Adelfas by Jens

Adelfas by Jens sits in Nova Santa Ponça, in the quiet villa district south of the centre of Santa Ponsa and just short of the Port Adriano marina. It is one of those houses in the south-west you drive to for the cooking rather than the view. Jens and Nicole Bräuning have run it themselves since 2020: he in the kitchen, she front of house. Adelfas is the Spanish word for oleander. For the cooking the house picked a different word, Xispa — Mallorquin for the spark, the certain something. What it means is a young, modern kitchen that works with the season and with regional produce and makes things itself down to the detail. The chef's own background shows through: Jens Bräuning comes from the Rhön in Hesse, and "Mum's cucumber salad with plenty of love and dill" is written on the menu exactly like that. The kitchen at Adelfas by Jens It starts with the tapas, explicitly meant for sharing. Olives cured in kimchee, also available vacuum-sealed to take away. Prawns in olive oil with ginger, garlic, sweet paprika and honey. Fried rice blood sausage with marinated raspberry and shallots. Alongside them a creamy croquette of black Mallorcan pork with black aioli, baked cauliflower with sambal dip and hand-cut Iberian ham. The starters sharpen the tone: cherry gazpacho with eel and mature Manchego, scallops a la plancha with mango and chilli salad, avocado and passion fruit froth, a tuna tartare in the manner of the Peruvian causa limeña. Among the classics stands "The Hend'l", a crisp deep-fried poulard leg Asian style with yang sauce, marinated ginger and cranberry preserve; the same bird turns up a second time as the filling in the Caesar salad. Next to it, fish and seafood from the copper pot in a light lemon beurre blanc. With the main courses you notice how classically the chef was trained. Veal loin with morel cream sauce, glazed bimi and gratinated smashed potatoes. Mallorcan pork cheek cooked at low temperature with Rioja sauce, corn mousseline and fresh pico de gallo. Croaker with creamy rice and saffron sauce. To finish, the Copa Limón perhaps, a lemon sorbet with flamed meringue, curd and caramelised biscuit. What you have to order ahead One section of the menu runs on pre-order only and only for small tables: sea bass in a salt crust, turbot baked in a bread crust, and a beef Wellington from pasture-raised ox for four to six people. Anyone who wants that says so when booking; it does not work on the spur of the moment. Vegan and vegetarian without fuss The house keeps a vegan menu of its own, and it is no token gesture. It opens with a trocadero salad with roasted black garlic vinaigrette, green apple and a cigar of vegan sobrassada, continues with the parmigiana, the southern Italian aubergine bake with tomato sugo, and ends with fruit salad, two sorbets and pine nut brittle. With intolerances you are better off asking once too often than once too little here; the kitchen is set up for it. Terrace, pavilion and celebrations The restaurant has a large, densely planted sun terrace, a calm interior and a separate pavilion. The pavilion is the reason Adelfas is also known in the south-west as a venue: weddings, birthdays, company dinners. Guest chefs come regularly for shared evenings with live cooking stations, and now and then an artist's exhibition hangs in the pavilion. If you are celebrating at your own finca or apartment, the catering comes with full service attached. Parking is right outside the door. Who is behind Adelfas by Jens Jens Bräuning is cook and owner in one person. Before going out on his own he worked for years on Mallorca as head chef at Lila in Portals Nous, and brought a settled circle of guests with him from there. Nicole Bräuning runs the service. The two opened at about the worst conceivable moment for the restaurant trade and turned it into a fixed address in a town not otherwise known for ambitious cooking. The regulars come from the neighbourhood accordingly: residents and second-home owners who come back.