June trip report and restaurant reviews....
 

Finally found some time to put together my trip report for our 12 days of heaven from the 9th to the 20th June.
We stayed above Aures two doors away from Imperial in a beautiful apartment rented out from a lovely lady.
Arrived on sunday afternoon and after unpacking went to C'an Josep for a cooling drink and lovely lunch. Josep remembered us and we promoised to come back for dinner again. A mammoth G and T back at the apartment and time for a shower shave and a kip and off to Bonys for pre dinner drink. First night dinner is always Nicos and after a bear hug from Marcos we tucked into crazy chicken and a prawn quesadilla and back to Bonys for cocktails and then home for cards on the balcony and more g and t.
Monday and I was despatched to hunt for fresh croissantes of which I returned with 4 Spar specials and one hour later were on the beach:) Lunch was had at the new Santa Fe which we were impressed with, top burgers then beach then back for standard apartment routine and off to Dragon Orient. Really liked this place over the last few years but we were really disappointed with the poor service and the tasteless food. The staff were all different to the ones we were used to and we left disappointed to console ourselves with cocktails in Bonys.
Tuesday should have been a trip to Arta but Debbie annoyed me by taking ages ( two and a half hours ) to get ready so I had a man strop and proclaimed " right, I am off to Alcudia, coming? " Which was a good idea as we had a great day and some beautiful tapas in Sa
Placa. After apartment routine we decided on Centric as we had read top reviews here.
WOW great evening. Superb argentinian steak for me and lovely fresh turbot for Debs. Great service, lovely food and great atmos. Well done new owners.
Wednesday was beach again with a special sandwich in c'an Pescador for lunch, a quick dip in the Med and back for , yes, you guessed it, apartment routine, g and t followed by shave and shower and kip. Then off to Luna Miel for what was a proper quality Chinese. Good service and lovely food and stacks of it too. Debs was also pleased with her free hand fan which reminded me of a novelty table tennis bat.
Next day off to Palma. Such a beautiful place. After decining many offers from the Brazilian acrobats to join their troup I stuffed my face with a pizza and continued shopping.
Got back for usual stuff and went on the ruta del tapeo of which my review is on the dedicated thread.
Beach day on Friday including lunch at Taps which was nice but nothing special but I do feel it needs to be visited for dinner to experience it properly. Dinner that day was one of Debs faves in Brisas Marina. Again she enjoyed the fresh fish of day and I had a very gristly sirloin which was very disappointing. Again consoled myself with huge cocktails in Bony.
Beach day again on Saturday with more swimming and what I thought was going to be a quiet lunch in C'an Josep until about 80 people arrived within three minutes and chaos reigned supreme. Even Josep looked harassed. Still, nice pizzas.
Off to Pascalinos for dinner as Debs had a dodgy tummy and " fried rice and noodles is the only thing that makes it better Martin ":confused:. Hmmmmmm.
More OK ish steak for me and cocktails and off to bed early as the naughty rice and noodles had not done their job properly.
Next day was sunday and our favourite day as off to the market in the old town to mooch around the stalls and stare at massive vegetables although I was told off by Debbie for doing something childish with a large squash.
Lunch was mixed tapas and sangria at Calvary at the foot of the steps whilst being serenaded by a superb spanish folkish acoustic band called Rumba Katxai. Got back and went shopping followed by a couple of pints by myself at cafe algar checking out which players had declined to join Palace. Apartment routine followed by another visit to Nico's where I had the best most juicy succulent steak I have ever had for 21 euros but it was well worth it. That was the first time I had not eaten crazy chicken in 11 years of going to Nicos and I must admit I was hugely suprised by the quality.
God, this just goes on and on ..........
Nearly there now, keep concentrating at the back.........
Monday was beach again with lunch again at Santa Fe which we really like and will try dinner there when we come back next. Evening meal was the best meal in the world at La Goleta. Paradilla de Cordero - shoulder of lamb was as usual to die for. Loads of meat on the bone and flavoured superbly. Debs enjoyed her chicken with some stuff on top. Treated ourselves to lovely tia maria coffees and back to Bonys for cocktails. Superb service in La Goleta as usual.
Tuesday was Cala Ratjada in the morning and after looking arounf the tired town, ate in a pizza bar. The area is a little tired and sometimes appears like a ghost town and it essentially a german resort so even if, like me, you speak to people inSpanish, you will be answered in German.
Dinner that nighta was at Osteria of which we were not overly impressed witn. Food was a little poor and not too tasty and the service was slow although friendly, see my review in its own thread.
Final day was the beach with lunch at Santa Fe again followed by final apartment routine and out to Nicos for splendid ribs in sauce and final cocktails in Bonys. Said goodbye to Andres and his sister Caterina and the other lovely lady there with the ponytail and stomped off sadly as another holiday comes to an end.

Fave restaurants were in no order La Goleta, Centric and Nico's
Fave meals were the lamb in La Goleta, the steak in Nicos and the steak in Centric.
Apologies for the length of the report.
Thank you Puerto Pollensa. We love you and cant wait to see you again hopefully in September as it is my choice this year Debbie so we are not going to poxy Crete again.
Adios.

A very entertaining read - well worth the effort writing - and several places mentioned that I've never been in. Must try harder the next time I'm in P.P.

Nice trip report Martin thanks for taking the time to post it :).

Enjoyed your report
 

Detailed honest report,which I loved.

Always good to know which dishes to avoid !

Cheers

Scotslizzy

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to post it, made me smile!

Really enjoyed reading your report Martin (Nicos def on our October list - for the steak). We have been to Ratjada a couple of times over the year - I used to look at the diving club webcam and wanted to see it 'live'. Agree with you, it is a rather more dead than alive place and also a German conclave! And I am still wondering about the 'childish thing you did with the large squash' :D:D

Very good report Nice to know others are creatures of habit !! We always have a Baguette cherries and bottle of wine on the beach now as we spent as though at least a day of our holiday was wasted waiting for service in Tamerells !! ( Great sandwich salad etc shop opposite the bus station by the roundabout such nice staff )

Yes wish we were coming back in September too We are off to Rhodes and have got to the stage where the fact that nothing works the roads are terrbile ,Taxi drivers either on strike or driving around like maniacs < We wont discuss the plumbing !!> Airport where you have to take your case somewhere to be xrayed !! are beginning to lose its charm So next year hopefully twice to PP for us too !

This is a great report but I have to disagree about Nicos. I too had a steak there last week, I was going to have the 21 euro one but for some reason they waiter suggested the 18.50 entrecote and we had a long discussion about how I wanted it pink but not pouring blood but when it came it was very bloody indeed so I sent it back but it still came back bloody but I gave up and struggled through it. It tasted ok but was very fatty and I was very disappointed. Mr Tangofan had ribs which were nice but he was served the wrong potatos (though he didn't remember until he had eaten them that he had ordered fat chips and not wedges!!). We thought it shouldn't be too hard to get two meals right.

We are clearly not on hugging terms with the staff there. When we arrived there was one table left in the corner so we waited and waited but were completely ignored so in the end we went in and asked and they apologised but it reminded me of a previous year when they were admittedly very busy but basically just told us to go away as they were full..... I wish we hadn't gone back there to be honest.

I had been looking foward to the steak as we had been to Can Ferra the week before and had very poor steak there, it was tasteless. There were four of us so we should have complained but it just seemed too much hassle to have to wait for replacement if that is what they would have offered so we just resolved not to go back. If they had come back and asked if our meals were ok we would have said but they didn't.

We still rate La Roda very highly and Neptuno (though much preferred the old one) and also had great set menu meals in El Casinet and El Mojito - steak and shoulder of lamb respectively. Though both these places put a tiny roll on the table without asking and charge 1.50 for it if you aren't careful.

Hells Kitchen didn't disappoint except they ran out of draft beer which with 3 thirsty boys made drinking bottled beer very expensive and I feel they should have offered us bottled beer at the same price as draft. It is strange that a restaurant catering towards the British market should allow this to happen!

If all else fails, you can't go wrong with Trio, first class as usual. As I have said before, the great thing about PP is that if you have a bad experience there are so many other good places go choose from!

Interesting
 

I was thinking about Corb mari for steaks when we come back in Sept . We usually eat a lot of fish but as there are others coming with us next time thought we would accomodate everyone else's requirements .

As you have paid quite a lot for a steak that was not worth eating I do not want to have the same thing happen to us.

So any other suggetsions for steak please ?

Well soorted for the fish !

Scotslizzy

steak...
 

Was just about to post the same question scotslizzy! Have to say that a good steak is the one thing that seems to have eluded us over the years eating out in the Port - they have either been WAY underdone, very gristly, fatty or just not very tasty, and generally disappointing compared to what we can get back home in Edinburgh.

We love Corb Mari but have always stuck to fish as we have by now been put off ordering steak after these let-downs elsewhere. Should probably try there as their meat does look and smell gorgeous!

Hi guys, this thread is Martinchip's trip report and i don't want it to get hijacked so can you please start another thread if you want to discuss the best places for steaks, thanks for your cooperation :).

Yeahhhhhh.
Well said Sparky;)

Pescador 2009, Sparky, Copper, Scotslizzy, sws975dg and Rosie 34, thank you so much for your kind comments:). Glad all that work has been of use to you and please dont blame me if you try one of the places we really liked and you end up hating it!!!

" And I am still wondering about the 'childish thing you did with the large squash"

Hmmmmm, think of the shape and use your imagination;);)

Great report. Totally agree with your comments regarding Centric and Dragon Orient. First one excellent and the latter not so good. is it under new ownership?