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Review of Lunch at Lassala Grill, near Palma
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New: Farm-to-Table Cuisine at Terra Restaurant, Mallorca
Farm-to-table food is increasingly available in Mallorca, where restaurant chefs who have the space to do so, grow at least some of the fresh produce they use – or obtain it from a trusted local farmer or smallholder. It’s a good sign when you see a raised bed bursting with greens or herbs just a short walk from the restaurant kitchen door. So the sight of the vertical orchards, crammed with herbs and edible flowers, made me smile as I went into the new Terra restaurant for a media lunch.
Terra (which is Spanish for ‘earth’) is the latest restaurant reincarnation at the luxurious 5-star St Regis Mardavall Mallorca Resort. The last time I ate there, this restaurant – which has a large terrace with gorgeous views of the lush gardens and the sparkling Mediterranean – was called Aqua. Everything has now changed – although the executive chef, Markus Wonisch, is still in charge of the cuisine.
Terra’s new look is from Barcelona-based interior designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán, who has created a fusion of the ambience of the kitchens of noble Mallorcan houses with the elegance associated with the St Regis brand. In keeping with the restaurant name, the décor incorporates natural colours and materials and feels airy and comfortable.

Part of the interior at the new Terra restaurant 
Markus Wonisch The Cuisine
Lunch began with artisan bread, accompanied by Na Capitana extra virgin olive oil. This is a very special oil, produced from the olives on the hundreds of trees on the golf course of Son Muntaner. I’m a massive fan of olive oils from Mallorca (I have two dessert spoonfuls of it every morning before breakfast), but couldn’t resist also trying the herb butter – which was very moreish. We were off to a good start at Terra. Here are the three dishes I ate and would order again.

Skate confit in oil of orange leaves with a spring salad with aloe vera and kaffir lime leaf gel – really fresh tasting and a perfect spring dish 
Breast of corn-fed poularde (so tender) with leek. Oh and a tasty empanada 
Anyone for chocolate ? This will satisfy any chocoholic! New Mar Sea Club to Open in June
Guests staying at the St Regis Mardavall Mallorca Resort will have another place to enjoy drinks and summer dishes this year. The new Mar Sea Club is under construction in an area of the garden that has superb sea views. And this being a St Regis property, it’ll be stylish.
With a new look to the hotel’s Michelin-starred Es Fum, the new Terra restaurant, and the new Mar Sea Club, it could be time to book a stay at the St Regis Mardavall Mallorca Resort.
Good to Know
The underground car park at the hotel has more electric-car charging points than I’ve seen in any one place!
Jan Edwards©2023
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New Repsol Sols & a Michelin-star Move
Alicante was the centre of attention for the Spanish gastronomy world last evening: the Repsol Guía held their annual gala dinner to announce the new ‘Sols’ for 2023. These awards are the Spanish equivalent of Michelin stars.

Álvaro Salazar of Voro – 2 ‘Sols’ 
La Vieja de Jonay Hernandez – one of the new ‘Recomendados’ Mallorca’s new Sols are as follows – and both recipients are in the resort of Canyamel:
Voro – 2 Sols (Voro also has 2 Michelin stars)*
Can Simoneta – Canyamel – one Sol. I am delighted for chef David Moreno and his excellent team at this 5-star hotel.
Total Sols in Mallorca
One 3-Sols restaurant
Six 2-Sols restaurants
Eleven 1-Sol restaurants
Repsol ‘Recomendados’
The following Mallorca restaurants are new recommendations for 2023:
Es Pi – Deià
La Gran Tortuga – Peguera
La Vieja de Jonay Hernandez – Palma*
Nus – Santa Catalina, Palma
Sa Pleta by Marc Fosh – Canyamel
Terrae – Pollença
As you may have noticed, Canyamel is now quite the foodie destination!
*These reviews are pre-pandemic, but will give you an idea of the cuisine available. Any prices mentioned will have changed, of course.
For a full guide to all the Repsol Sols in Spain (new and existing) for 2023, click here.
A Michelin-Star Move
Mallorcan chef Andreu Genestra is relocating his one-Michelin-star, eponymous restaurant from Capdepera to the countryside near Llucmajor. After a decade at Predi Son Jaume Rural Hotel, Genestra will re-open in April in the new location of Hotel Zoëtry, a 5-star hotel on the 14th-century Finca Sa Torre. Andreu Genestra restaurant also has a green Michelin star for sustainability. Senzill, Genestra’s bistro at Predi Son Jaume, will remain there.
Although the hotel in Llucmajor has changed hands and name in recent years, it won’t be the first time that a Michelin-star restaurant has been under its roof. When Andreu’s friend, chef Fernando P Arellano, relocated his starred restaurant Zaranda from Madrid to Mallorca, it was on this very same property.
Jan Edwards ©2023
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New Reasons to Stay at Finca Can Beneït, Mallorca
We had our third stay at Finca Can Beneït hotel in Binibona last week, to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our first stay was to check the place out in April 2021, shortly after Toni Duran – a charming Mallorcan with more than 20 years of international hotel experience – bought the place.
The following year we stayed there for our wedding anniversary; it was such a memorable and enjoyable experience that we checked in again this year.
Since Toni Duran has been the owner, he’s been investing in sensitive enhancements to this centuries-old property with his Can Beneït guests and sustainability in mind. We couldn’t wait to see what had been done since our last stay.
New Garden Spa
Before going to our suite, adjacent to the 200-year-old chapel and the surviving medieval walls, we had a look at the new wellbeing facilities. The former sauna, which was close to the outdoor pool, has been converted into a spacious treatment room where therapist Joana offers facials, massages, and body rituals.
Products used in these treatments are from the Barcelona company, Natura Bissé – which has four times been voted the world’s best spa brand in recent years.
The wooden sauna is now housed in a restored stone building in the garden area. To improve sustainability, it’s the type that functions only when someone is using it, thus saving energy.
Mere steps away from the sauna are a plunge pool (heated in the cooler months), an outdoor shower, and a couple of chairs for relaxing in the outdoor but sheltered, private space. The sauna and this plunge pool area are bookable by the hour for exclusive use.
Close by is a new open-air yoga lawn.

Path to the hideaway sauna and plunge pool 
Sauna 
Sheltered outdoor relaxation area 
Prepare to be pampered To create these new spaces and preserve the integrity of Can Beneït, Toni Duran chose to renovate old stone buildings on the property that no longer had a purpose – thus giving them a new lease of life and creating something special for discerning hotel guests.
Other New Features
The 200-year-old chapel is now a space for art, although elements identifying its original purpose are still in place.
The hotel has invested in new, more comfortable dining chairs too – perfect for a long, leisurely lunch or dinner in the Mirabona Restaurant.
Produce from Can Beneït’s organic kitchen garden has increased with the addition of more beds for vegetables and herbs.

Art in the chapel 
The sheltered herb garden 
Organic produce for the kitchen Good to Know
- If you’re into yoga, pack your gear: the hotel has regular morning classes and that yoga lawn where you can salute to the sun amid fresh air and the sound of birdsong.
- Take walking boots/shoes to take advantage of some of the bucolic lanes and tracks around Binibona.
- The hotel offers bicycle hire (including electric bikes) and has storage facilities for bikes.
- A few places nearby are worth a visit – if you can tear yourself away from tranquil Can Beneït. Nearby Campanet is home to some caves that are well worth a visit. The Black Vulture Conservation Foundation at Finca Son Pons is also interesting to find out about the world’s only island population of black vultures and the associated work to protect these and other birds of prey in the Serra de Tramuntana. Look up to the sky above Finca Can Beneït and you’re likely to see some of these magnificent birds on the wing.
- Read more about Can Beneït here.
Jan Edwards©2023
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Fire up the BBQ for a Calçotada in Mallorca
Nature provides certain foods for us at the most appropriate time of the year. Consider citrus fruit: oranges and lemons are abundant in Mallorca at this time of the year – when we most need a good dose of Vitamin C. And in the cooler months in Mallorca, when a fire or BBQ makes being outdoors cosier, the calçot season arrives.
What are Calçots?
Resembling slightly unkempt leeks, calçots are green onions but (with apologies to Star Trek) not as we know them, Jim. From planting seed onions to harvesting calçots takes around eighteen months, because the growth period is interrupted for a while.
Usually planted in autumn, they are harvested the following early summer and stored until late summer, when they’re trimmed and replanted.
As in the method for growing celery, the calçots are then ‘earthed up’, as though wearing shoes, to encourage growth. And that’s where the name comes from: the Catalan word for a shoe is the similar calçat.
When harvested in the early months of the year, most of the length of the calçots has become white and the flavour is much milder and sweeter than onions or spring onions (or scallions).
The calçot originated in the province of Tarragona in Catalunya and has PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status. There, the city of Valls is famous for its Gran Festa de la Calçotada, which takes place on the last Sunday in January every year. As I write this, the day after the 2023 event, I imagine the cleaning up in Valls will take some time.
What Happens at a Calçotada?
A calçotada is when people gather to cook and eat calçots together. Traditionally, calçots are cooked until blackened over a fire of vine cuttings, then wrapped tightly in newspaper and allowed to steam, which loosens the burnt skins to reveal the tender heart of the vegetable.
Eating calçots is a fun and sociable, but messy business, especially as they are dipped in a spicy, nut sauce before they are eaten. Don’t wear your best clothes if you’re going to a calçotada – unless you’re looking for an excuse to buy some new ones.
Salsa per Calçots is available in jars in food shops and supermarkets, but it’s not difficult to make your own.
By the way, if you’re worried that eating only calçots won’t satisfy your appetite, they’re usually followed by a meat dish.
Calçots in Mallorca
You don’t have to travel to the Peninsula to enjoy calçots or, indeed, a calçotada. At this time of year, you’ll find them in Mallorca – although, depending where you buy your vegetables, you may have to place an order for them.
Local food-store chain Agromart Balear has more than 20 stores in Mallorca and if they don’t have calçots in stock will order them for you. My photo above was taken in the Manacor store.
If you’d rather someone else did the cooking, some restaurants offer calçots at this time of year and a Google search should reveal these. The best calçotades though are probably the simple ones enjoyed with friends at a rustic finca in Mallorca. Time to fire up the BBQ?
©Jan Edwards 2023
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Review of Restaurante Peperoncino, Son Servera
NOTE: PEPERONCINO IS CLOSED FOR THE WHOLE OF FEBRUARY 2023 FOR STAFF HOLIDAYS
I could credit the amiable Stanley Tucci or those adorable nonne on Pasta Grannies (on YouTube), but the fact is that my love for Italian cuisine began a long time ago at a restaurant in Cambridge, where I also drank my first Campari. That Italian restaurant, Don Pasquale, didn’t reopen in the city’s Market Square after the pandemic lockdown, bringing its almost fifty-year history to a close.
Enough of the nostalgia though, as I return to the business in hand: a review of an Italian restaurant in Mallorca that’s been a fantastic find.
Restaurante Peperoncino is in the town of Son Servera, in the Llevant region of Mallorca. It’s a family-run establishment by chef Giuseppe Carbonaro and his family, who took it over from his in-laws in 2015 and gave Peperoncino’s premises an attractive makeover in 2019. There are several distinct dining areas, including a roof terrace (seasonal) and a natural-light-filled covered interior courtyard (heated in winter). Our favourite space is the front dining room, for its ambience.
Giuseppe Carbonaro
You could be forgiven for mistaking the bearded, tattooed, and capped Giuseppe for a rock musician; his distinctive appearance is used to good effect in the Italian restaurant’s marketing. But there’s a lot more to Restaurante Peperoncino than Giuseppe’s image printed on some of the displayed items for sale. These items include his cookbook, Tuttavia, although it’s only available in German. Giuseppe grew up in Germany, where his parents ran a restaurant.
Peperoncino’s Cuisine

Beef carpaccio with Parmesan, rocket, and celery 
From the suggestions: home-made black fettuccine with chestnuts in sherry sauce with tiger prawns 
Chocolate and coconut – a pretty and delicious home-made dessert 
A light pistachio cake and ice cream The menu is à la carte, with a selection of chef’s suggestions, and is offered for lunch and dinner. You’ll find a choice of mozzarellas and garnishes; pasta; meat and fish; risottos and focaccia, pizzas, and desserts. Giuseppe sprinkles his culinary creativity over authentic Italian dishes that are attractively presented and served by a team including his charming son Gian Luca.
Wine enthusiasts will find an excellent choice at Peperoncino, including some very fine wines at prices to match the quality. It’s a restaurant where you could come for anything from a celebratory meal to, as we’ve seen others do on our recent visits, a pizza, a pud, and a beer or glass of house wine.







If Stanley Tucci ever visits Mallorca, I think he’d really enjoy Restaurante Peperoncino. We’d be delighted to accompany him … and not just for the pleasure of his entertaining company.
Good to Know
Peperoncino is open every day except Tuesdays, for lunch and dinner. Lunch service is earlier than in some restaurants: from 12:30-15:00h.
During the holiday season, you need to make a table reservation a few days in advance but we’ve managed to book a table at a day’s notice recently. We’ve found the booking procedure on the website works well and is followed by a prompt email confirmation.
Son Servera has a large, signposted public car park that’s free of charge, about five minutes’ walk away from Peperoncino.
NOTE
We’ve also enjoyed dinners at the Porto Cristo Italian restaurant Osteria Dolores which, in the winter, has a log-burning stove to keep the place cosy. Sadly for diners, this restaurant is closed this year for a winter break until February 2023.
©Jan Edwards 2022












































