Espiritu libre

Espíritu Libre sits in Port de Sóller a few steps back from the seafront, on Carrer de Jaume Torrens. It is a narrow side street you walk straight past if you are not paying attention — and that is part of the character. People who eat here have usually looked for the place or been sent by someone who knows it. The kitchen is Mediterranean, but not in the way you expect. Guests consistently describe the menu as fusion cooking: a Mediterranean base, a pronounced Thai line running through it, and combinations you would not immediately assume in a fish restaurant on the Tramuntana coast. If you are tired of the same Spanish tapas list everywhere, you notice the difference just reading it. The house is small and owner-run. Booking is not a formality here, it is the practical route to a table — inside or out. The kitchen at Espíritu Libre The best-known thing on the menu is the mixed tapas board for sharing. It changes over the course of the year, and guests compare it to a mezze spread rather than a classic Spanish tapas selection: Mallorcan elements sit next to things from an entirely different kitchen. On a first visit it almost always lands on the table as the opener. Fish is at the centre. Sea bream and sea bass turn up regularly among the daily specials, alongside tuna — marinated, as tartare, as a steak —, mussels cooked in white wine with herbs, ceviche and fish cakes. Seafood pasta is part of the standing repertoire too. The Thai side of the menu is not decoration. Curries, a Thai salad with prawns and chicken and mango skewers stand on equal footing with quieter Mediterranean starters: a beetroot carpaccio with fennel, hummus, bruschetta. Desserts are made in house; the crème brûlée has a following of its own. Vegetarian, vegan and special requests Meat-free is not an appendix here but a fixed part of the menu: stuffed aubergine, a chickpea burger, a beetroot and avocado burger, chickpea and lentil curry, and a chocolate mousse with coconut. If you eat without fish or meat, you are choosing between several dishes rather than between one and none. The kitchen also copes with intolerances. Guests eating gluten free report that the team knows the menu and advises specifically instead of waving the question away. If you have a particular requirement, the best moment to mention it is when you book. The tone of the house Two things come up from almost everyone who has been: a drink on the house to start, a digestif to finish. Both are simply part of how an evening runs here, not a promotion. The service is described as personal and attentive without being intrusive; the owner is in the room, and that shapes the evening. The room itself is small and idiosyncratically furnished, cosy rather than showy, with music and an easy tone. There are seats indoors and outdoors. Because the house has few tables and does well, the advice in nearly every guest account is the same: book ahead. The setting in Port de Sóller Port de Sóller is the harbour bay below the orange valley of Sóller, ringed by the mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana. The historic tram runs from the town down to the water, and the narrow-gauge railway connects Sóller with Palma. The bay is round and sheltered, its shore densely lined with places to eat. Espíritu Libre is not in the front row but one lane behind it. That is why so many guests write that they nearly walked past it — and also why it is calmer here than at the addresses right on the water.