Sant Francesc Hotel Singular - Palma

Dining information

Restaurant:

Quadrat Restaurant & Garden, formerly the hotel’s stables, has a chic coastal feel with its white-wood-panelled walls and light-washed dining room – tables are set under the original vaults too. But, sun-seekers can sit in the leafy garden or spill out onto the Plaza Sant Francesc. Mallorca’s famed for its excellent produce – fat flavourful tomatoes, spicy sobrasada, just-plucked-from-the-sea fish – and chef Àlvar Albaladejo takes full advantage of these market gleanings. But, aside from a generous paella and simply cooked catch of the day, his wildly imaginative menu plays fast and loose with traditional dishes: Basque beef tartare comes with anchovy mayonnaise and smoked butter, prawn-stuffed hake is splashed with vermouth and served with seaweed, and burrata in pistachio cream is matched with confit leeks and sea fennel. To experience his culinary wizardry for less, try the €24.50 three-course Sunday lunch, which has rice three ways (with mushrooms, orange and blue cheese; with lamb, local black pudding and wild asparagus; and with fish, beetroot and cockles). Breakfast shows off the best of Palma too, a spread of just-baked breads, sobrasada, ensaimadas from famed bakery C’an Joan de S’aigo, meats and cheeses, cereal, fresh fruit, avo on toast and eggs in various guises.

Top Table:

The hotel’s courtyard is ideal for night openers and closers, with a smattering of two-seaters and young olive trees poking through the flagstones. For dinner, park yourself at table 42 in the garden – a table graced by one Michelle Obama, no less.

Last Orders:

Breakfast is from 7.30 am to a leisurely 11am, dinner is from 7pm to 10.30pm from Thursday to Sunday only. And on Sundays lunch is served from 1pm to 3.30pm. In summer the pool bar opens from 11am to 11pm, in winter it closes at 6pm.

Room Service:

Food can be summoned to your door round the clock. Continental and American breakfasts are served from 7.30am to noon, and the lunch and dinner menu (noon to 11.30pm) has cheese and meat platters, tomato bread, salads, sandwiches, pastas and seafood.

Hotel Bar:

Golden hour – and most other hours, if we’re honest – is quite the spectacle from the rooftop bar, especially from a poolside perch with a chilled Pomada in hand. From here you can see far and wide across the city, but your eye will most likely be drawn to the cathedral, which is floodlit at night. Explore the range of classic cocktails – mojitos, tequila sunsets, espresso martinis – while relaxing in the buzzy solarium. A menu with the likes of club sandwiches, paella and fish of the day will sate you while you sip, and later in the day sushi is served. A little less scenic but with a lovely view of the hotel courtyard and some bold signature cocktails (the Sant Francesc Sunset with tequila, grapefruit juice, lime and Tabasco; or the Grasshopper with vodka, minte cream and Monin white-chocolate sauce), the lobby bar is an intimate space for small gatherings.