ROTANA Restaurant, Manacor
A restaurant where you may be able to book a table for the same day, you’ll find ample free parking, and the ambience is relaxing? In the height of the Mallorcan summer? Escape to the countryside and check out this rural hotel restaurant.
La Reserva Rotana Golf & Wine Resort near busy Manacor is something of a hideaway gem. Golfers know it for its own private nine-hole course, but you don’t need to be a golfer or stay at the hotel to eat at the Rotana Restaurant. In high season, the dining and kitchen spaces move to a large terrace with gorgeous, bucolic views of Sa Vall, the fertile valley outside Manacor, where much of the local produce is grown. It’s a tranquil place to watch the sunset.
Argentinian chef Marcos Carranza and his small team produce their dishes in a semi-open kitchen visible to diners on the terrace.
As well as separate à la carte menus for lunch and dinner, the restaurant also offers set menus. The three-course lunchtime ‘menú del día’ changes weekly and offers a choice of two starters, three mains, and one dessert for 35 €. For the quality of food, service, and location, it’s good value. At night, the daily changing three-course dinner menu doesn’t offer any choice but includes warm bread, flavoured whipped butter, and olive oil for 55 €. Neither menu includes drinks.
For our latest visit, we opted for an à la carte dinner. On a hot evening, I enjoyed a refreshing traditional gazpacho poured over a gazpacho sorbet, garnished with watercress. My main course was scallops with creamy carrot and ginger with asparagus and baby carrots (26 €). The scallops were perfectly cooked, and the creamy carrot and ginger was silky smooth.
My dining companion had a generous portion of turbot with Parmesan risotto, beurre blanc sauce, and watercress (33 €). We shared a dessert of roasted pineapple with tamarind and avocado ice cream with hazelnut crisp (15 €).
La Reserva Rotana has its vineyards on the estate and its own-label wines on the wine card. Wines on this are predominantly from Mallorca but there are also some labels from the Peninsula, with Italy, France, Switzerland, South Africa, and Argentina represented. Although not shown on the wine list, it’s possible to have cava and wine by the glass if a bottle is too much.
Photos: Jan Edwards
Prices correct at time of writing.