A list of good restaurants to go while you are in Menorca

UNESCO has recently declared that Talayotic Menorca is World Heritage due to the density of deposits (1,586) in a few square kilometers (700). Now, there is still another statement that the island can also make openly, which is the good cuisine that can be enjoyed in restaurants (from popular levels to haute cuisine) and especially in homes, a cuisine that preserves a traditional recipe book. , both salty and sweet, with tools that are inherited from generation to generation.

To understand the link between the island and good cuisine, we must go back to the 18th century, when Brother Francesc Roger, from the convent of San Francisco de Ciutadella, published the book The art of cooking. At a time when Catalan was prohibited in the Principality by the Nueva Planta decree, a book was published in Menorca, in Catalan, in which recipes for fish, sauces, crustaceans and shellfish were described. With this publication, the island became a pioneer when it came to collecting traditional recipes, those made at home, because the friar, who was a cook in the convent, had had to learn them. In fact, the fact that there are gastronomy manuscripts related to religious orders in the kitchen is understood by this fact: the cook friars had the need to write down the recipes because otherwise they could be forgotten.

As after the summer, Menorca continues to be a good tourist destination, we propose 10 restaurants where you can taste the culinary history, ancient and modern, of its cuisine. ~BK_LINE_HOP~

Chef David de Coca is an enthusiast of the profession of cook and a lover of local seafood products. In summer, four fishing boats bring him the lobster, which in Menorca has fishing regulations, and he complies with them, because at the end of September the restaurant will close until the new season. However, De Coca is not satisfied with the lobster stew, the homemade recipe that is also cooked in restaurants and that is perhaps more designed for winter than summer. The chef cooks the lobster in ten different ways, mixing current techniques with ingredients that enhance the taste of the crustacean. Now, as it is rainy season, the famous fish known as parrots, his imagination has led him to cook them with the thorn included, which he presents on the plate as a crunchy dish and which raises smiles and emotions to all who see him for the first time. The raor remains standing on the plate, ready to be chopped and tasted little by little.

The chef Víctor Lidón is heir to the cuisine of Santi Santamaria, who retains his appreciation for cooking and also some of the respected copper pots of the chef from Rincón de Can Fabes. On the menu, fish and meat, both options are possible: in the first case, fish from the island, which in autumn is caught again and varied, and in the second, attention!, garrinet from Menorca, presented with date, apple, celery, cucumber and red onion puree. For those who want to taste island vegetable dishes, you will find eggplant with smoked eel, vegan cashew sobrasada, goat cheese, basil pesto and sweet olive.

Perhaps the first thing everyone tells chef Doro Biurrun is that it was difficult for them to find the restaurant. Located on a road on the outskirts of the town of Sant Lluís, the kitchen of Sa Parereta de Doro is worth the effort, which is not as hidden or as remote as it may seem from these words. To begin with, the sunsets seen from the wooden door of the restaurant, between its stone margins, are the first attraction. To continue, the space, located in a house with white walls, with different spaces, is cozy, transferring the thought to a small place (agricultural property) on the island. And lastly, and most importantly, the kitchen. On the menu you can choose, for starters, between zucchini carpaccio, with tomato, Menorca cheese and olive oil or self-made duck ham. For starters, the red shrimp tartar from Menorca or the pickled mackerel. And for seconds, attention to rice lovers, black catfish and cuttlefish rice. There are also fish, such as the especto, the corball or the bonito, and meat, a unique dish, the porcella, one of the great stars of the menu.

It is one of the trendy restaurants in the town of Es Castell. With wooden doors painted deep red, Pintarroja is the ideal proposal for sharing dishes between groups. On the menu, chef Eugenio del Diego offers everything from seafood dishes (clams, clams, shrimp, crayfish, oysters...) to sobrasada and honey bikinis, which have become one of the restaurant's biggest draws. For dessert, the torrija or pineapple with vanilla-flavored cream. El Pintarroja has become the meeting point for those who want to share seafood and fresh fish dishes with unbeatable views, facing the sea.

It is the Japanese restaurant from Ciutadella, run by chef Julian Mármol, with a restaurant in Madrid, where it has a Michelin star. The concept of Japanese cuisine is what guides the menu but with the island's star product. So lobster, shrimp, razor clams and the most succulent seafood can be eaten with the techniques of Japanese cuisine, which show the product with purity, and not always raw as one might think. The chef proposes eating with a choice of à la carte dishes or also a tasting menu, and all the proposals, with a good bite and succulent, can be paired with the restaurant's cellar, which has wines and sparkling wines from the island, from Principality, the State and, of course, Japanese sakes. Highly recommended for sake lovers, because on the menu you will find the sweet, umeboshi sake, ideal to pair with the dessert on the menu.

Silvia Anglada, in the kitchen, and Toni Tarragó, in the living room, are references on the island. With a long history in the profession, Silvia was a mentor to the Menorcan chef Pau Sintes, who was the one who won in Norway the award for the best chef in Europe 2022, according to the contest organized by the International Institute of Gastronomy, Art and Tourism for the recreation of stuffed eggplants. In the restaurant, located in one of the most beautiful streets of Ciutadella, you will find a letter that declares its principle of adherence to theslow food. Thus, the stuffed eggplants, with traditional recipes, the Valley melons, one of the most prestigious fruits of the island, the island cheeses, the vegetables, the meat and the fish of the island, you will find them cooked with the appreciation that the cook puts into her job and into life. Es Tast de na Silvia is the restaurant where the island's most deeply rooted recipe book is tested with bites of happiness.

The chef Felip Llufriu signs the menu at the Mon restaurant, located on Sant Nicolau street, next to the stairs that lead to the port and near the Plaza dels Pins. Llufriu offers à la carte food or choose from the tasting menu, also paired with wines from the island and other leading references, and among the dishes that cause the most demand are stingray fritters or cochineal with apple. Chef Felip Llufriu has a high-profile professional resume, especially for the ten years he directed the kitchen at the Hotel Omm (today Sir Victor Hotel, on Rosselló Street in Barcelona). In Ciutadella, he has created a beautiful space, with an interior terrace that links with the interiors of the Menorcan houses, painted white, and with honest, product-based cuisine, with very elaborate dishes, where the bite demonstrates the quality of the material. first, cooked with great taste. It is possible to stay on the upper floors of the Mon restaurant, so the proposal is completed with a good rest.

Located in the port of Ciutadella, a tourist area in the summer season, but always recommended at all times of the year, the Aquarium has one of the most attractive terraces, very close to where the boats moor. You can choose between the a la carte and the tasting menu, which includes rice. The chairs, the so-called blonde cakes, will make you feel like another islander while you watch the comings and goings of the boats entering and leaving the port. For dessert, the star of the house is the cheesecake. Nobody leaves the Aquarium without having tried it and recommended it, they say. And it is true that it is so.

On its own boat and with a long history in Ciutadella, Café Balear is a restaurant where you always eat well. Product of Menorca, cooked with traditional recipes, with tables flush with the port and with large interior rooms. Those who want to eat lobster with blonde potatoes and fried eggs, know that the dish is one of the chefs' favorites, as well as the grated cockles and, like so many seasonal proposals, that the new generation who runs the restaurant, Josep Caules , he proposes.

It is a bar with a restaurant vocation, located in front of the Ciutadella market. The specialty, the fish, caught in their own boat, and they also cook it if you buy it in front of the market and they bring it (the price will be lower because they will only charge you for the cooking). Let yourself be carried away by the proposals of the day, and also try the cocktails, which is one of the specialties that connect the dishes with what is, by definition, a bar.