Bella Verde - Restaurante Vegano en Puerto de Pollença

The garden that gave the house its name

The fig trees carry the place. They give the shade the tables stand in, and together with the rest of the greenery they set the whole picture — apart from the bougainvillea, the one strong splash of colour breaking out of it. What you notice most, coming in off the street, is how quickly it goes quiet.

The house puts its own standard plainly: the way the garden takes them in and provides for them is how they mean to treat their surroundings — with a preference for produce from nearby, and with care for the team and the guests.

What comes to the table at Bella Verde

The menu is short and moves with the season. Among the openers you will find dishes such as crisp mushrooms with sage and a sriracha mayonnaise, a white bean hummus with roasted pumpkin, fresh herbs and focaccia, roasted cauliflower with a black garlic cream, or a tomato salad with gazpacho and basil.

The mains run to a Thai curry with tofu, seasonal vegetables, pickles and basmati rice; rigatoni with pesto rosso, cashew cheese and kalamata olives; a crispy burger built on oyster mushroom with Korean barbecue sauce and roast potatoes; a meloso rice with tenderstem broccoli and aioli; and a braised aubergine with cashew ajoblanco, tomato and peach. To finish there is chocolate mousse with pistachios and olive oil, among other things, and a Basque cheesecake in the house's own version.

Whatever sounds like cheese on this menu is plant-based — the cashew cheese as much as the smoked ricotta; one cheese-like product comes from a maker in Barcelona. Beyond that the kitchen deliberately declines to imitate meat. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, spices and an appetite for experiment are enough for it.

The two cooks and their handwriting

Two of them share the kitchen: Juan Ossa from Colombia and Christopher Wilson, half English, half Brazilian. Wilson was born and raised in Port de Pollença and came back after spells in the Basque Country, in Seville, Barcelona, San Francisco and Brazil. He trained at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián; under the name El Brasas he publishes plant-based recipes, and his cookbook is on sale in the restaurant.

You can hear where they come from in the menu: more South American, more colourful and more citrussy than vegan cooking on the island usually sounds. They work mainly with seasonal organic produce from the surrounding area, and now and then an ingredient is allowed to come from further afield.

Drinks: natural wines and things made in-house

The drinks list matches the kitchen. There is kombucha, house-made lemonade and ginger beer, alongside a local lager. The wine selection is unusually careful for a house of this size and almost entirely organic or natural, with a clear bias towards Mallorca: Callet, Prensal, Giró Ros, Manto Negro, Escursac and Malvasía from the island, plus Monastrell from Felanitx and Yecla, Garnacha from Navarra, Xarel·lo from the Penedès and an orange wine from the Conca de Barberà. The coffee comes from a local roaster, the herbal infusions from Manacor.