Donna Vegana

Donna Vegana in Santa Ponsa is one of the few places on Mallorca where you can read the menu from the first line to the last without hunting for exceptions. Everything that reaches the table is entirely plant-based and gluten-free at the same time, and most of it is made on the premises. The place does not sit on the beachfront but a little inland and above it, in Nova Santa Ponsa, on a quiet small square away from the through roads. The approach is unusual because it is not defensive. Many plant-based kitchens define themselves by what they leave out. Here it works the other way round: the menu reaches across continents and treats the double constraint as a frame rather than a sacrifice. Anyone who only comes along because someone else at the table eats plant-based will find something on that same menu that works without explanation — and that is exactly the intention. The kitchen at Donna Vegana The day starts with breakfast that people drive in for from half the west of the island: porridge with mango, banana and blueberries, oat and banana pancakes with cacao cream, toast with caramelised banana and house-made peanut butter, plus smoothie bowls on an acai, mango, strawberry or blueberry base with their own granola. The savoury counterweight is a scramble of marinated silken tofu with avocado, rocket and pickled vegetables. Later the menu shifts towards Asia and the Middle East. Sushi comes in three versions — one with blue spirulina in the rice, one with mango and vegan feta, one as a tempura roll with marinated tofu. Alongside it are summer rolls in rice paper, crisp tacos made of seaweed with sushi rice and mango, tempura of broccoli and cauliflower, pad thai, a panang curry and a Tokyo-style ramen. From the Middle East the menu carries hummus and baba ganoush with tahini, tabbouleh with quinoa and pomegranate, and a salad plate with falafel. In between sit a jackfruit and pea burger, fajitas with red mojo, a Korean rice cake with avocado cream, and a bolognese that is simply the house classic. At the end come cakes on a cookie base, among them chocolate, blueberry, and mango with passion fruit. There is a reason this breadth holds up, and the house names it itself: new dishes are developed slowly, sometimes over years, first run as a dish of the day, measured against how guests take to them, and only then moved permanently onto the menu. Who is behind it The place goes back to a couple who put two very different hospitality biographies together. Donna has Persian roots and grew up in Denmark, Alejandro comes from Tenerife; he came out of fine dining, she out of street food. Both are still legible on the menu: Persian flatbread and pickled vegetables on one side, red Canarian mojo on the other. By their own account the house has never advertised; the custom came by word of mouth, from Andratx to Alcúdia. The couple became a team, a handful of tables became a terrace that takes up a good part of the square, and the café became a restaurant with a second floor. Donna Vegana has been running since 2019. The house and its surroundings People eat both indoors and outdoors, there are two terraces and a dedicated play area for children — the reason children's birthday parties happen here so noticeably often and families are willing to travel. Nova Santa Ponsa itself is a quiet residential quarter on the rise above the Port Adriano marina, separated from the beach resort of Santa Ponsa by a belt of pine forest and the golf courses. Beyond the restaurant, the house takes on catering and private celebrations, at a location of your choosing if you prefer, and puts out orders to take away. Reservations run through an online booking system — on busy days the better option than standing at the door.