Restaurante CA'N Paco

Ca'n Paco sits in the middle of Banyalbufar, on Carrer de la Constitució, a few steps from the plaça. The village clings to the western flank of the Serra de Tramuntana, between terraced slopes and the sea, and the restaurant makes no production out of that. It is a village house cooking Mallorcan food — and one of the few places of its size on the island to have been given a Solete by the Guía Repsol. The menu is short. Guests mention it again and again, sometimes as an observation, sometimes as praise: there is little to choose from, and what arrives is right. The Repsol guide names three dishes you should try here — the arroz brut, the calamares and the caldereta de marisco — and then puts its own recommendation in two words: squid and rice. The room matches. It feels old-fashioned in the best sense, typical of a village restaurant that is not redecorated every few years. From the tables the view drops over the terraced slopes to the sea. Rice and fish — the kitchen at Ca'n Paco Rice is the thread running through it. The arroz brut — that dark, brothy rice known in Mallorcan country houses as well as in village kitchens — comes first in the Repsol entry. Alongside it the paella, as paella de pescado and as a mixed version, and the arroz negro that guests single out: rice stained deep black by the ink, setting into a crust against the base of the pan. From the sea come the calamares the guide picks out by name, and the caldereta de marisco, a stew in the tradition of the coastal towns. With them the classics no Mallorcan menu can do without: frito mallorquín, tumbet, an entrecote for anyone who does not want the sea on their plate. And at the end the homemade desserts. They come up in accounts of the house almost as often as the rice dishes, the apple tart most of all. If you eat vegetarian, there are grilled vegetables and a paella without fish; the house also keeps vegan dishes and dishes for coeliacs. Who runs Ca'n Paco The restaurant is run by women. The Guía Repsol says so plainly, and guests get more specific: mother and daughter are in the room, serving, recommending, remembering people who ate here decades ago. That is why accounts of Ca'n Paco almost always talk about the welcome first and the food second. The house is set up for families: children are welcome, high chairs are there, and access is step-free. You can reserve as well — with a small menu in a small village, not a bad idea. The village around the restaurant Banyalbufar is one of the terraced villages of the Tramuntana west coast: narrow lanes, dry-stone walls stepping down the hillside, and the open sea below. If you want to make an afternoon of it, the Cala de Banyalbufar and the Playa de Punta Galera are within reach, along with the Torre des Verger on the coast road. For a village this size the density of places to eat is remarkable, and Ca'n Paco holds a settled place among them: the house for the rice, for the fish, and for the afternoon that does not have to be hurried.