If you’re staying in the east of Mallorca and want dinner in the countryside, we can recommend Son Mas Hotel Rural. It’s seven kilometres from the heart of Portocristo and ten kilometres from Manacor (from which you take the road passing the Rafa Nadal Academy). You don’t have to be staying in the hotel to have dinner here … but you do have to book on the day you wish to eat.

Son Mas isn’t hard to find, although it is tucked away off the beaten track – which adds to its appeal. Once through the gates, you have a winding drive up to the parking area, then a short walk (with steps) to the hotel building.

The well-spaced outdoor tables enjoy a beautiful bucolic view and, from the main terrace, you can watch the sun slip down beyond the horizon. Our table was under a tree, and we were delighted to see a pair of flycatchers feeding their young (late in the season) in a nest in the tree canopy. After dark, with the candles lit on the tables, the peaceful place has a magical feel. When the outdoor lights came on, so did the jets of the water feature in one corner, adding to the ambience.

Eats

The 4-star Son Mas Hotel Rural doesn’t have an à la carte menu for dinner. Each day they offer a different set menu, with a choice of two starters and two main course dishes. Here’s the thing: you must book in the morning of the day you wish to eat here; when you phone to make a table reservation, the hotel will tell you what the menu is for that evening and you need to choose your starter and main plate in advance.

On the night we were there, the starters were chilled white asparagus soup or pulpo a la gallega (Galician-style octopus). Main courses were grilled salmon on a bed of potato purée or chicken breast stuffed with prawns and red pepper with new potatoes. Son Mas Rural Hotel served us warm bread rolls with aioli and green olives at the start of our dinner.

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Portions are quite generous and we couldn’t manage a dessert each. The waitress – who was very pleasant and smiled a lot – offered us pineapple carpaccio, which we shared.

The dinner menu costs 44 euros a head, which we felt was good value for the overall experience of eating at Son Mas Rural Hotel.

Drinks

For a small hotel, Son Mas has a decent choice of wines by the bottle, with labels from Mallorca, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Castilla y León, Utiel-Requena, Priorat, Rueda, Navarra, and Rias Baixas. France provides one wine too, the excellent Aix Rosé from Provence – which we enjoyed when we lunched at the home of good friends recently.

Prices for wine range from 17 euros for the Mallorcan rosado Butibalausi from winery Can Majoral, to 78 euros for the Hacienda Monasterio Reserva red. Nine wines on the list cost 20 euros or less.

Wine by the glass is from Mallorca’s Es Fangar winery and costs 5 euros for red, white, or rosé.

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Verdict

Service was friendly and efficient but a little more relaxed than in some coastal eateries; we had no problem lingering at our table in such tranquil rural surroundings. The tasty food was decently cooked and presented too, although eating here could be a challenge for vegetarians and vegans. We shall certainly return.

Son Mas Rural Hotel looks a very peaceful and appealing place to stay, and we spotted a good-sized pool for those who enjoy swimming lengths. We’d like to have seen one of their junior suites (all 16 rooms are in this category), but nobody was available after our dinner to show us one. I’d say it was worth checking their website if you’re looking for a rural hotel in the east of Mallorca.

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Jan Edwards © 2021