Fine ingredients and delicious local wine are elevated by the sophisticated techniques of modern Spanish and Catalan cuisine.
Located just outside the old walls of Alcúdia, the restaurant of talented young chef Joan Josep Genestar Amengual is distinguished by his superb contemporary Spanish cooking and great-value lunch menu. Arriving hungry on a sunny Saturday, we started with excellent cream of porcini mushroom soup and a coca — an open-faced sandwich topped with Mallorcan cheese, sausage, mushrooms and peppers — and then feasted on succulent monkfish in a creamy sauce of gentle first-of-season garlic. Grilled brioche with strawberry preserves ended this fine meal. Subsequently, it was no surprise to learn that the chef had worked in many of the great kitchens of Spain (Ferran Adrià, Martín Berasategui) and France before setting up shop on his own.
Lunch for two, $80. Plaça Porta de Mallorca, Alcúdia. Tel. 971-549-157.
Owned and run by the same family since it was founded in 1871, this restaurant on the port in Puerto Alcúdia stands out for its excellent Spanish seafood cooking; and a décor and clientele that are decidedly chicer than anything else in this busy little town, where too many restaurants are alarming tourist traps. Settling onto the spacious terrace with a bottle of unfailingly good Viña Sol from the Torres winery near Barcelona, we started with grilled baby clams and then tucked into an epic arroz negro, or paella made with rice, cuttlefish and jet-black cuttlefish ink, and garnished with red peppers and broad beans.
Lunch for two, $100. Passeig Marítim 2, Puerto Alcúdia. Tel. 971-54-52-93.
Don’t be put off by the charmless appearance of the hotel housing this excellent restaurant. Once you’re inside, the dining room is attractive, and chef Tomeu Caldentey’s food is outstanding. Sampling the “Classic” menu for lunch, we began with potato cream soup with asparagus and morels, followed by cod with first-of-season peas and quinoa in a light herb broth, cannelloni filled with duck and topped with mushrooms, a course of Galician San Simón cheese, and an haute cuisine ice cream sandwich of foie gras and chocolate ice cream between two toasted corn wafers (sounds odd, but was curiously delicious).
Dinner for two, $160. Protur Sa Coma Playa Hotel & Spa, Calle Liles, Sa Coma. Tel. 971-569-663.
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