S'ancora - es Mercadal

We’ve always loved S’Ancora, but we were excited to try it this year because it has changed hands and now has the same management/chef as Cuine D’el Pep, a bar/eatery that we have visited many times. It was everything we expected and more. The food is interesting and faultless. I don’t think the menu really sells it to you. It’s a real taste of modern Menorcan food. If you try the set menu you get a bit of all of the starters, followed by a main course and dessert of your choice. Mouth watering! We’ll be back there many times this summer!

As passers by glanced at the menu, I felt like saying “don’t bother”. Goodness me. Very slow service. Poorly presented food with no garnish. No bread offered. And it’s not as if it’s cheap. Look, it’s probably easier to say what I liked: lovely table cloth, the waiter was friendly when he appeared. There is nothing like a good seafood restaurant, sadly this is not one.

These were fab real restaurant food not a huge plate of food without a great taste as in some. Someone’s seafood platter was huge looked fab.

We had one lunch here on a day trip to Fornells. It was very busy with lots of familities so we were lucky to get a table. We both had pizzas topped with sobrasada and cuixot ham, egg and Menorcan cheese. They were quite large so we had a job to finish them but were delicious with lots of topping. We noticed that they seemed happy to provide ‘doggy bags’ for the people who couldn’t finish them, especially those with children. There was a lovely atmosphere and the waiters, though busy, were pleasant and attentive. It's in a good spot too, right by the harbour.

This restaurant has everything going for it prime position and smart interior but it hasn’t got management with a clear insight to what is expected. The staff are very relaxed and chatty. I ordered baked sea bass, which came with a tired uninspiring salad and nothing else. The waiter offered to fillet the fish for me and it took him so long that it was cold when he eventually put it on my plate. He clearly was very inexperienced. My husband had hake with a prawn sauce which was fine but unremarkable. This restaurant clearly could do very much better. We should have realised by the lack of clientele and the nearby restaurant being very full that there was probably a very good reason for this!