Choose a Balearic Islands yacht charter and join an elite list of visitors. Renowned as a playground for wealthy holiday-makers and expats, the Spanish Islands are brimming with chic seaside restaurants that beckon as you cruise by. Most of the islands are well equipped with marinas where you can moor your yacht and slip away for a leisurely seaside meal alfresco. Here are the best waterfront restaurants in the Balearics.
Mallorca
Mallorca is home to dozens of quality marinas, so you may want to hop around, or hire a car to explore the island. First on your list of dinner reservations to secure while in Mallorca is Tristan, a sleek Michelin-star restaurant and bar fronting the Puerto Portals marina just west of Palma, where your super yacht will be in good company. Tristan is well known among the jet set, mostly for its signature Mediterranean dishes, concocted by renowned Chef Gerhard Schwaiger, but also for its chic ambience and exceptional service (open for lunch and dinner). A few minutes’ drive west from Puerto Portals is the St Regis Mardavall Hotel, where you will find the Michelin-star Es Fum, whose palm-fringed terrace overlooks a garden so lush it may distract you from the Mediterranean Sea laying just beyond. Choose the six-course, eight-course, or 10-course menu and feast on Chef Rafael Sanchez’s painstakingly prepared Mediterranean dishes (dinner only). If you find yourself in Port de Soller on Mallorca’s South-west coast, stop into Es Faro, located on a cliff overlooking the mountains and beach below. Es Faro’s claim to fame is freshly caught seafood prepared simply with traditional Spanish ingredients, with a breath-taking view to boot (open for lunch and dinner). On the southeast coast of Mallorca, the pretty fishing village of Portocolom is home to Restaurant Colon, a striking example of Spanish frou frou, with brass bulls, stone walls, dramatic candelabras and fireplaces decorating the interior and a view to the beautiful quayside of Portocolom, where you can moor your yacht. The cuisine is traditional Spanish, and if you’d rather take lunch or dinner to sea, Restaurant Colon offers yacht catering services too (open for lunch and dinner).
Ibiza
Arrive at Ibiza’s Botafoch Marina or the neighbouring Puerto Deportivo Marina and drive 15 minutes east to one of the most glamorous alfresco dining spots on the island, Sa Punta in Talamanca. Sa Punta’s sleek all-white interior continues outside to its teakwood terrace, where daybeds and dining tables face the sea. An “international” menu serves mainly Mediterranean and French dishes (open 11am – 3am). Don’t be put off by Nassau Beach Club’s thumping music and champagne-spraying patrons: the food is surprisingly sophisticated, with Asian influences punctuating its “molecular gastronomy” concept (15 minutes’ drive southwest of the marinas, open 10am to 2am). A more relaxed beach club is El Chiringuito, located on beautiful Es Cavallat Beach, giving diners views out over Ibiza Old Town and nearby Formentera. The restaurant prides itself on its fresh, local ingredients. Warning: the beach is considered “nudist” (25 minutes’ drive southwest of the marinas). Set in a stunning cliff-side cove overlooking Sol D’en Serra bay, Amante Beach Club is perhaps the epitome of Ibiza chic, the perfect setting for leisurely alfresco lunches and dinners, with a Mediterranean inspired menu (25 minutes’ drive northeast of Estrella marina, open 11am until 2am).
Menorca
Es Marivent is the much beloved darling of the Menorca jet-set, with a spacious terrace overlooking the harbours of Mahon, you can pitch up straight from the nearby Marina Mahon for fresh Mediterranean-inspired seafood dishes (open noon until 11.30pm). A 10-minute drive from the marina, at the Es Castell harbour, Restaurante Trebol is where to go for unfussy, high quality seafood with a waterfront setting. On the west coast of the island, located on a busy promenade at the Port of Cuitadella, Café Balear offers fresh-caught seafood, brought in daily from the restaurant’s own fishing boat.
Formentera
A truly unique dining experience is Restaurante Es Calo, tucked away in the secluded Es Calo cove, directly on a white sand and rock beach overlooking crystal clear waters and serving seafood on a shaded platform of white linen draped tables. Anchor nearby and take the tender to shore – there is a wooden boardwalk leading from the sea up to the restaurant’s entrance. Roughly 10 minutes’ drive from Marina de Formentera is Es Moli de Sal, situated between two of the island’s prettiest beaches, serving Mediterranean seafood dishes on a large open-concept wooden deck, where the fresh seaside breezes won’t be in short supply.