Es Molí Restaurant, Sa Coma

Photo: Es Molí Sa Coma

One of my favourite chefs in Mallorca – I do have a few – is Tomeu Caldentey, whose restaurant Tomeu Caldentey Cuiner is in the east coast resort of Sa Coma, offering tasting menus from an open kitchen.

But if you want to dine on Mediterranean cuisine from an à la carte menu in Sa Coma, I’d recommend the windmill restaurant, Es Molí, which has an attractive dining room and an appealing shaded terrace with cushions on the chairs, and linen-clad tables.

We ate indoors, noting the meat-aging cabinet – a welcome sight for keen carnivores.

An impressive feature here – for a restaurant in a tourist resort – is the adjacent garden plot where a variety of salad greens and other vegetables are grown for the below-ground kitchen, headed by Basque chef Iago Rodriguez Seijas. iago’s previously worked at Hotel Melbeach in Canyamel and as head chef at the rural hotel Son Palou in Orient.

Our server, Andrea, brought us olive-bread rolls, Can Troquet extra virgin olive oil from Son Mesquidassa, and Ses Salines salt flakes. A complimentary appetiser of a beef ‘empanadita’ was a promising start to dinner.

The à la carte menu offers bites, cold and hot starters, fish and meat mains, and a grill section of premium beef (including Galician). Having seen the fresh salad greens growing a few metres away, I opted to start with the zingy citrus salad with walnuts, goat cheese, and mustard dressing (13,50€). My companion chose burrata, confit tomato, gremopesto, and olive focaccia (16,50€). Either of these could be shared as a starter.

We resisted the temptation of the premium beef on this occasion, and I was torn between fish and lamb; Andrea told me that a recent diner had described the Mallorcan lamb shoulder (28€) as the best he’d eaten.  Confit slowly and finished in Es Molí’s wood-fired oven, it was glazed with a coffee sauce and accompanied by the Mallorcan vegetable dish, tumbet. This was one of the most enjoyable lamb dishes I’d eaten for a long time.

My companion enjoyed his perfectly cooked turbot loin finished with a butter-and-white -vermouth sauce and served with Mallorcan vegetables with raisins and pine nuts (28,50€).

The menu offers four desserts and a Spanish cheese platter. We had the cheesecake named ‘Snickers’, which was too sweet for my taste but devoured with enthusiasm across the table, and three types of macaron with vanilla ice cream. All desserts and the cheese platter are 8,50€ each.

We paid 7,50€ for a glass of Nabal Rosé from the Ribera del Duero, and 3,10€ for a 50cl bottle of water.

Efficient and friendly service from our delightful server, Andrea, and the restaurant manager, Antonio, added to the enjoyment of our à la carte dinner at Es Molí in Sa Coma.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.