Ses Cosines

Homemade food with creative touches

We take a glance at the gastronomic proposal of the place and discover something: everything here is homemade.

Author: Joan Ramis Boscana

The calendars that hang in the houses of Artà have all Tuesdays crossed out, the date chosen to come to this part of the Levante. We want to witness a market that, although it is held weekly, has a very unique flavor. After having visited ArtArtà to soak up the artisan culture of the town, we head to the Plaça del Conqueridor to camouflage ourselves among the crowd that fills the nerve center of the municipality. The market stalls represent a showcase of Mallorcan-bred articles: oils that concentrate the best of the island's olives, wines that bring together the properties of our land, llatra products that are made with the touch of experienced hands. Time goes by and we get half past one on the clock, when the shopkeepers pack their belongings and our belly starts complaining. We start walking and come across the restaurant where we have a booking: Ses Cosines. Its awning announces that tapas, burgers & gins are served here. We take note and go in. 

We would never have thought that Montserrat Blanes street could hide such a spectacular place. Ses Cosines is an establishment with high ceilings, wooden floors and walls with palm tree prints. The bar that we find on the right hand side, as soon as we enter the place, has somewhat worn tiles that present an aspect of beautiful decadence. The proportions of the restaurant make a real impression on us, a space where a good handful of tables fit that the clients, connoisseurs of its menu, are occupying with tranquility. A rectangle of hydraulic tiles guides us to a door that leads to the outside of the restaurant. The weather forecast predicted rain, a forecast that led us to book inside. But the sun has risen through the clouds and the waitress has prepared a place where everyone wants to eat: a patio with hanging ferns and banana trees. Daylight filters through a heather canopy to illuminate the diners' dishes, which look enviable.

We download the Ses Cosines menu while a Jamiroquai album is playing. The music seems to come from the plants, watching over us from every corner of the patio to keep us company. We take a glance at the gastronomic proposal of the place and we realize something: everything here is homemade, the service seems to us of the most familiar treatment when exchanging a couple of words with the waitress. Although we are big fans of gourmet burgers and snacks, it is the chef's suggestions of the week that get into our heads, and from there we can't get them out because they also want to get into our stomachs: grilled octopus with avocado hummus, salad with white tuna, seasoned peppers and Cantabrian anchovies, pan bao stuffed with salmon tartar with radish cream... Our eyes twinkle, but part of our illusion is shattered when we learn that the meatballs with Mallorcan vermouth sauce - Rumbo de Licors Moyà - are sold out. Their own success has eaten them out, a sign that here the traditional taste for cuisine is respected.

The waitress smiles when we tell her our choice. While we wait, we take the opportunity to go to the restroom. We go up some stairs and cannot get over our astonishment: the upper floor is almost as spacious as the one below, with a couple of attic rooms and a beamed ceiling that crosses the roof. Everything is exquisitely decorated: glassed-in showcases, damajuanas in the corners and walls papered with felines. And that's how we feel now, with a feline hunger. We return to our table when our first little dish arrives, as they call it at Ses Cosines: a charcoal-grilled eggplant that hits us with a bang. It's pregnant with a pumpkin chutney that gives us a dose of sweetness that works wonders with the white tahini and cashew crumble. The two halves of the eggplant have been conquered by some beet sprouts and local olives. A most daring collision of flavors that can be dipped in an artisan yogurt labneh. We have no words, only applause.

The dish is taken away and we hear the sound of knives and pans coming from the kitchen, whose window communicates with the courtyard. From there comes our second choice, which is a tiradito de gallo de Sant Pere for which we also feel love at first sight. We lacked the bread to dip it in the yellow chili tiger's milk, in the passion fruit emulsion. We appreciate the tenderness of the fish, the light sensation that runs through our palate and is topped with a delicate prickle of spiciness. Not for nothing, but we nailed it with Ses Cosines.