The Crow's Nest - Cala Major

The menu at The Crow's Nest

The starters alone are a short course in the country. Boerewors, the coarse farmer's sausage, arrives in a roll with chakalaka, the fiery vegetable relish that no South African table is without. Alongside it come chaka balls made from boerewors mince, chicken livers in peri-peri, and zibi croquettes of ostrich meat with mango.

The exotic meats are the heart of it. Crocodile, warthog, zebra, gemsbok and ostrich appear on the menu as burgers, as steaks and in the stew pot. The potjiekos section is named after the three-legged cast-iron pot in which South Africa cooks slowly: this is where you find the zebra bredie and the gemsbok drawn out with wine and herbs. Order the stew as a bunny chow if you like, in a hollowed loaf the way Durban brought it about.

The classics are all present. Bobotie, the spiced mince bake under a layer of egg, sits beside peri-peri chicken, sosaties, lamb shank and ribs. From the Cape Malay kitchen come the mussels in a red curry sauce with coconut milk and the cape sea curry. Vegetarians and vegans are not fobbed off with a token plate: the vuvuzela is a vegan bobotie built on lentils, sweet potato and butternut, and there is a plant-based burger and salads besides. To finish there are malva pudding, Amarula cheesecake and crispy mint. For two, large platters, among them a safari version that runs straight through the exotic range.

Who cooks here

Estelle Hunt developed the menu and the recipes herself. She learned it not at a cookery school but over years in the events industry, where hosting was the job, and through a passion for cooking that has been with her since childhood. That Mallorca had an appetite for genuine South African food was her own observation, before it turned into a restaurant.

At the stove stand Michał Smorawski and Patryk Trzciński, part of the house for close to a decade. The team has travelled through South Africa together to experience that cooking at first hand. This continuity explains why a menu covering so many regions of the country at once does not fall apart.

The restaurant can be booked whole for private occasions — company dinners, celebrations, rugby match days or small weddings. The entire room, view of the water included, then belongs to a single party.

Cala Major, one staircase above the beach

Cala Major lies a few kilometres west of Palma's old town on the coast road towards Illetes and Portals. The district belongs to Ponent, has a sandy beach of its own and, right above it, a museum of standing in the Fundació Miró Mallorca.

From the beach the staircase climbs to Avinguda Joan Miró, the main artery of the quarter. Halfway up sits The Crow's Nest, below Wabisuke and above the Spar. From Palma it is a short run along the coast, and anyone living in the neighbourhood walks.