The restaurant scene on Mallorca is a mirror of the island’s increasingly cosmopolitan character. In recent years, the offer has widened hugely, embracing everything from vegan eating-houses and high-end burger joints to natural wine spots and swish modern cocktail bars, digital-nomad breakfast places and Scandi-style bakeries, not to mention menus showing culinary influences from Peru to Mexico, Georgia to Japan. At the highest level of haute, a series of familiar names still rules the roost, some now with a star or two attached to them – we’re talking Maca de Castro, Andreu Genestra, Fernando Arellano, Marc Fosh, Santi Taura – and Mallorca can finally hold its head high among Spanish regions strong on contemporary cocina de autor.
Though island-grown ingredients are newly celebrated and no self-respecting chef can afford to be without potatoes from Sa Pobla, citrus fruit from Sóller, rare-breed lamb and heritage xeixa flour, what’s still hard to find is simple Mallorcan cooking done with expertise and love. As the island’s restaurant scene continues to grow and prosper, we’re hoping it’ll soon have this one covered too. In the meantime, below we’ve rounded up some of the very best restaurants in Mallorca right now.
Beni Axir
Es Racó d’Artà, Toni Esteva’s sublime country retreat in its secret valley on the north-east coast, had been lacking in one major area: a really good in-house restaurant. This has been amply remedied by Maria Solivellas of Ca Na Toneta in Caimari, whose Beni Axir is now in its second successful season. Solivellas’ innate good taste and her intimate knowledge of island ingredients are expressed in soulful dishes like purple carrot, fennel sauce and crisp botifarró sausage, or red mullet fillets over Mallorcan winter vegetables, adding a welcome dose of hedonism to the hotel’s serenely minimalistic vibe. Es Reco now has the restaurant it deserved – not to mention the best place to eat in the island’s north-east.
Address: Cami dels Racó, Carretera de Cala Mitjana Km. 1.5, 07570, Artà, Illes Balears
Website: esracodarta.com
Restaurante Übeck
Of Belgian and Mallorcan extraction, young chef Javier Hoebeeck earned his stripes at El Celler de Can Roca, Azurmendi in Bilbao, and at restaurants in Japan, Germany and the UK before opening the Michelin-starred Fusion19 in Muro. Hoebeeck’s newest venture, in the hip Santa Catalina neighbourhood of Palma, takes his “global eating, local ingredients” shtick a step further. The menu at this self-styled “gastro-taberna” is a whistle-stop tour of Japan (octopus takoyaki, chicken-stuffed gyozas), China (bao stuffed with Iberico pork, prawn dumplings), Mexico (cod tacos with citrus sauce) and more. It’s a kaleidoscope of vibrant global flavours. (News flash: Hoebeeck has just been signed up to run the kitchen at the new Four Seasons hotel in Formentor.)
Address: Avinguda d’es Torrent, 23, 07500 Manacor, Illes Balears, Spain
Website: ubeckmallorca.eatbu.com
DINS Santi Taura
DINS Santi Taura
Now based in the sleek surroundings of the Hotel Llorenç Parc de la Mar after years in his home town of Lloseta, Santiago Taura is a mallorquin chef with a remarkable gift. Taura specialises in modern Spanish market cooking, clever and generously flavoured, with a side order of historic local dishes re-imagined with a contemporary spin. On the 11-course Origens menu (120€) at DINS you might find arroz meloso (creamy rice) of bacalao with pumpkin and pine-nuts, Sóller prawns sautéed with sobrassada sausage, or salt cod cooked in milk with onions and nutmeg. Taura’s version of his mother’s panada de pez roca is a delicate pie with a filling of firm-fleshed rockfish. The 600-strong wine list, curated by sommelier Joan Arboix, has one of the island’s largest collections of top-flight Burgundy.
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