Stay
for dinner.

A door off the town streets, then greenery overhead. La Brasa has the satisfying concealment of a garden you could easily have walked past. The old town remains close; for dinner, you have found a little enclosure of your own.

It suits that first night when the separate journeys finally become one holiday. Coats come off chairs, the airport stories get their final telling, and attention turns to rice, seafood and the charcoal grill. There you all are. That was the point of coming.

Some evenings need somebody to say, “Italian?” and receive a unanimous yes. Bistro del Mar is the D’Ambrosio brothers’ relaxed bistro and wine bar on Avenida 8 de Agosto: a very welcome answer to a hungry group.

Its inspiration comes from the family’s salumeria and rosticceria. Parmigiana, vitello tonnato, pizza and pasta carry that appetite for familiar Italian food into the evening. Jackets over chair backs, a fork offered across the gap: dinner can feel settled remarkably quickly.

Cas Costas is for substantial appetites and a group that does not all want the same thing. Charcoal-grilled meat, vegetables and Mediterranean salads give everyone a way in; the spacious garden gives the gathering room to breathe.

Bring the friends who order enthusiastically, and the family members who like to try a little from every plate. There is a particular warmth to a meal that becomes pleasantly untidy: serving dishes passed twice, the good bits disappearing, nobody needing to host because everyone is already helping themselves.

El Carnicero gives a planted old finca the energy of a night out. Warm light, music and a serious appetite for grilled meat make a sociable setting for a birthday, a reunion or the first evening the whole group has managed to get dressed at once.

Choose your cuts together and let dinner be the first event of the night. This is the place for the friend who enjoys arriving, greeting, ordering, getting things going. The more reflective conversation can wait for another evening; tonight the company has come with some momentum.

Off Cala Comte, the islets hold their shape while the water changes colour. S’Illa des Bosc gives you a seafood dinner with that view still in front of you: fish, shellfish and rice, close to the coast that has occupied the day.

Arrive with daylight to spare. It is a small pleasure to recognise the same bay in a different mood, a light layer over your shoulders now, salt still somewhere in your hair. The swim becomes something you talk about over dinner. You have barely moved, and the day has become another experience.