VILLA DEL MAR

Address:  Carrer de l'Illa de rodes, 26, 07007, Palma de Mallorca

Telephone:    00 34 971 26 05 83

This restaurant is situated to the east of Palma in the area of Ciutat Jardin.  It is only a short drive from the centre of Palma.

I went here for lunch on a Sunday in June at 3 pm with my husband and another couple.

The booking was made on line and confirmed by phone and by email.

The restaurant was surprisingly uncrowded and we were able to choose between and inside or outside table.

As it was a gloriously sunny day, we sat outside on the terrace overlooking the Bay of Palma with a sun umbrella for shade and a light sea breeze kept as pleasantly cooled.

A menu was brought quickly and our drinks orders taken.  On this occasion no one wanted to drink alcohol due to commitments later in the day so enjoyed either still or sparkling water and an apple juice.

There was an excellent choice on the menu from pasta to paella, fish to meat and some oriental wok dishes.  

The party felt like eating healthy vegetarian food and chose the following as starters:

Burrata Salad - delicious fresh oozing burrata with nicely dressed leaves and cherry tomatoes which was shared by myself and my husband

Almond cream soup with watermelon - this was a generous delightfully presented portion and looked delicious and confirmed as tasting wonderful

Aubergine with feta - again this was a generous and beautifully presented plate and was also deemed to be delicious.

The mains were chosen as follows:

Vegetable wok - three of us chose this and loved the variety of vegetables in the dish and the asian sauce was just the right amount and flavour.  Very tasty.

Quinoa tabouleh - this was a very generous dish but did not have quite the same wow factor in presentation.  However, it was deemed tasty.

We were satisfied enough with our starters and mains that there was no room for desserts, but we all had coffees which were so good that we had 2 rounds and enjoyed chatting over them as we watched the world go by.

All in all this was a very enjoyable dining experience and at €64 per couple we felt it was very fair value.

I would definitely return here.

CASA GALLEGA - DINNER

Address:      Avenida del Comte de Sallent, 19, 07003, Palma

Telephone:  00 34 871 948 115

I went there on a Monday evening at the end of May with my husband and two other couples.

We had booked a table for 2000 hours as this is a really popular restaurant and we didn't want to be disappointed by turning up and discovering that we could not get in.

We were quickly shown to our table and our drinks orders taken.  The set menu with two choices of starter, main and dessert included a glass of wine.  The set menu suited all of us, so those that wanted wine ordered their glass of wine.  However, as I don't drink wine, I ordered a small beer but it was not possible to have this as an alternative to the wine in the set menu.

The two starters were goats cheese salad or garlic prawns both of which were excellent.  The portions of both were generous and declared very tasty.

To follow half of us had hake in white sauce which was accompanied by seasonal vegetables and mashed potato and the other half had fillet of pork with sliced potatoes and seasonal vegetables.  Once again the portions were of a good size, presented well and cooked to perfection and very enjoyable.

To finish there was a choice of fresh pineapple or chocolate lasagne.  The chocolate element of the dessert drew me to it, as well as the rest of the table - plus we were intrigued to know what a chocolate lasagne was like.  In fact, there was no pasta in it, but there were layers of chocolate and vanilla cream sauce between fine pastry.  This was an interesting dessert and enjoyable but not fantastic.

Some of us had coffee to finish.

The whole meal was served at the right pace and did not falter as the restaurant filled up.

The cost per couple was an amazing €45 per couple.  We thought this to be superb value for money and would certainly return to repeat the experience.