That’s Hibernation Done!

Well hello Spring time in Mallorca.

The island is coming back to life and with that comes the reopening of many of our favourite places to go. Winter brings a hibernation for many restaurants and shops which leaves us locals feeling a bit hard done by. Thankfully some restaurants recognise that despite the colder months people who do live here love to enjoy the towns in their quieter moments.

So a little shout out to our favourite places that have given us another great winter of food experiences.

Let’s begin where we started 2024 with another fabulous lunch at Celler Ca'n Josep in Port de Pollença. There is nothing better than walking into a restaurant that is buzzing with happy people enjoying the hospitality of restaurant owners who genuinely want you to have a fabulous time. Josep and his wife run a fantastic restaurant that creates Mallorcan dishes of the highest quality.  Its location right on the bay is unbeatable, their roast meats are incredible and according to our daughter it has one of the best paellas around. It’s our family favourite and somewhere we love to go…in fact we did last week and yet again the team were amazing.

Club Pollença, now run by Salvador and Lilli has really raised its food game. They are a lovely couple who offer a very warm Mallorcan welcome, and not forgetting they make a fantastic Negroni. La Font de Gall owned by Santi and Jenny provide an all year round place to have a delicious paella on a Sunday…talking of Sundays we have been really lucky this year that Celler El Moli has flung open its doors for its legendary Sunday Menu del Dia…it never disappoints.

When it is quieter in Pollença we head to Palma…a trip to our beautiful City is always exciting and as February and March are birthday months for us we make the most of it. The Concepcio Hotel has become our little overnight treat during the winter and we had a wonderful weekend there recently for Sam's birthday.  So many times you stay in a hotel and then go looking for another restaurant for dinner (well I do apparently 😄), but not this time. We decided to have dinner in their restaurant, Xalest, having had an exceptional  Menu del Dia there with our old friend Lent earlier in January.

Chef Xema Álvarez’s beautiful and imaginative  twists on Mallorcan and Mediterranean dishes look amazing and taste even better. It’s designed as a sharing menu and we started with the tacos and croquetas. Not sure shared is the right word for my insatiable desire for tacos! It was an impressive start but what followed was exceptional…their madras style cannelloni, roasted and fried leeks with a red curry romesco (the crumb nuts made it!) and a very special octopus dish were so different to what’s normally on offer and memorable for all the right reasons.

Of course Sam gets the last word (it was her birthday after all) and we went for the texturas de chocolate. Now I am not one for deserts but somehow always manage to eat one…this was outstanding!

So thank you to all those fabulous chefs and restaurant teams who have given us mouth watering food this winter, perhaps we shouldn’t feel quite so hard done by after all…even Son Brull has opened for the season now 😀.