 14 or 15 years. Why invent if someone else does it better? Fabulous also the salmorejo. The wine list could be improved.
Stop experimenting: has it become clear that here what you come to eat is good meat?
CAPDELLÀ
shaker (Son Claret Castle Ctra. Capdella-Galilea, km 1.7 tel. 680 60 25 80, 971 13 86 27) €€€€€
Prodigious culinary technique with avant-garde concerns and nods to the Balearic tradition in a luxurious country resort .
In the sober dining room Son Claret, Fernando Perez Arellano gives continuity to the project that began in 2005 in Madrid and moved five years later to Mallorca, revalidating his prestige as one of the Spanish chefs with the most refined technique.
Undoubtedly, the taste of a mostly German clientele encourages the chef to extreme his perfectionism, although it also pushes him to dispense with some of his fetish products, such as offal.
In the longer tasting menu, 14 courses , stand out the Majorica oyster with beetroot, caviar and pearl trompe l'oeil; an all i pebre of octopus and potato served in an amphora and an exciting “sequence of figs with figs”.
Sommelier Sebastian Longo proposes harmonies for the three menus of the house, with a sometimes questionable criterion.
It is the only restaurant in Mallorca with two stars from the Michelin guide.
CAPDEPERA
Andreu Genestra. Hotel Predí son Jaumell (Ctra. Cala Mesquida, 1, turning off Camino Son Moltó tel. 971 56 59 10) €€€€
Signature cuisine with strong Mallorcan roots and lots of spices, the result of the travels of Andreu Genestra.
The chef settles in the Hotel Son Jaumell in Capdepera in 2011, tired of working outside his island. Here he sets up a restaurant with a very personal kitchen and a garden of more than 6,000 meters that supplies him.
Andreu Genestra is a young chef, very talented and very Mallorcan. He works tirelessly to value the products of the land and traditional recipes , because he understands that cuisine without roots is nothing, and Mallorca has a lot to offer.
Dinner, sleep (and breakfast) in Son Jaumell and walking through the orchard is a round experience (and also very romantic).
nature and authenticity
DEIA
It's Racó D'es Teix (Viña Vieja, 6 tel. 971 63 95 01) €€€€
Cuisine with deep German roots in full Tramontane mountain range . If you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world.
Nori Payeras and Joseph Sauerschell They have worked hand in hand (he in the kitchen and she in the living room; love and gastronomy, how beautiful when they go hand in hand), since 1999. Here, on this terrace from which it is impossible not to surrender to the beauty of Deiá, heart and marrow of the Sierra de Tramuntana, declared World Heritage by UNESCO.
Sauerschell passed through the kitchens of half of Europe (Oxford, Hamburg or Munich) until he reached the residence hotel, where he met Leonor and put the first piece of his gastronomy on the island: a sensible, elegant cuisine and far from "techno-emotional" experiments.
The fish, the work with the sauces and the desserts are fantastic.
We insist: a table talk on this terrace with the immense beauty of Deiá is also good gastronomy.
Cuisine with deep German roots in the Sierra de Tramontana
INCA
Joan Mark (Plaza del Blanquer, 10 tel. 971 50 08 04) €€€
Updated Majorcan cuisine menus and seasonal raw materials.
Whoever officiates here has passed through places as important as Sant Pau or Can Fabes. what it offers Joan Mark in Inca is a return to the most authentic Majorcan cuisine but treated with the latest techniques.
The local product has a fundamental weight in it: both from the sea and from the land and always attached to the season. With them, the tasting menus are prepared (four, six and eight passes; from €41 to €65), which change every month.
On Thursdays and Saturdays at lunchtime you can also opt for the dry rice menu , to combine with vermouth and something to snack on (for just over €40).
SA COMA
Bou Restaurant. Protur Sa Coma Playa Hotel & Spa (Liles, s/n tel. 971 56 96 63) €€€€€
Updated Majorcan cuisine. An entire experience that takes place in different settings and before small groups of diners.
**What Tomeu Caldentey offers at Bou Restaurant (the old Molí d'en Bou) ** is not a typical dinner: it is a gastronomic show, in three acts, which correspond to the dishes that are served, also in different environments (from the aperitif in the lounge-bar to the desserts, in a modern room, passing through a rustic dining room) .
They have two types of menus: Bou 2017 (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; €135/190 (with pairing), both without VAT.; and Bou 2017 Sample; Wednesday night and Saturday noon.
There is only service in each shift, so you have to be extremely punctual.
SES SALINES
House Manolo (Pza. San Bartolomé, 2 tel. 971 64 91 30) €€
Traditional eating house (this time it's serious): tradition, history and gastronomic heritage of Mallorca. In the table. Casa Manolo, or Bodega Barahona, was founded in 1945 for "Juan d'es Bodegón" and his wife Apolonia (like Apollonia Vitelli, the wife of Michael Corleone) and today it is run by his son, Manolo, and Margarita.
Everything is outstanding here: from the fish (sea bass, pitcher, dentex or sea bass from Cabrera and Colonia Sant Jordi) and fresh seafood, such as its famous Notary rice, lobster stew or grilled meats.
A temple for islanders and foreign gastronomes, strategically located between two coves with turquoise waters: Santanyí and Figera.
Do not miss, under any circumstances, that spectacular lobster stew. And do it with the corresponding bib. Of course, it's his thing.
Casa Manolo Potera Squid
LLOSETA
Dins Santi Taura (Juan Carlos I, 48 tel. 656 73 82 14) €€€€€
Balearic gastronomy, products and recipes viewed from a current perspective and carried out in a contemporary space and technique. A unique restaurant on the island.
Santi Taura, with one of the dining rooms with the largest waiting list in Spain (Santi Taura restaurant) opened its new premises in 2016. A space of those with which all chefs dream, with only two tables (running), for only 16 diners and personally attended by the sommelier, Nico Crispino, and the chefs.
DINS is not in Palma, but in Lloseta, his hometown, half an hour from the Balearic capital (which in itself is a declaration of intent).
Here Santi looks even more to the land, to old recipe books and indulges in all the whims that the season gives away (and that he cannot include in the restaurant's €40 menus), accompanied by wines from the same line. Only tasting menu, which is revealed on the spot.
Open kitchen, where you can admire the chef himself in action.
Cheese platter at Dins Santi Taura
PALMA DE MALLORCA
Ferdinand House (Trafalgar, 27 tel. 971 26 54 17) €€€€
Grilled fish and shellfish from the fish market in a restaurant with a traditional and aesthetic decoration with maritime touches, in Ciudad Jardín.
Raons, yonquillos, escarbais, turbot, white Majorcan or red prawns from Sóller, grimaldos... are the stars of this restaurant's menu.
The freshness of the genre, which is exhibited at the entrance, is guaranteed. First, grilled vegetables or salad.
Homemade desserts: sorbets, mousses and a highly acclaimed tiramisu.
Sa Roqueta (Sirena, 11 Portixol tel. 971 24 46 58) €€€
Perhaps the most genuine representative of the best seafood cuisine in Portixol. Do not talk more.
Portixol is a fishing village and, therefore, the perfect setting for the house founded by Toni Serapio, 28 years ago, together with his wife, Nieves Carbonell, and his father-in-law, Biel (squid fishermen).
More than a typical restaurant, a cabin; a love letter to the Mediterranean, the Balearic Islands and no nonsense seafood cuisine: memorable clams with artichokes, fideuá mulata, guiat de peix, fish paella, squid with onion, grilled fresh fish, cuttlefish trempó…
Seafood, seafood and more seafood. And rice with lobster, too.
Cute, small and delicious
POLLENCA
Ca'l Patró (Cala Clara Cala de San Vicente tel. 971 53 38 99) €€€
Fabulous mussels in front of the Sant Vicente cove . Sometimes, no more is needed.
Ca'l Patró, in principle, is just another tavern . One of many discreet tables, a bit indifferent and as close to the sea as it is full of commonplaces (and an apathetic wine list). But what does it matter when you have a plate of perfect mussels in front of a cove whose beauty almost hurts.
There is even more: fresh fish on a chalk board (lobster, prawns from Sóller, rooster, monkfish, sole, sea bream or cap roig) and the tempo of a Julio Medem film. It is essential to take a walk through San Vicente beforehand and ask for a table in front of the sea...
There is life beyond mussels. Like the “arròs negre”, one of the most demanded specialties of the house.
ratjada rice
JUNGLE
Ca Na Tonet (Horizon, 21 Caimari tel. 971 51 52 26) €€€
“Land cuisine” in Caimari, a small town in the Sierra de Tramuntana, which is doing so much good for island gastronomy.
Nice project by the Solivellas sisters (María and Teresa) and their “rustic” kitchen , linked to the territory and the season, which arrives at the table thanks to that human commitment with suppliers, carpenters and wine growers. Culinary proposal whose axis is identity and that is neither excessive nor stingy: two starters (liquid and solid), a salty coke, a fish dish, another meat dish and dessert.
They have it very clear: “this is not technocuisine, but honest countrycuina with pop touches”.
It is worth the previous walk through the town to sniff out the craft products that they sell in their (also) shop: Campins knives or beautiful Teixits Vicens tablecloths.
€ Less than €10
€€ Up to €20
€€€ Up to €50
€€€€ More than 50 €
*You can find the 2018 Gastronomic and Wine Guide in a digital version for your devices, at Manzana , Zinium Y google play .