Clint H.
Yelp
Despite what some people may think, I really do love handing out 5 star reviews. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love going to a place with no real expectations and being blown away...but what I maybe love more, is going to a place with high expectations, and having the same thing happen. That is more or less how it went over at Can Forn.
I had heard rumors about how good this place is for a good chunk of this summer (even my wife claimed it was really good), and I was keen on trying it out but never really had the time to, so I was really excited when our friend's birthday came along and we were trying to find a place to go get dinner. We settled on this place because a few people mentioned that you can eat well there, and the excitement started!
We made a reservation for probably 19 people?! It was a lot of us. So they sat us outside. The place isn't very big so there would be no way to sit that many people together on the inside of it. No biggie, it was a nice October night so sitting outside was not an issue. My friend who organized the dinner (not the birthday boy) ordered our starters already to share, and so the waitress only had to take drink and main course orders. I had been eating meat for the past 3 days, so I decided to switch to seafood and went with the Calamari a la "Bruta." My wife, who was also eating a bunch of meat with me, also went the seafood route and got mussels. But the majority of the people got the lamb, which is apparently a specialty of theirs.
What's really funny, is before the waitress came to get our orders, my wife told me to get "La Pluma," which is a very special spanish pork dish typical of this part of the world. I've had it before at another restaurant (and it was amazing) but because of my wanting to not do meat that night, I stuck with my guns and went with the Calamari. More or this later!
Our starters were salad w/ Bacalao, Fried octopus, snails "alioli," Ensalada Paesa, and A mixed meats sampler. I'm not a huge salad guy, but the salad w/ Bacalao was good. The salad eaters that were with us said it great so I'm just going to take their word for it! The Salad Paesa I've had before, and this was was just as good as the best ones I've had. It's a typical Formentera salad made with dry bread, fish, and egg. It's a good starter for people who aren't salad people and definitely for people who are. The snails in Alioli was actually the starter I was most excited to try, because I'd heard from a few people that it was phenomenal. They were good, for sure, but I've had better snails...which is a crazy thing to say when you think about it! The mixed meat sampler was surprisingly good, I mean, not really THAT surprising since the sausages and hams in Europe are second to none, but I didn't expect it to stand out as much as it did. To Sobrasada was fantastic, which was great news because there was supposed to be a bit of Sobrasada in my Calamari as well.
The fried octopus was the creme de la creme of the starters though for me. Octopus is really popular in Spain and Fried octopus with potato is a very popular starter, and because of that (and because octopus is really delicious) I've ordered it a lot at different places all over Spain. This may have been the best one I've EVER had. Anywhere. the consistency of the octopus was perfect, the sauce, the potatoes. It was heavenly.
Main course time: my calamari a la Bruta arrives, and it is exquisite. I mean it hit every note. "A la Bruta" means that the calamari and potatoes and anything else in the bowl is covered in squid ink, so it's black. It doesn't 'look' very appetizing, hence the Bruta. But it is delicious. And this one was fantastic. My wife's said her mussels were fantastic too, though I could barely hear her over the sounds of all the people who had the lamb, because they were singing and dancing about how good it was. I tried someone's and I thought, man this IS really good! But nothing could compare to "La Pluma." Nothing. My friend who was sitting next to me ordered it (along with a couple other people) and asked me if I wanted to try. Why not? O. M. G!!!! It was the best thing. It was so good, that even if my calamari was just OK, I probably still would've given this place 5 stars because La Pluma was perfect. Absolute perfection. Served with apples and potatoes. Oh lord. My mouth is watering just writing about it days later! I'm annoyed that I have to leave soon because now I can't go back to this place and just order this dish! I guess I will have to do so next time I'm here.
The place is also very well priced. With all the eating, bottles of wine and beers for everything, it came out to about $45USD per person. And you eat WELL here. Very well. I totally recommend coming here for dinner for sure if you are every on the island.
