Basico Steak House · Alcudia Restaurant

Meat from the charcoal grill

The grill section is the longest part of the menu. There is beef entrecôte, and beside it a premium entrecôte listed as Irish rib eye. There is beef fillet, optionally with goat cheese, along with lamb chops, free-range chicken breast and pork ribs.

The large cuts are built for two: chateaubriand, an aged beef chop of more than a kilo, and a tomahawk of Irish Black Angus. A T-bone joins them. The fact that several bone-in cuts sit on the menu says a good deal about the direction of the house. The bone stays on, the meat goes over the embers, and the rest is timing.

The sauces run as their own line and are ordered separately: pepper, Roquefort, béarnaise or mushroom. That is a deliberate statement. The meat is meant to carry itself, and the sauce is an accessory rather than a component.

The house burger comes off the same fire. It is served on house-made brioche, the beef cooks over holm-oak charcoal, and it arrives with goat cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and caramelised onion.

Starters with a Mallorcan streak

The front of the menu is the surprising part. Frito marinero and frito de matanzas are listed explicitly in the Mallorcan style, two dishes that belong to the island's standard repertoire and that you would not necessarily expect in a steakhouse. Beside them: pimientos de Padrón, gourmet croquetas with chicken and with Iberian ham, huevos rotos with Iberian ham, a ham board, goat cheese with tomato jam, calamares a la romana, gambas al ajillo, chicken wings and patatas bravas.

The beef carpaccio stands pleasantly apart, because it picks up the theme of the house without going near the fire: thinly sliced beef with a citrus vinaigrette and pine nuts.

Four salads are on offer. A Caesar with crisp chicken, parmesan and croutons. A burrata salad with rocket, basil and Kalamata olives. A goat cheese salad with caramelised walnuts, fried onion and bacon. And a tuna salad with frisée, cherry tomatoes, egg, white corn, sesame and cheddar.

Beyond the parrilla

If you are not here for the meat, there is a short and clear fish list: prawns from the plancha, salmon fillet, sea bass supremes and squid. All off the flat top, nothing convoluted. The house keeps the fish side deliberately narrow.

Children get their own small menu with a cheeseburger, chicken nuggets and breaded hake, each with a side. Vegetarian eating is not lavish here, but it works: burrata salad, pimientos de Padrón, goat cheese with tomato jam, bread with allioli and olives, and patatas bravas all come without meat.

Basico Steak House in Alcúdia's old town

The address is Carrer d'en Serra, a lane in the historic core of Alcúdia. That means the walled part of the town in the north of the island, not the holiday resort by the water. Port d'Alcúdia lies some way to the southeast, and anyone searching there is looking in the wrong place.

Other restaurants sit close together all around, with Celler Ca'n Costa only a few steps away. The lanes are narrow and largely free of cars, and the restaurant has an interior courtyard. Bookings run through the house's own reservation system rather than a portal, and the website is available in five languages.