Sí: Es Baluard - Estilo Palma

**** Sadly, the café/restaurant at Es Baluard is closed for the time being. ****

When BLD – the former café at Es Baluard – closed last year, it felt a little like losing a home. I had been sitting on the museum’s terrace so many times, always thrilled by the spectacular view across the ocean and the city’s medieval skyline with its palm trees and the cathedral. Preferably on a Sunday afternoon when many restaurants and cafés in Palma take their day off. And I never really understood why so few people knew this beautiful place. I kept returning to the terrace and sat on the broad muralla (city wall) for a while. Until one day, I noticed some promising changes – and Sí Es Balear, a new restaurant opened on the premises.

All set in cool shades of white and bright blue, the restaurant area on the terrace outside is now partly elevated. You’ll love to sit under the white sails among the potted olive trees, or on the comfortable lounge chairs next to the outside bar. If it is getting too hot in the summer (or in the rather unlikely case of bad weather), choose a table inside the modern glass cube in front of the sandstone fortification. The views are just as spectacular.

Foodwise, I recommend the alcachofas con jamon y foie gras (artichockes with ham and foie gras), a perfect fusion of Mallorcan and French cuisine, and one of many examples of my favorite mediterranean style. If you prefer fish, the carpaccio de bacalao (cod) is always a good catch. On a cloudy day, I would have had a look at the recent exhibition, but with an afternoon as bright as this one I keep that option for another day. Nice treat: if you come by bike, you only pay a reduced admission fee of 2 Euros for the museum.