The first thing I do before going away is to research restaurants. Because for me, nothing ruins a good holiday like bad food. And usually the bad tourist trap food is quite pricey too, which makes it even worse. I resent paying for food I can cook better myself but will happily pay quite a lot for good food. Anyway, that’s me and that’s why I spend time reading travel guides and restaurant recommendations online.

Tapa Negra was mentioned in several British articles (but in no Swedish ones) and as it was close to our hotel and open on a Sunday I decided we’d go here the day we arrived to celebrate daddy’s birthday.

It wasn’t fancy but not too casual either and the food was very good! The menu offered a mixture of cold and warm tapas, small plates (much like at Opera Tavern in London) and a few main courses to keep everyone happy.

My dad loves prawns, so the gambas with garlic and chilli were a given. Really good!

We of course had some pata negra (jamón ibérico) too, ham from black Iberia pigs bred on acorns. I think you can convey from the picture how delicious it was!

We also had a chicken scewer with incredibly moist chicken that came with grated fried potatoes. Simple and delicious!

We also had patatas bravas (you can spot some on the plate to the left) and they were really nice, olives bread and a mini burger that was totally yummy.

We also ended up with some pan con tomato that we actually didn’t order but were happy to eat and pay for (it’s the Spanish version of bruschetta with tomato pulp on garlicky crostini) and also had a crostini topped with coldsmoked cod. Daddy passed on it but mummy and I really enjoyed it. In fact we enjoyed everything! It was high quality on both the produce and the cooking.

Since it was daddy’s birthday we shared a bottle of nice cava with the food (Juvé y Camps 2009) and after all that food we could only muster two puddings to share. We had the grandad’s pudding, which was like a more set version of a crème caramel with a thicker caramel sauce, and some vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was very good and the pudding alright, but maybe not as nice as all the savoury food we had.

Highly recommended but requires an advance booking, easily done on their website.

Tapa Negra, Ingeniero Gabriel Roca 29, Palma de Mallorca, Majorca, Spain