Celler Can Carrossa, Lloseta

If you’re looking for a Mallorcan restaurant with some history and a good reputation, head to the small town of Lloseta. Tucked away behind the now abandoned Palau d’Aiamans – a noble residence built in the 17th century – you’ll find Celler Can Carrossa, a restaurant business that’s 98 years old.

Can Carrossa has been in its current 18th-century premises for 21 years and the business is still in the same family. Today, Joan Abrines and his Moroccan wife Halima Oudades continue Can Carrossa’s story, with Halima in the kitchen. The smiling Halima learnt to cook from her mother and her older sister, who cooked at the palace of Morocco’s King Hassan II.

Although Joan is a professionally trained chef – and teaches hospitality students – he mostly works front of house these days and is a welcoming and knowledgeable host.

Unlike some of the cellar restaurants in Mallorca’s heartland, this one has only a few steps down when you enter. Of the several cosy dining areas, Joan showed us to a table in the natural-light-filled conservatory-style space, with its views over the garden and the swimming pool. In warmer months, you can eat outdoors here.

Today, restaurants serving surprise tasting menus are not uncommon but back in the 1980s, Can Carrossa was a trailblazer for this dining concept. The five-course menu of Mediterranean market cuisine is served for lunch and dinner and changes daily (twice on a Saturday).

Our lunch began with warm bread rolls, Son Mesquidassa extra virgin olive oil, and some tasty olives. Joan brought us our starter: potato, leek, and cod soup.

Next, we had a dish of aubergine with beef, mushrooms, and spinach. In a crunchy crumb, it came on a bed of red pepper sauce.

The fish course was decently cooked sea bass, topped with a prawn. The meat course was sirloin of beef with button and shimeji mushrooms, and artichoke. My only small niggle was that this dish could have been served a little hotter. But it was flavourful, and the beef was cooked just as I like it.

Our lunch fittingly ended with the famous dessert, ‘Cardenal de Lloseta’ – a sweet confection of light sponge cake, meringue, and cream, served with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Diet another day!

The five-course menu, whether for lunch or dinner, costs 40€ a head (excluding drinks) which we thought was decent value for the quality of what we’d eaten and the overall experience. Lunch in Lloseta? Don’t mind if I do.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.