Restaurants in Sóller and Port de Sóller

A cluster of good seaside restaurants make Port de Sóller a popular gourmet town

 

In 2012, Dubai’s five-star Jumeirah hotel group opened its first Southern European hotel… in Puerto Sóller. A decade before then, it would have been an unlikely location for a luxury hotel: the port resort was past its prime, with heavy summer traffic fumes and noise detracting from its natural charms.

But serious investment in the local infrastructure put it in great shape for the arrival of the prestigious international hotel brand and, today, Port de Sóller is fit for the most discerning 21st-century visitor. Typical tourist eateries have been joined by restaurants and cafes with more panache and culinary interest. There’s now something for all tastes and budgets.

The hilltop 5-star Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa has two restaurants: Cap Roig (for Balearic fine dining with fabulous sunset views) and Es Fanals. The hotel has commanding views over the port and open sea.

Cap Roig Restaurant in Sóller

Spectacular views from this 5-star hotel restaurant

 Named after the distinctive scorpion fish, the 5-star Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel and Spa’s fine dining restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner, and offers spectacular Mediterranean and sunset views. Eat indoors or under pines on the terrace, near one of the hotel’s swimming pools.

Head chef Javier Soriano took control of the kitchen towards the end of the 2015 season and over the 2015/2016 winter closed period the restaurant was given a new look. For lunch, Cap Roig offers a selection of Mediterranean-inspired dishes and, of course, paella and traditional local rice dishes. At night choose from fresh seafood (caught daily) and seafood dishes on the à la carte menu or the chef’s 5-course tasting menu.

Cap Roig offers the cuisine, service, and relaxing ambience that discerning diners demand from a restaurant in a 5-star hotel under this luxury global brand.

Well-kept (temperature-controlled) Spanish and international wines include a good choice from the island. Residents of Mallorca are entitled to a 20 per cent discount in the hotel’s bars and on à la carte dining.

We love… the unrivalled sunset views from the terrace.

Sa Barca Restaurant

This restaurant ticks all the boxes for a great gourmet experience.

One of the pleasures of riding the wooden tram down to Port de Sóller is looking into the restaurants and cafes lining the seafront route, and deciding which may be worth more than just a second glance. Sa Barca restaurant is one such place. It has an appealing large front terrace, with comfortable sink-into chairs and wooden tables decked with chubby candlesticks and large bowls of bright citrus fruit.

It’s hard to resist visiting. Sa Barca opened in May 2014, after the owners’ three-year search to find suitable premises in the port. Jürgen Lichtenauer and his wife Andrea Müllerhad holidayed in Port de Sóller for the previous eight years, and fallen in love with the place.

“The weather was one of the reasons,” says Jürgen. “You can spend nine months outside. We love Mallorca.” They decided to move here, leaving the island of Sylt in Germany, where they’d had a restaurant for 12 years.

In September 2013 they found the perfect place on the seafront Passeig Es Través. With an architect’s help, and their own vision, the couple turned this forlorn empty property into one of the port’s most attractive-looking restaurants. “We wanted it to be different – inside and out,” says Jürgen. He sourced the solid wooden tables from Holland, and other furniture and fittings from Barcelona.

Their Korean-born Sylt chef Thom Bell moved here too. Adopted when he was a year old, he had grown up in Germany, and said the decision to come here was “very easy”. His chef’s CV also included an award-winning hotel restaurant near Gatwick, UK. Thom has a natural interest in Asian food, and Jürgen – a trained chef himself, who has worked in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria – describes Sa Barca’s cuisine as Mediterranean ‘crossover’.

The 90-cover seasonal restaurant re-opened on March 1st and, a day later, we were there for lunch. Jürgen greeted us warmly and offered a choice of tables. We took advantage of the sunshine to eat outdoors, soaking up the beautiful views across the harbour, and the sounds of the occasional passing tram and the sea lapping on the shore.

With two years’ experience here behind them, for 2016, the owners have taken on more staff (all from Sóller) – including an additional chef for lunchtimes. By the time you read this, Sa Barca will offer a high-quality three-course lunch menu, for under 25€.

We had the choice of à la carte (changes every three months) and tapas menus, and lunchtime club sandwich and classic hamburger. The à la carte offers starters, salads, pastas and gnocchi, fish, and meat dishes. Meals begin with a small complimentary appetizer – a different soup each day. The three superb grilled prawns (essential in Port de Sóller), sitting on a mango and avocado salad, were a memorable starter, and fish of the day (sea bass) was seasoned, cooked perfectly and served whole, with rosemary-roasted new potatoes and a Mallorcan ‘trempó’ salad, with added chopped mango for a delicious Asian twist. Like the pastas and gnocchi, desserts are home-made – and space should be saved! Wines are priced acceptably and include a praiseworthy number from Mallorca. From April the full list of 80 labels will be available.

Dinner must be lovely here, with the sunset, romantic candlelight, and – on Friday evenings from April to October – live background music from a Spanish guitarist. If you want to come at night, be sure to book in advance.

One of the pleasures of coming to Sa Barca is watching the quaint passenger-packed trams pass by. But there are many other pleasures to enjoy too at this stand-out Port de Sóller restaurant.