Dinner at Aqua, St Regis Hotel, Mallorca
When we were in Mallorca last summer, Andrew surprised me with a 10
course dinner at the Michelin starred restaurant at the St Regis hotel.
Apart from it being the best meal that we have ever had together, I instantly fell in love with the hotel and its beautiful grounds, so I was very excited to get a chance go back this year try their other
restaurant. We booked it for our final evening as one last special night to finish our holiday.
This time, we
arrived at the hotel at 6.30 pm which unlike last time, meant we had time to have a look
around the hotel and explore the ground properly while the sun was out and
then and then enjoy our meal as the sun set.
It was a lovely warm evening so we were very pleased to eat dinner outside again!
We
started with a glass of chilled cava and toasted to our last evening.
Soon a bowl of bread arrived with aioli, olives, oil and a light
tomatoy dip. I don't usually take much notice of the bread but it was so
fluffy and totally delicious - I loved it most with the tomato dip!
Starters
arrived, beautifully presented! I
ordered prawns and risotto which was delicious. The butterflied prawns were buttery and full of flavour - they sat on a creamy mound of risotto rice. The menu
said that the dish also came with a coriander sauce and I thought it was a
brilliant idea that they served this sauce on the side considering how
split people are on the taste. I did have a little drizzle of it which really did enhance the taste without being too overpowering.
What Andrew had ordered was so huge that I didn't realise they
were actually scallops at first, they were massive and looked very appetising
surrounded with lots of colour from the peas, corn and tomatoes in the
dish.
The main courses arrived just as the sun started to set. I had ordered the rack of lamb and Andrew went for the Aqua grill. The
lamb cut like butter and the thick sauce that came with it had an intense, rich flavour. The dish was
rather big for me with seven cutlets in the portion so I ended up giving a
few to Andrew. I ordered my meal with their potato puree (mash) mixed with
Iberian ham. I love mash with my meat and the addition of the ham made a
huge difference for the flavour and texture of the dish. I was very
pleased with my choice.
Andrew
also looked very pleased with his choice as a skewer of different meats
on a black slate arrived at the table with a trio of sauces and a
sprinkling of Himalayan pink salt on the side. Favourite was a close
call between the lamb chop (a small version of what I had) and the
juicy, succulent chicken but as expected from Andrew, chicken won!
We
had a little break before dessert to just sit back, take in our
surroundings and just enjoy being there. The restaurant was actually
very busy by this point but not in a horrible hustle bustle way, even
though it was full of families with young children, everyone was so
calm and relaxed, chatting away and enjoying being there together. It
was such a lovely atmosphere with a great ambience.
The
staff were particularity lovely throughout our evening, I'd even go to
say it was probably the best service we've ever encounter. Our waitress,
Sandra, added that little bit extra to our evening through a perfect mix
of manners, professionalism and friendliness throughout. Now on to my favoruite part of any meal -dessert. We were already wowed with the presentation of the meal so far but this course was by far the prettiest. I had ordered the chocolate delice which was an intense, dense, rich rectangle of chocolate on a ginger crumb base. I switched the kumquat sorbet for a scoop of my favourite, raspberry, to accompany it and cleanse my mouth after every few bites. There was also some stewed kumquats, a tweel ring and a quenelle (got that from GBBO didn't I) of chocolate cream all served on a glass plate.
Andrew
ordered the chocolate fondant which came lined with berries and a scoop
of vanilla. It was the perfect size and as it was very light, it
didn't leave him feeling overloaded with chocolate.
By the time we had finished, we had been there for three hours indulging in a thoroughly delicious meal. The food, the settings and the lovely staff meant that this is one meal that will remember for a long
time!
Looks wonderful and certainly mouth watering 😀
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