La Vieja de Jonay Hernandez — Restaurant in Palma

I don't like giving bad reviews of places where I have been made welcome and I shall try as hard as I can to be fair. Firstly, I should say that the staff here were lovely, the restaurant space felt very relaxed and the ideas behind the food here were great. Unfortunately - and I only tried two dishes - the food was really pretty awful. The cooks, who I watched at work, certainly know what they are doing technically. Sadly, whoever designed the dishes I ate didn't seem to understand food. I had first the Taco de carne. It was ok. the carne was well cooked if a bit bland and under-spiced. It was served with almogrote, which I think had been made from goats' cheese, and in any case was too strong a flavour to set against the meat but was not disastrous. The taco resembled a piece of old carpet backing and should have been rejected on first taste as a terrible idea. If you make this kind of bread, you have to fry it, else it tastes of nothing, Small adjustments - better seasoned meat ; almogrote made with a less overwhelming cheese ; changing the bread ; adding some more garnish, could transform this dish. The best I can say about it was that it was very cheap and edible. Then came. a dish of octopus or young squid, I forget, with sobrasada. It was almost inedible. Sobrasada is very salty anyway and the chef seemed to have added more salt. There was nothing to balance the flavours. I asked for some bread, which they brought immediately (and was excellent bread - so why the awful taco?!) and I could just about stomach the dish with that and some beer but I really should have sent the lot back. If you cook a dish like this, you have to have something to offset the salt. Some softened red onion, perhaps, some peas for sweetness, maybe even some membrillo, if you're being experimental. Since it was again competently prepared and cooked, I began to wonder if the chefs had actually ever tasted the dishes. Now, some other diners had sensibly ordered other things, which looked delicious and they seemed to be enjoying, so perhaps I was just unlucky and chose the bad eggs from the menu. And I should like to say again that the restaurant itself and the staff were lovely. I couldn''t recommend eating here on the strength of what I ate though. I hope they cast a critical eye over their menu for the next season and revise their dishes as this could be a great restaurant.

+++ after a very defensive and quite rude reply from the restaurant, below +++ thanks, I have eaten in many very highly esteemed restaurants and am a pretty good cook myself. There is no problem with my palate. Do not blame your customers for your failings, especially when they are good enough to be complimentary about the things you do well. I have given you a very fair and polite review, based on my experiences. People don't often leave constructive feedback, I find, whereas I have. Despite your rudeness, I still wish you well with your restaurant and hope you have every success...

I'll be honest that we normally shy away from Michelin starred restaurants. Too often finding them self obsessed, over complicated, "clever" for the pure sake of being clever and contrary... Not so La Vieja! Although the dishes had that "wow" factor you presume from a Michelin restaurant, there was nothing of the usual pretentious tone too common in such places. We're kicking ourselves that we left this insight until our last night in Palma (and then only because our desired choice of restaurant was closed!). If we had have ignored our presumptions we would have visited on multiple nights as two people simply cannot explore enough of the menu. Thankfully we sat near the kitchen and each dish that passed us by left plus wishing for a bottomless stomach! Presentation, flavour combinations, wine offerings... All exquisite Go there, be impressed, forget your biases. I'm reluctant to say all this as we were very fortunate to be able to just walk in!

But next time we will definitely book and...

Alright but not excellent.

Service was good and well trained but sometimes lacked the attention/forthcoming attitude however served well and was very polite.

The decor is beautiful both inside and outside and so is the atmosphere but unfortunately the ventilators on the ceiling means the provided paper napkins fly around sometimes. Light overall Is decent but could be optimised.

The food was creative but taste lacked depth and complexity. Presentation was mostly superb, highlights overall were the deserts we tried.

Wines were served at perfect temperature!

Overall a good restaurant but IMHO does not deserve the current hype from Guide Michelin none the less a great addition to Palmas food scene and would definitely give this a try again with different dishes.

Recommendation to the kitchen: offer a tasting menu with your highlights to bring out the very best your kitchen has to offer as the menu lacks clear guidance that could be nice to get...