Sa Romana

We were spending the day on the beach, but our youngest got a bit tired so I put him in his stroller, plugged my headphones in my ears, turned on some good music, took my camera on my shoulder and went for a walk. He fell asleep in an instant. I decided to head up to Old Alcudia town and have a look at the surroundings, castle wall etc and get away from the tourist environment for a while. When walking along the road I noticed a building that looked almost like a small farm beyond the closed gate. Closest to the road was a gate between to small concrete walls that read «Restaurant Sa Romana» on each side. On one of the sides an o was missing and I found it all a bit charming. From what I could see from the road, the house was surrounded by a lot of trees and bushes in what appeared to be a well taken care of garden. However, that day I just walked on by and took in the culture of Alcudia town.
Two days later, two in our travel company (my wife’s brother and his fiancé) wanted to go out with only us for dinner as they were only staying for one week and were going home they day after. For some reason this place popped back into my mind and I had the reception call them up to see if they had a table available. Surely they did, and we all took a beautiful long walk in the slowly setting Mediterranean sun all the while enjoying smiles, laughter and great friendship. Walking in through the gate I was immediately struck with how beautiful the whole place was. The cobblestones, water fountains, bushes, trees, Everything just a picture perfect frame for the sun-​bleached yellow-​plastered house that felt more like someone’s home than actually a restaurant. We walked in, only to be immediately strucked by the glass floor revealing what I believe to be old decorations and interior of the house. We were almost directly greeted and shown to our table out on the patio behind the house, and this just impressed me further. Somber table decorations, perfect lighting, but the largest outdoor play area for kids I’ve ever seen at a restaurant! They had tunnels to crawl through, a cableway, swings and much more. Even a neighboring inclosure where they had small horses. For a family with kids, this was a wonderful surprise.
Playtime with kids aside, the whole place had a great and relaxing atmosphere. Calm, quiet, no stress, no yelling or stressful people walking by, it was truly an evening of taking our time. We had a couple of drinks to start with, I had a wonderful sangria with my wife that brought me nothing but smiles. We all chose the three course a la carte menu but with slightly different dishes and wine-​pairing. Before our entrée dish came out they first served a total of two chef aperitifs. First one with bread, local olive oil and three different salts (olive, chili, and sea). Perfect complement to my sangria! The second apéritif was quite impressive: Fried shrimp in potato tuile with a sweet and sour sauce underneath, a fried «egg» of sorts, and a baked fig filled with goats cheese. Each part of the second apéritif was like an amuse-​bouche, a sweet mouthful that only wets the appetite!
My first dish was fried scallops with smoked cauliflower purée, and I may be a sucker for everything scallop, but this was astonishingly good. My wife had a dish of low-​temperatured baked egg served with foie gras and cider sauce and man she was impressed. Her brother and fiancée had a beetroot salad that they both enjoyed. For main my wife had the beef fillet grilled medium (to perfection) with baked apples, while I settled for sea-​bream with pumpkin– and mandarin purée (what a mind-​blowing combination of flavors!) together with hollandaise sauce and baby vegetables. My wife’s brother and his fiancée had for main «fish in a bag». That was a fish filet (can’t remember which one) cooked in a bag with an assortment of vegetables, broth and other ingredients. They loved it. For dessert all of us had the exact same thing; chocolate fondant with passion fruit center, berries, yoghurt ice-​cream, sugar twirl and crumble. It was food heaven. Did it end there? No. We also got a small extra dessert of lemon sorbet with nut– and coffee-​chocolate truffles. Or as I so eloquently put it when we walked home; «death by dessert». I was so full, so happy, and so genuinely pleased that we had visited what was undoubtedly the best restaurant of my entire two weeks in Alcudia and Mallorca. If I ever go back again, this is the place to dine at. Both for the atmosphere, the friendly staff, the environment, but most definitely the food. I loved it. We all loved it. That night was exactly what a great evening at a restaurant should be, from start to finish.
Four, with emphasis, really strong stars!