Sa Cuina de n’Aina, Sencelles
Looking for a more authentic but modernized Mallorcan eating-out experience? This cosy, family-run restaurant in the heart of Sencelles could be the place for you.
Sa Cuina de n’Aina has been serving diners since 1995 and moved from Biniali to its present location in 2000. Aina has now retired, leaving this popular restaurant in the capable hands of her son, David González, and his wife Laura Adrover. David is the sommelier and runs front of house, and Laura is in the kitchen.
You enter a smart dining room, with linen-draped tables and gleaming glassware – always a good sign. Ceiling beams, tiled floors, warm-yellow painted walls with some modern art, and some exposed-stone walls are a reminder that this was once a home. We ate in the courtyard, taking advantage of the fine weather.
The menu is just the right length to know that everything is made on the premises. As well as traditional Mallorcan dishes, such as ‘croquetas’, ‘frito mallorquín’, ‘arroz brut’, roast suckling pig, shoulder of milk-fed lamb, ‘puding de ensaïmada’ and ‘greixonera de brossat’ (Mallorcan cheesecake) there are tempting, Mediterranean choices.
We began with beef carpaccio, rocket, and Parmesan (13,50 €) and delicious piquillo peppers stuffed with hake (12 €). Both were generous and either one would have made a shareable starter.
Main courses were perfectly cooked St Peter’s fish with vegetables (20 €), and tender and flavourful chicken thigh stuffed with sobrasada, with a rich sauce including spinach, carrots, baby asparagus, mushroom, and raisins (18 €). Both recommended.
We shared the fine apple tart with ice cream (7,50 €). It was like one I once ate, costing twice as much, in Puerto Portals.
The reasonably priced wines are mainly Mallorcan – with a good showing from Sencelles – and some from the Peninsula. David has his own attractively labelled, exclusive house wine, made from grapes from a decades-old vineyard. The 21:14 by Sa Cuina de n’Aina is available in red, white, and ‘rosado’. We had two glasses of his orange-hued ‘rosado’, which we enjoyed. It was reasonably priced at 5 € a generous glass, 23 € bottle.
When I asked David where the name 21:14 came from, he told me his birth date is the 21st; Laura’s is the 14th. He then pulled down the back of his T-shirt slightly to show me a small 21:14 tattoo at the base of his neck. Laura has one similar, reading 14:21.
Go for dinner and you may witness something I read later online that this friendly – and clearly romantic – two people do each evening at 21:14 h: share a kiss.
Photos: Jan Edwards
Prices correct at time of writing.