Como en Casa

Como en Casa sits in Port d'Alcúdia a little back from the seafront promenade, on Carrer dels Pins — a side street with several restaurants next to one another, a few minutes on foot from the Passeig Marítim and the marina. The name is not a figure of speech here: a family has been cooking in this house since 2012, and they cook themselves. The menu is short, and that is deliberate. The house describes its own kitchen as simple and demanding at once — few dishes, but carefully chosen, with fresh ingredients and produce from the surrounding area. Everything is prepared on the premises, from the first plate to the dessert. Anyone looking for a menu that runs to several pages is in the wrong place. Anyone who wants to know who cooked their food is in the right one. The kitchen at Como en Casa It opens with things the house makes itself: bread with alioli and olives, homemade nachos with melted cheese, salsa, guacamole and sour cream, and chicken croquettes, crisp outside and creamy within. The house salad is the most idiosyncratic way in — young leaves, vegetables, toasted nuts, goat cheese and strawberries under a dressing of their own. Goat cheese and strawberry together explain the thinking here rather well. Among the main courses the line stays unfussy and broad enough for a whole table. There are chicken skewers marinated in the house spice blend and cooked over the flame, crisp chicken strips, a beef burger with melted cheese, smoked bacon and onion, and slow-roasted Iberian pork in an apple and chive sauce. From the sea come a tuna steak that takes its colour over the flame and arrives with mango and yogurt sauce, and a loin of cod under a gratinated layer of alioli with Mediterranean vegetables. Fries made on the premises come with nearly all of it. The desserts are house work too, and no afterthought. The cheesecake on its biscuit base takes a changing topping, the apple tart arrives warm with vanilla ice cream, and the chocolate brownie brings walnut pieces and vanilla ice cream as well. A dining room laid out like a home The furnishing takes the name literally. The interior is divided into several rooms furnished like the rooms of a home — a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room. Guests describe the design as idiosyncratic and made with humour; it is the reason many remember this place long afterwards. In front of the house there is a terrace for warm evenings. The whole thing is cut small, so a free table is not a given — booking is advisable. Eating vegetarian and coming with children Vegetarians are not left with a side dish here. Seitan in a creamy mushroom and onion sauce stands on the menu as a main course in its own right, with the house salad beside it as a second meat-free option. Anyone eating vegan finds staff who understand the question — at a holiday resort that is no small thing. For children the house keeps a small selection of its own: homemade chicken croquettes, a beef burger, fish nuggets and chicken strips. Being a family business, Como en Casa is set up for families rather than merely braced for them. Wines from the island What stands out on the wine list is how much Mallorca is on it. Alongside bottles from the mainland — from Rioja, Navarra, Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Galicia — there are Mallorcan wines made from the island grapes Manto Negro, Callet and Premsal, organic ones among them, in red, rosé and white. There is an island option among the beers too. Add homemade lemonade and homemade iced tea, sangría with cava if you like, and coffees down to the carajillo. The menu is laid out in Spanish, English, French and German.