Sunday lunchtime, and once again we are at Agapanto in Port de Sóller. We came last year and in the years before, usually in bright sunshine, always with a view of the harbour. This year everything is new: the restaurant is under new management and reopened a week ago. We have come with our friends from Bremen, curious to see how our familiar favourite place has changed.
The arch, the gateway, the view
The white stucco arch with the black lettering AGAPANTO is still there, the gateway we have walked through every year. Behind it the bay of Port de Sóller opens up, just as it always has. I am wearing the pink crab dress with the pink crochet bag and a purple bead necklace. One of those lovely Sundays: sun, sea, and seeing our friends from Bremen again.
The new design has really been thought through
What you notice straight away is the attention to detail. The colours are matched to one another down to the smallest detail. Beige and olive green dominate, calm and Mediterranean. Round tables stand on the terrace under green festoon parasols with tassels, plain from the outside, and on the inside the same fine pattern on every one of them comes as a surprise.
The plates are cream, with the AGAPANTO lettering in olive green along the rim, matching the parasol, matching the table, matching the woven olive green chair backs. A great deal has gone into the design, and you can see it in every corner.
Garden and plants
On the wall towards the harbour blue morning glories are growing, a flowering curtain of trumpet blooms. It suits the name: agapanto is the African lily, a plant that glows in pastel blue here as it does everywhere in the Mediterranean. In the raised bed along the railing stand succulents and driftwood, a small still life from nature with a view.
On the plate
We begin with a cool white wine and the tomato salad with tuna. On a cream plate lie an oxheart tomato and yellow heirloom tomatoes, with pieces of cooked tuna in between and a handful of parsley on top. Simple and clean, exactly right for the heat of midday.
An honest word
We are happy to give the new team some time, because the restaurant had only reopened a week earlier. The service and kitchen are still finding their rhythm. That is perfectly normal so soon after reopening. The design, on the other hand, is already worth seeing, and the setting by the harbour remains one of the loveliest spots in Port de Sóller.
I hope the kitchen will soon match the elegance of the setting. We will be back next summer, that was never in question.
Agapanto · on the harbour of Port de Sóller · lunch and dinner
To read the day before: Wing, Juan and the Sóller Bomb at the El Petit Bistro.
For anyone who would like to bring lunches like this one home to their own garden, my garden party selection in the shop has the right companions.
Warm wishes from Hamburg
