Goia

Goia sits on the Passeig Es Través in Port de Sóller, right on the front row of the bay, and makes no secret of that position: the view across the harbour is part of the concept. The house describes its own cooking as cocina de autor — author cuisine that takes the Mediterranean as its foundation and pulls in flavours from around the world. Behind it stands a team of young chefs with broad kitchen experience. The guiding line the house sets itself is unpretentious: food as the basis of real happiness. In practice that means "del campo a tu mesa" — from the field to your table, with fresh seasonal ingredients as the starting point of every dish. The menu stays deliberately short. Read it and you notice quickly that two lines run side by side, one Mediterranean and one Asian, and both are meant seriously. The interior leans on warm tones and natural textures, comfortable and still ambitious. For private occasions the house opens exclusively — a cocktail reception, a small wedding, a company dinner. Tables are booked through the venue's own booking system. The kitchen at Goia How seriously the Asian line is meant shows up on the starters alone. The tataki of Japanese wagyu is hard-seared, finely sliced and dressed with truffle and dots of tarragon mustard, alongside sprouts, radishes and pickled daikon. The tiradito arrives cut sashimi-style, salted and set in a leche de tigre of lightly confited vegetables, with coriander oil and a sweet potato crunch. The burrata meets a gently spicy cauliflower jangajji — Korean pickled vegetables — with macerated grapes, toasted peanuts and basil. The same hand runs through the main courses. The salmon rests on a light miso butter cream, alongside pak choi glazed with gari, a hazelnut dukkah and a straw of leek and ginger. The sea bass is butterflied, grilled and glazed with an Asian sauce, underlaid with leek purée and a beurre blanc pitched the same way. The pluma ibérica gets butter infused with kaffir lime leaf and a Thai-spiced salad. The Mediterranean side does without fusion and rests on craft instead. The rib eye is aged in-house and then grilled, with caramelised onions and labneh. The chicken is a boned thigh, marinated and cooked slowly at low temperature in its own juices. And the tomato salad plays different varieties and textures against each other, with a dressing of nori seaweed, macerated cucumber, samphire, shiso and toasted sesame. From starters to dessert The side dishes are no afterthought. The milhojas de patata are marinated in a milk infusion, layered and baked in the oven the day before, then finished with parmesan foam and kombu powder. Wild broccoli comes off the grill with the house green sauce, green asparagus with butter and aged cheese, and the patatas Goia with a jalapeño mayonnaise. The close stays playful. The creamy dulce de leche flan gets mango, caramelised popcorn, chocolate crumble and coconut ice cream. The chocolate pasión is a vegan chocolate mousse with passion fruit sorbet and caramelised walnuts. And the white chocolate millefeuille with strawberries is served with a house-made strawberry vinegar. The wine selection is kept as a list of its own. For vegetarians and vegans The meat-free choice here is no token gesture. Among the mains stands the oven-roasted aubergine, marinated overnight and served with a green peanut curry and a lightly spicy satay sauce, with fried onions, peanuts, herbs and rice. Beside it the glazed pumpkin: cooked three ways, glazed in the oven, on a pumpkin and hazelnut hummus, with seed oil and a fennel salad. Starters and desserts hold something too. The mushrooms in tempura batter come with a vegan mushroom mayonnaise and a sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce, and the chocolate mousse is vegan to begin with. On the Passeig Es Través Port de Sóller is the harbour to the town of Sóller, a good three kilometres inland, and the two are linked by the historic tram that runs right down to the promenade. That is exactly where Goia sits, on the Passeig Es Través that lines the bay — in the part of the village where life happens, and at the same time at the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana.