Ran de Mar Restaurant Review, Port de Soller

With a couple of charming hotels and small but perfectly formed beaches, it is one of Mallorca’s cutest coastal resorts. Recent investment by the Jumeirah Hotel Group - their uber-luxurious Port Soller Hotel & Spa is due to open on the 24th April 2012 - and by the council has brought about a re-modelling of the seafront and the creation of a new beach. Once all the works are complete (presumably before the summer season!) the promenade will be one of the finest in Majorca.

The Frenchman & I were keen to see if the Port’s culinary choices had been boosted by this new drive to moderinise the resort. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from along the seafront, of varying quality. Most are traditional Mallorcan establishments, with tourist-friendly menus featuring pizza, paella and fresh fish. But we were looking for something a little bit more ‘de rigueur’, somewhere that would offer a more elegant dining experience. Restaurant Ran de Mar is such a place - situated in a rather fabulous Mallorcan mansion, it would go down very well in St Tropez or Ibiza. The styling is very ‘now’ - lots of white with Louis 14th dining chairs, chandeliers and decorative Venetian mirrors. The main dining terrace is in front of the house, along with a chill-out zone with sofas and Moorish lighting. Upstairs there is an indoor dining area and a further bar and terrace. With moody tunes playing in the background, the ambiance is one of relaxed sophistication.

But what of the menu? Well, it’s balanced and varied, with Mallorcan specialities as well as Mediterranean classics - the inevitable pizza and pasta are also featured. The wine list offers Majorcan & mainland Spanish wine, and most are priced under the €20 mark. It was a warm & sunny afternoon so we took a seat on the terrace, and our friendly waiter brought us bread, anchovy mayonnaise and a selection of olives & pickles. There is no ‘menu del dia’ for lunch, only the a la carte menu. We ordered sobrasada & honey on toasted bread to start with, followed by sea bream with herbs and rigatoni pasta with a tomato & mozzarella sauce. As we sat back and enjoyed the vibe, we cursed the fact that we had work to do later that afternoon, otherwise we would have immediately ordered a bottle of rose as other diners had chosen to do. Instead, we ordered some fresh orange juice, which is of course what the Soller valley is most famous for. And delicious it was too.

Our starter of sobradasa (spicy pork & red pepper pate unique to Mallorca) & honey on toasts arrived. Beautifully presented on light rounds of toasted baguette, the sobradasa had a lovely loose & juicy consistency and tasted sweet & slightly spicy. We were impressed. After a short break, the mains arrived. My sea bream (dorade) consisted of two fillets of the fish on a bed of ratatouille with aubergine & red peppers and sliced potatoes. A hearty portion, the fish was succulent and had been flavoured with rosemary, dill & parsley. The ratatouille was a bit of blockbuster in terms of flavour which was great by itself but did threaten to overwhelm the delicate fish. The Frenchman’s pasta proved to be ‘exactly what is says on the tin’ - pasta tubes in a tomato sauce. Perfectly fine, but not sensational.

We moved on to the dessert menu which contained a number of tantalising choices, and after some deliberation, we plumped for the warm apple tart with vanilla ice cream. And very tasty it proved to be too. A high ratio of apple to tart, and not too sweet or sour, the best bit was little cubes of dried apricot that added a lovely chewiness to the ensemble. With the accompanying smooth vanilla ice cream, the dessert was really pretty good.

Our lunch came to €50. Not the cheapest lunch you can have in the Port de Soller, but certainly one of the nicest. Ran de Mar is made for long lazy lunches, a place to while away the afternoon at your own pace - preferably with a bottle of wine. We imagine that the evenings would be quite fun too. Certainly if you are looking for a more contemporary experience in the Port, this restaurant should be on your list. Or simply come for sundowners on their first floor terrace, nibble on tapas and take in the glorious view of the bay. The bar offers cocktails and there is a TV screen that shows major sports events. Ran de Mar seems to have it all, a wonderful setting, a sexy interior, friendly staff and a vibe tailored for the 21st century. It’s open from mid March until the beginning of November - in the summer it’s open all day from 12.30pm to midnight.