Cafè Nou, Sa Cabaneta

Photo: https://cafenou.com

Is it a pub? Is it a café? Is it a restaurant? Cafè Nou in Marratxí’s Sa Cabaneta district successfully manages to be all these things and more. For us, it was an unscheduled stop for a light lunch during a day of appointments. We hadn’t booked but were lucky to get a table. If you want to eat at Cafè Nou, I recommend that you make a reservation.

First opened in 1940, it played an important role in the community – at a time when most people didn’t venture out of their village for a drink or something to eat. A remarkable woman ran the place for some forty years.

It took another woman to bring Cafè Nou back to life in the spring of 2023 after it had been closed for some years. Silvia de Miquel’s externally and internally revamped business is still an important part of the local community, but is successful enough to attract custom from afar.

As we sat at our corner table, my companion remarked that the place had the welcoming ambience of a village pub. He was thinking of our friendly, local village pub back where we lived in Oxfordshire: a pub – that like so many in the UK – has since closed. He had a nostalgic look in his eye, spotting the Mallorcan man sitting on a bar stool enjoying his beer. 

Cafè Nou’s appealing interior shows its ‘mallorquín’ character with wooden beams, exposed stone walls, tiled floor, and an attractive bar. At the rear of the Cafè is a small terrace, that I imagine would be lovely for alfresco eating and drinking on a summer’s evening. Silvia has carefully created what Cafè Nou’s website describes as a ‘fusion’. Locals, business people in the area, and island visitors come here. The food too is a fusion of Mallorcan and Mediterranean with some Asian influences.

As well as the regular menu, there are additional suggested dishes, listed on a small tabletop blackboard. We chose the coca of the week (12€), topped with caramelised onion, goat cheese, sundried tomato, and pine nuts, and the croquetas of the week, made with beef cheek (12€ for five, or 2,50€ each).  The crisp-based coca was one of the tastiest I’d eaten. We also added an Asian favourite of mine, perfectly spiced edamame beans (9€).

The menu includes four types of hamburgers ‘of the world’, rice dishes, salads and vegetable dishes, meat, and fish. Beef fans can enjoy their steak cooked on the stone, and there’s also a kamado grill here.

We’d had a pastry with our coffee in Port Calanova that morning, so were not as hungry as I wished I was once I’d read the menu, but our server – a friendly guy who seemed to be running front of house on his own that day and with great efficiency and hospitality – suggested that we shouldn’t miss the cheesecake (6,50€). It lived up to the recommendation, being silky smooth, creamy, and topped with crumble. I’ll be eating it again on my next visit to Cafè Nou in Sa Cabaneta.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.