We like going out for lunch. There’s something sort of decadent about spending an hour or two in a restaurant in the middle of a weekday, when you feel you should, perhaps, be doing something more “useful”, even if it’s only checking your emails, hanging the washing out, or trudging round Sainsbury. We try to do it most weeks at home and, of course, away on holiday there’s not guilt over unchecked emails.
Bellavista is a well-nigh perfect lunch spot. Entirely casual, a bit ramshackle even. Certainly a bit quirky, tucked away down a side street. The sort of place you might go with and “illicit friend”, if you get my drift, with almost no chance of being spotted by your mates and grassed up. Of course, if you had the misfortune to be spotted, the grassing up would be less about the “illicit friend” and much more about the fact you’d been caught out in an entirely vegetarian restaurant.
A vegetarian restaurant? In Pollensa? I can almost hear the sharp intake of breath. But, let me tell you, this is good food, prepared well and served with a smile. I’m not going to do the old cliché and say you won’t miss the meat. Because, of course, if you’re a person who has to have flesh at every meal then, of course you’re going to miss the meat. And, because if you’re the sort of person who is going to enjoy a Bellavista lunch, you already know you don’t need meat at every meal, without me telling you.
Anywhere else, the pizza might have been called a Margarita but here there was a homemade wholemeal dough, a rich tomato sauce and, to add to the flavourings of the sauce, a further topping of caramelised onions and tomato quarters. Just fab.
Pa amb oli was a none too shabby version of the local classic. Tasty bread, toasted, rubbed with garlic and squidged tomato. It was topped with a slice of cheese and a scattering of fried mushrooms. There was a handful of crunchy rocket and a few salty olives. This was a really mix of tastes and textures.
We also shared a third main course. Salad leaves (no doubt from a supermarket mixed bag), enhanced with sundried tomatoes and fried tofu.
The dishes we had were all around the €7.50 mark. Do go. You really won’t miss the meat. Honest!