Can Salom Restaurant - Boutique

The kitchen at Can Salom

The cooking is Mediterranean and the card is broad. Among the starters you find Iberian shoulder ham, prawns in garlic oil, the classic broken eggs with ham, small fried squid and green Padrón peppers alongside a salmon tartare. Croquetas come in four versions: chicken, vegetable and goat's cheese, mushroom, and suckling pig with apple. Things get more idiosyncratic with the fried ravioli, filled with cap-roig, the scorpionfish, and served with a squid-ink sauce. Among the salads, the one with goat's cheese, caramelised onion and Mallorcan almonds is worth your attention.

The main courses reach further than you would expect in a village this size. There are spaghetti aglio e olio with prawns and Parmesan, girasole pasta filled with mushrooms in a truffle sauce, and black tagliatelle with salmon in a sauce of coconut and lemon extract. Beside them stand the classics: grilled Mallorcan seasonal vegetables, pork cheek cooked sous-vide with barbecue sauce and a potato-and-carrot parmentier, lamb chops with garlic, beef fillet with a sweet mustard sauce, entrecôte with pepper sauce. From the sea come salmon and sea bass off the plancha, plus a gratinated cod whose aioli is built on the grandmother's base.

Three rooms and a square

Can Salom spreads across three areas. The large terrace sits directly on the plaça; in the evening part of the square is dressed with tablecloths, table lights, potted plants and a collection of standard lamps, and the trees above form a green ceiling. The bar room is on the ground floor. Then there is the Celler, where the Mallorcan wines and the bottles from elsewhere that appear on the list are kept.

This Celler is not the kind you know from Inca. Instead of the end staves of vast wine barrels, contemporary art hangs on the walls, the room is light and modern — and there is a piano in it. The drinks list matches: a sweet communion wine from a bodega in Petra itself, alongside Palo with tonic and a gin and tonic made with Mallorcan gin.

The tenor at the piano

Joan Riera Salom is a trained singer. He studied music at the Conservatori Superior del Liceu in Barcelona, and his tenor voice has been heard at concerts on Mallorca. Now and then he sits down at the piano in the Celler and sings for the guests. This is not a floor show with singing waiters but something that can simply happen on a quiet evening — there is no timetable for it.

Petra all around

You can tell the village lives off its fields. In the cooler months Petra is a favourite stop for road-cycling groups refuelling on the square; for them, Can Salom is an ordinary café during the day. The team comes from the village, which on this island is not a given, and many guests return. If you are after an evening in a Mallorcan village, among locals and travellers alike, under trees and with the murmur of the square behind you, this is the address.