Guide to know where and what to eat in Menorca (made by a Menorcan)

CiutadellaDeclared the European Region of Gastronomy in 2022, Menorca has much more to offer the visitor than its calm lifestyle (slow life), its virgin coves, its horse festivals or its international art galleries. Menorcan cuisine is also full of appeal, and not just for its usual references to lobster or cheese. It fills the visitor with what local restaurateur José Bosch calls emotourism: emotional, sensory tourism. The offer is as growing as it is diverse. We recommend below some proposals so that, if you visit us this summer, you can know where to eat in Menorca:

If there is a charming place that is essential to visit on the island, it is the old port of Ciutadella. And there, by the sea, you can have a quiet breakfast of tapas and sandwiches of the most typical things on the island: from its meatballs with tomato or almond and squid sauce to cuttlefish with sauce. El Tritón, an old meeting point for fishermen before and after their workday, has it all in this regard. And a stone's throw from the water.

With the permission of Bar Imperi, located in the well-known Plaça des Born and where they serve the no less famous llonguets, the typical Menorcan sandwiches, which here are combined with honey, sobrassada, cheese, ham or figat.

There are, of course, more local and less known options that are also highly recommended, such as going to the Ses Àmfores bar, next to the bus station, where you can also try all kinds of Menorcan and traditional tapas, such as tripe, the meat with sauce or the stuffed eggplant.

The famous Cafè Balear is the reference restaurant in the port of Ciutadella. Prior reservation is required, although since this year there is an alternative Cafè Balear which has opened this summer on the ground floor of the luxurious Villa Le Blanc Gran Meliá in the Sant Tomàs urbanization (es Migjorn Gran). It was there that last year the so-called Declaration of Villa Le Blanc was signed, which commits the Fra Roger association, with the support of the Foment del Turisme Foundation, to continue and deepen the action proposals that link Menorcan gastronomy with culture. And there is no culture that is savored more than gastronomic culture.

To eat a good feast in Ciutadella, you can also go up to the old town and to Alaior street, next to sa Plaça, and visit the restobar of the same name that opened last summer in the old Can Lluís restaurant. David and Carolina, its managers, have taken the recipe book of grandmother Angelines Capó to experiment with local cuisine.

However, one of the most outstanding and high-quality options in Ciutadella is Katú, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisine (based on ceviche and tacos) in sa Contramurada by Miguel Sánchez, who continues the gastronomic line that he himself created at the old Smoix. And in the municipal urbanizations, we highlight the Taberna La Parella, an establishment next to Cala Blanca beach where two couples of Ecuadorian siblings with two young women from Valencia and Asturias have created a menu that awakens the five senses. Grateful and diverse cuisine that allows you to try Menorcan eggplants but, at the same time, volcán de salchipapa, picaña and cachopo.

A fishing village par excellence and a usual summer resort for numerous Catalans, Fornells has earned a just reputation for being where the best lobsters in Menorca are made, and can be tasted. And not just its famous caldereta. Chef David Coca and his wife Mònica cook them in all flavors and styles at Sa Llagosta. Internationally trained, from Tunis to Tanzania, Coca has learned from the best chefs in the world, from Arzak to Can Roca, and has awakened the admiration of professionals like Dabiz Muñoz, who does not doubt that at his establishment in Fornells he has tasted "the best lobster in the world". The fortunate ones who fill the 300 tables served daily in this restaurant, located just a few meters from the sea, in the heart of the Maritime Promenade, can also testify to this.

For views, the ones you can enjoy if you go to taste the rice dishes at Rais, in the port of Maó. Rice dishes of all kinds (Iberian pork loin with asparagus or aged beef loin) in this restaurant of the Ses Forquilles group that gourmets and foodie influencers have visited – and recommend.

At the other end of the port, just opposite the old maritime station, Arjau makes its way among various restaurants and night bars. With a menu of seafood and Mediterranean and seafaring cuisine, it also stands out for its rice dishes, especially the 'senyoret' style. If you like everything on your plate to be ready to eat, you will have a great time.

There are also port views, and very good ones, from the top of the Hotel Hamilton Barceló, in the part of the mouth closest to the municipality of Es Castell. At the hotel bar, you can have snacks and taste cocktails at sunset.

Of course, the dining offer at this point in the east of Menorca also has the attraction of the surroundings. As in Cales Fonts, where, at the end of the Litoral promenade and after passing in front of Es Cau, the mythical place of Menorcan songbooks, you will find Sa Punta. It is an establishment with history and a lot of present. An old meeting place for fishermen and the former headquarters of the Es Castell Nautical Club, it offers a menu with fideuà, creamy rice dishes and 'senyoret' style, and the best seafood and land dishes from Menorca.

The center of Maó also offers more affordable options to enjoy a Minorcan tasting at a good price. A "dit-i-fet", as the popular cafe-restaurant on sa Lluna street is called. Home-style food for tapas and with very typical desserts. Bonibé the same menu you can find at Can Xavi, on s’Arraval street opposite the Sant Roc bridge. It is a small, very cozy bar, with traditional sandwiches and tapas, very suitable for any meal of the day, from breakfast to dinner.

The most outstanding offer in the center of the island is S'Engolidor, an old Menorcan inn from 1983, now restored, and which invites you to take a leisurely stroll through the smallest village in Menorca, es Migjorn Gran. With its own courtyard, characteristic of village houses, S'Engolidor's cuisine aims to reinterpret the traditional Menorcan gastronomic recipe book, from oliaigua to Menorcan prawns. Before going there, however, have breakfast or a vermouth at bar Peri, in sa Plaça, the meeting point for residents and visitors. There is no one who comes to es Migjorn Gran who does not stop there.

Es Mercadal also remains a mandatory stop, in the very center of the island, for all lovers of good food. The Es Molí restaurant, with parking right next door, directly invites you as you pass by the town, on the main road. But if you combine your stop with a short walk to the center, two streets away you will find the cuisine of Urban Street Food, which Juan Carlos and Cristina opened a few years ago and where you can eat one of the most delicious special woks in Menorca. The prawns, the gyozas, and the croquettes are highly recommended, especially the chicken ones, with a touch of curry that appeals to all palates.

And in the other town in the center, Ferreries, it is worth mentioning the Mesón Rías Baixas, directed by the president of the restaurant association, Antoni Sansaloni, and where you can find dishes of Galician tradition alternated with others of Menorcan seafood cuisine.

In rural areas too, we find very interesting gastronomic proposals. One of the main ones can be tasted at the Aquiara restaurant of the Hotel Morvedra Nou, on the road to Macarella (south of Ciutadella), which features the best young chef in Spain and Portugal of 2025, José María Borrás. It is a French-inspired bistro that reinterprets Menorcan dishes, always using local produce that can be picked from the accommodation's own garden. The only problem is the price, as the extreme quality raises the cost of the tasting menu to 145 euros. In return, mind you, you can enjoy imposing sunsets in the countryside. There are luxuries, like this one, that are priceless.

Other guides