Sa Llotja, Portocolom

2019, Aug 26th

Restaurant with memorable views, delicious cuisine, and affordable set menus – at lunch and dinner times.

Portocolom has plenty of eateries facing the picturesque harbour, but my favourite of them all is set apart from the others and may easily be missed because it’s above street level.

Sa Llotja is on the upper floor of the main port building and has both dining room and terrace. The interior has a smart modern décor, with contemporary art on the walls, and a large window into the kitchen where you can see the chef/patron at work with his brigade.

 
The terrace wraps around two sides of the building and is the place to be for the best views from any Portocolom restaurant.

 
Sa Llotja offers an à la carte menu of starters (they recommend sharing these) and three-course fixed-price menu for lunch and dinner for 30 € – I consider the latter very good value for money for dinner out. In addition, there’s a list of extra seafood choices – which included a plate of grilled Sóller red prawns (24,50 € for 250 g), which we tried on a previous visit.

 
A meal begins with a generous basket of delicious warm bread, served with Almas D’O Mallorca extra virgin olive oil (from Cala Serena), aioli and tasty olives. The bread is baked at Sa Llotja’s second restaurant in Cala d’Or – which I haven’t visited yet but, if it’s as good as this one, it’s on my list.

 
For our visit last Saturday night, we tried the fixed-price dinner menu for the first time and were impressed by the quality of the food and the portion sizes. We had a choice of three starters (choosing carpaccio of young beef Asturias style and smoked salmon with orange and dill mustard sauce and a green salad). Our main courses were tenderloin of Asturias beef with Choron sauce (Bearnaise with tomato), sautéed potato dice, and salad, and a satisfying caldereta of monkfish. For dessert we had fresh figs with Menorcan cheese drizzled with truffled honey.

 
Wines are Mallorcan and from the Peninsula and some are available in smaller measures (from a glass to half-a-litre carafe).
We paid 77,90 € for our three-course dinner for two, including two glasses of rosado cava, one glass of house wine, and a bottle of Sa Llotja Portocolom’s own water; I consider that good value for a quality dinner out with fine views over one of Mallorca’s loveliest harbours.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.