by Jan Edwards
Each week Jan presents her chosen Restaurant of the Week on her Saturday morning show TABLE TALK. Find out more about her featured restaurants here.
Katarsis first opened in May 2018 and was a Restaurant of the Week on Mallorca Sunshine Radio late last year. Since then, the ownership and the chef of the roadside restaurant have changed. Katarsis is near Algaida, on the side of the Palma to Manacor highway (Ma15) and has its own large car park.
Tomeu Bauzà and his wife Vanesa Rodríguez opened their restaurant Factoría in Manacor in December 2015. Tomeu’s cocina de autor is offered in an à la carte menu that’s available at both lunchtime and in the evenings.
The central plaza in Llucmajor is lined with eateries, which could make it hard to choose where to eat out. My recommendation is Tomates Verdes – co-owned by Jorge Escrivá de Romani, originally from Madrid, and chef Carlos Sierra Galán.
Kairiku restaurant in the town of Campos offers an omakase dining experience that’s unique on the island. Omakase translates as ‘I trust you’ and that means you trust the chef to choose what to serve. Every dish of the menu at Kairiku comes as a delicious surprise and an example of authentic Japanese cuisine.
You don’t have stay overnight at the 5-star rural Finca Serena to eat at this hotel’s Restaurant Jacaranda – where chef Celia Martín has the benefit of a well-stocked organic produce garden.
At first glance, Campos seems an unlikely setting for a fine-dining experience but, in the heart of this agricultural town, Tess de Mar is one of two excellent restaurants at the 5-star Sa Creu Nova Art Hotel and Spa – a sympathetic conversion of three townhouses.
Like several chefs with their own restaurants on Mallorca, Marcel Ress previously worked with the renowned British chef Marc Fosh at the Michelin-starred former Bacchus restaurant in Santa Maria and, later, at the starred Simply Fosh in Palma de Mallorca.
A friendly Italian couple opened this popular Italian pizzeria/restaurant in the heart of Sineu in 2015. Chiara (front of house) is from Turin and her partner Ciro (the chef) from Naples – hence the Neapolitan influence in his cuisine.
The family-run restaurant Can March in Manacor originally opened as Fonda Can March in 1925 and ownership is still in the same family. In the year 2000, the restaurant was given a new look and concept, offering New Mallorcan cuisine – modern interpretations of traditional island recipes with international culinary touches.
Driving towards Algaida along the Palma to Manacor highway (Ma15), you could be forgiven for thinking that Katarsis was just another traditional roadside eatery. But you’d be wrong: the chef and owner, Raúl García, worked for Marc Fosh for several years and was Marc’s head chef at the former Fosh Lab in Palma. Raúl has also worked at Zaranda and Flanigan in Mallorca and, in the Basque country, at Zuberoa and Mugaritz.
If you’re in the Manacor area around lunchtime, the Rafa Nadal Sport Café & Restaurant offers a great-value set menu, with a choice of dishes for each course. It’s in the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre and Museum Xperience building, but you don’t have to be visiting either of these to eat and drink here.