Tast – Scandelights

During the last few years I have come to love Spanish cuisine. In London there are plenty of authentic and nice tapas around, at Barrafina, Barrica and the Saltyard group for example.

Palma has plenty of nice restaurants and it was especially two I couldn’t wait to go back to; Tast and Puro Chef.

On Saturday we had lunch at Tast in the middle of the town centre. There are cold pinxtos at the bar to pick yourself and warm pinxtos and tapas on the menu to order. Further in there is a proper restaurant serving more filling maincourses but I prefer the all day bar menu. We ordered some pan con tomato because the neighbouring table had some and it looked amazing. And it was. Of the cold pinxtos we had crab mayonnaise with smoked salmon, white fish with pickled pepper and fried quail’s egg and beef with tomato and mayonnaise. The marinated camembert (looks like a fish tartar) was the only one we didn’t like – the others were amazing! From the menu we ordered a crab and gulas (mini eels) gratin each (so so good!), a kebab with monkfish, king prawn and peppers and a mini toastie with the local sombrassada sausage and cheese. All great!

I like the fact that Tast is unpretentious, nice but not fancy and that the food is consistently good. Everything is well-cooked but simple and you can pop in for a proper dinner or just a glass of wine and nibbles. The wines, by the way, are very good and very reasonably priced!

Tast, C/ Unión, 2, 07001 Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Another afvourite is Puro Chef in Santa Catalina. Here they take pinxtos to gourmet level, serve nice tapas, proper maincourses and puddings. I never seem to be able to order anything other than the amazing gourmet pinxtos and a few tapas to share.

The jamon iberico croquetas were the best I have ever had (and I have sampled my fair share). They came out piping hot, were incredibly delicate and creamy and of course the flavour was spot on. How they were able to deep-fry anything so soft is a mystery to me! The amuse bouche was a creamy concoction with tuna and eggs served on sourdough. Of the gourmet pinxtos we both had the scallops with paprika purée which was delicious. Laura had the anchovies and lime toast full of salty goodness that she really liked and I couldn’t help but order the crispy suckling pig with Spanish sauce that I fell in love with last time. And it was just as delicious as I remembered. But the star of the evening was a brand new pinxtos the waitress recommended to us. Octopus with potato foam. It was utterly amazing. The foam was rich and light at the same time and had the most amazing flavour and hidden underneath were pieces of wonderful octopus.

Puro Chef, c/ Sant Magí 66, Palma De Mallorca, Spain

We ate at a few really nice restaurants in Palma, and Tast was one of our favourites! My friend Anna recommended it and it was also mentioned in a few articles I read on restaurants in Palma when I researched the trip. I had high expectations and was not disappointed one bit.

Well, the waiter was a bit stern to begin with, but he warmed up to us, and to be fair he was super busy running the bar area all by himself.

The bar area with its high tables and stools is open all day while the restaurant with normal tables further back opens at 7.30pm. We really enjoyed sitting in the busy bar area looking at what other people were eating and to some extent watching the world go by outside when not concentrating on our food.

All the cold pinchos are kept by the bar and you just help yourself to the ones you want and pay per plate at the end of the meal. A great concept as you can start immediately if you’re starving like I often am.

The menu was a mixture of warm pinchos, different types of scewers and tapas to share.

We mixed all kinds of food and ate and ate as it was so delicious! The cold pinchos were great to start and we really liked the ones with roast beef and creamy crab salad and smoked salmon (above).

Pinchos with pimiento, smoked white fish, fried quail’s egg and tapenade.Delicious!

As you can see we had rosé and Iberico loin; less fatty and drier than the ham but also delicious!

One favourite among the warm pinchos was these with crab gratin and mini eels (what looks like grated cabbage is indeed tiny eels). So good!

The pig’s trotters with quail’s eggs were delicious too but lacked a little bit of oomph.

Fried camembert with cherry sauce also went down a treat and the people at the table next to us liked to look of it so much they came over to ask which dish it was.

I love croquetas and these classic ones with jamon were to die for!

Naturally we also ordered some fried prawns with garlic and parsley. They were nice and daddy adored them but I found the other things we ate more exciting. We had a lot more food than what’s pictured and enjoyed every bite. The patatas bravas here were a little updated with only one spicy sauce but absolutely delicious!

We ate and drank until we were almost too full to move and had a lovely evening. Tast is relaxed and inviting and the food amazing! I could easily eat here once a week without getting bored and that is a good review indeed.

Tast, C/ Unión, 2, 07001 Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Tag: Tast

Two favourites in Palma revisited

Dinner at Tast, Palma de Mallorca