Urbà, Palma
The first time I ate chef Santi Taura’s cuisine was at his original restaurant, which opened in 2003 in his hometown, Lloseta. I was blown away by the experience and excited to find such an appealing representation of the local cuisine.
It’s fair to say that Santi Taura has played a prominent role in raising the profile of Balearic gastronomy, because his delicious cuisine is the result of his extensive and passionate research into the islands’ culinary history and old recipe collections.
Years have since passed and today this Mallorcan chef has his acclaimed restaurant DINS Santi Taura in Palma, within the adults-only 5-star Hotel El Llorenç Parc de la Mar in the Jewish Quarter neighbourhood of Sa Calatrava. The restaurant has had a well-deserved Michelin star since 2021.
If your budget doesn’t stretch to Michelin-starred dining, Santi is also responsible for the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, Urbà, where chef Josè Pujana heads up the kitchen in a restaurant described as ‘the Santi Taura Group’s more open and cosmopolitan concept’. I like that the current menu is shown on the Urbà website.
The rooftop location (with outdoor heaters and retractable, clear screens providing shelter from any breezes) gives you privileged views of the Bay of Palma and a feeling of being on top of the world. When you see the pool terrace (for hotel guests only), you’ll probably want to book a room.
The food at Urbà is a harmonious marriage of Mediterranean and Asian, with dishes designed to be shared. It’s difficult to choose from such a tempting menu, so we knew we’d have to return soon to try more dishes. If you like surprises, you could choose the 8-plate option for 62€.
We began with crunchy nigiris of spicy salmon, including shiso leaves and nori seaweed (4 for 16€). Our next dish was satay of tender lamb fillet, with fried peanuts and mint. On reflection, we should have ordered the wholemeal sourdough bread offered here to mop up the last of the moreish sauce.
A refreshing vegetarian salad of bimi, asparagus, rocket, avocado, and feta cheese, was a good companion to the fillet of Japanese amberjack (hamachi), which was thinly sliced and served with apricot teriyaki, coconut cream, and pieces of crackling.
Portion sizes were satisfying, so we chose dessert while we still had space. I loved my ginger pie, which wasn’t overly sweet and had a good hit of ginger. My companion enjoyed something called ‘softcake’ of pistachio and white chocolate with yuzu cream and mandarin sorbet. He described it as being ‘like a crumble’ – which he devoured before I could dig my spoon in for a taste, so I had to take his word for it.
There’s a choice of decent wines by the glass; ours came from Mallorca’s Bodega Ava Vi at 10€ for a generous glass.
With the combination of Santi Taura, delicious cuisine, and a superb location, Urbà is understandably busy during the season, and we failed to get a short notice booking last summer. My advice? Go before the summer crowds return to Palma.
Photos: Jan Edwards
Prices correct at time of writing.