BABBO Gastrobar, Portocolom

With many resort restaurants set to close at the end of Mallorca’s holiday season, it’s good to know about places still open on the coast when the weather is fine and a dose of ‘vitamin sea’ is required.  

Portocolom is the perfect location for lunch on a sunny day, with views of the boats bobbing in the serene waters of the harbour across the road. Several of the waterfront eateries will be closing soon, but the gastrobar Babbo will stay open until the end of November.

Babbo and its direct neighbour, HPC Portocolom, are part of Grupo Surmaster, which also has restaurants in Cala d’Or. HPC is currently closed but is due to reopen at the beginning of December. 

For those fine days, Babbo has a front terrace of tables with a good view of the harbour. If you’re eating indoors, you’ll find stylish contemporary décor, with tiled floors, an open kitchen and bar area, and contemporary art.

The lunch and dinner à la carte menu offers starters/tapas, salads, pastas, tacos, brioche, and main course dishes – with a separate menu for desserts. There’s usually a list of additional suggestions.

We began with two starters:  fried baby squid with confit garlic alioli (my husband declined the alioli, so it’s not in the photo) (15,90€), and grilled vegetables with romesco sauce (16,50€). My vegetable dish was a generous and healthy platter with a good mix of peppers, courgette, asparagus, broccoli, tiny florets of cauliflower, aubergine, carrot, and mushroom, dressed with artistic swirls of romesco sauce. Both dishes are easily shareable. 

For our mains, I had grilled salmon on a bed of mushroom and spinach risotto (26,50€). The salmon was decorated with piped soy mayo – something I’d personally have preferred on the side of the plate and unfortunately scraped off the fish before taking the photo. My husband chose grilled sea bass, with confit garlic (again he declined this), sautéed spring onion and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes (25,90€). He explained to our helpful server that he doesn’t like garlic, and after taking our order to the kitchen, she returned to inform us that the mash contained some garlic. French fries were substituted with no fuss.

After two generous plates of food each, dessert was an impossibility, but we lingered for a while to enjoy the views and the warm sunshine, as Babbo wasn’t very busy that lunchtime. 

Wines are from Mallorca and the Peninsula, with a view available by the glass. My companion drank José Ferrer rosado (5,60€ per glass) and I had a bottle of San Pellegrino (4,50€) and an alcohol-free Mahou bottled beer (4,30€).

Babbo in Portocolom is a useful place to know about because it also opens from 08:00h for breakfast and the kitchen is open all day. Ideal for one of those sunny days when a long walk around the harbour and something to eat and drink sounds like a plan.

NOTE: The prices on Babbo’s website are not up to date.