Voro Review: The Only Two-Michelin Starred Restaurant In Mallorca

Voro, at Cap Vermell hotel, on the east side of Mallorca, is the only two-Michelin-starred restaurant on the popular island. Rebecca Cox visits out of season to try Álvaro Salazar’s creative masterpiece. 

Voro Restaurant Review: Cap Vermell, Mallorca

Completely by coincidence, I stepped foot into two-Michelin starred restaurant Voro the night after watching The Menu on Disney Plus. So you can imagine my apprehension when, upon being seated, it was explained to us that as well as there being absolutely no substitutions or vegetarian options, we should pre-warn staff if we needed to leave the table for any reason such as to use the bathroom or smoke, and would be given precise instructions on how to eat each dish (‘use the spoon to eat the left half of this dish, take a sip of this drink, then return for the right half’). Was this a night of fine dining, or a room of diners at the mercy of a genius chef driving to madness by his craft and headed for tragedy? Thankfully, the former. While not without pretension, Voro’s tasting menu is an immaculately executed conceptual dining experience that surpasses almost any other. It’s not The Menu. But it is a menu of meticulous merit, well worthy of being the only twice-starred dining destination on Mallorca. 

Voro: The Menu

On arrival, the menu is presented as an empty folder, ready to be filled with individual course cards throughout the evening to be taken home as a souvenir, or in my case, research notes, since there’s no way I would have been able to remember all 22 of the concoctions served up by Salazar and his team over the course of the evening. As you add each card, a line fills from ‘dawn’ closer to ‘sunset’, so you have a visual representation of how far through the dining experience you are, easing some of the stress that a tasting menu can come with. (How many more dishes must I save space for?) From the inside cover we learn that ‘Voro’ is from the Latin ‘vorare’, to devour, to eat eagerly and greedily. So we do as instructed. 

Herbivore

Each course is a collection of one, two or three small dishes based around a hero ingredient. I will not work through all 22 here, because it would be a boring read and would ruin the experience for future visitors, however the first course was one of the strongest openers I’ve had to a tasting menu. Tomato is the first hero, with a trio of gazpacho, a take on the Bloody Mary cocktail and a margherita ‘pizza’ bite combining for a refreshing, light and innovative finger food mezze that sets the tone for the food to come. 

Fish

Along with the caviar-topped almond mousse, filled with pea and olive oil soup (unbelievably clever), the lobster course must be acknowledged. A duo of lobster medallions, fried rice, caramelised lobster head and herb foam, and a dish consisting of quail egg yolk, fried potato and lobster claw, were both superlative. 

Meat 

Voro does not cater for vegetarians, so as someone who hasn’t eaten red meat for almost a decade, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. With such strict instructions on how to eat each dish, which utensils to use and even how many bites each dish should take to finish, leaving plates untouched didn’t feel like an option. I felt like a child at my father’s dinner table again, being told I could sit there until the liver was gone, desperately trying to hide it in a line under folded cutlery. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my dining companion, who selflessly snuck meaty bites from my plate, reporting that each course was perfectly cooked and well-balanced, despite having to double the meticulously calculated portion size. 

Sweets

What do you need after 17 savoury dishes? Five sweet ones, naturally. With a lot of tasting menus the joy is in the journey, with the final destination being remorse, over-fullness and nausea. But at Voro, both the journey and the ending are sweet. It is hard to imagine with a 22-piece menu, but there isn’t too much food (though there is plenty). And so, each of the sweet courses can be enjoyed without trepidation. The hero of the five, and my highlight of the evening, was the strawberry course, a plate based on the concept: ‘what does the colour pink smell like?’. The answer: roses, strawberries, hibiscus and pink pepper: an aromatic, light and fruity pudding that looked and tasted like heaven. And not a human s’more in sight.   

Wines

The wine matching is thoughtful and interesting, straying from the usual top-of-the-range designer labels and instead leaning into rare and interesting regional wines, including a white rioja and a sweet cider from the Basque country in the place of a dessert wine. 

Cap Vermell Grand Hotel

Voro sits at the heart of Cap Vermell Grand Hotel, a five-star resort nestled in the quiet and beautiful northeast of the island, overlooking the Canyamel valley. There are 142 rooms and suites, plus a series of standalone villas, all terracotta-hued buildings strewn across the rugged hillside. There’s a world-class spa on-site, as well as a Country Club with several pools, tennis and padel courts, a large gym and plenty of fitness options. Out of season, those not brought here by Voro are usually all about the golf, with four world-class courses, Son Servera, Capdepera, Pula and Canyamel, nearby.

THE FINAL WORD 

The execution is slightly eccentric, but the flavours and techniques on display are truly superlative. Is it worth making a visit to Mallorca’s quieter coast for a taste of what Chef Álvaro Salazar is cooking? Absolutely. 

BOOK 

Starting rates at Cap Vermell Grand Hotel are £460 for a room in low season | capvermellgrandhotel.com | The 18-course menu at Voro is €195 (approx £162) per person, the 22-course menu is €230 (approx £190) per person | vororestaurant.com