Cafetería Protur Naisa Palma Hotel

This week’s choice is for anyone in Palma who’s on a budget but would still like to have a three-course lunch with a glass of wine, beer, or a soft drink – in a stylish, contemporary setting – for less than twenty euros.

The Protur Naisa Palma Hotel is behind the Balearic headquarters of the Policia Nacional, only steps away from Passeig de Mallorca. It’s home to the Cafetería, which offers an excellent value lunchtime menu for just 17€ from Mondays to Fridays and 19€ on Saturdays and public holidays.

The Cafetería is not only for those staying in the hotel. I imagine many of the guests overnighting here choose to go out and eat in one of the Mallorcan capital’s restaurants. When I’ve visited, those eating lunch here were almost all locals, recognising a good-value lunch. It seems to be a popular choice for the local ladies-who-lunch.

On one of several visits for lunch with a couple of friends, we started with a glass of cava in the attractive Lounge Bar and paying only 12€ for three glasses was a pleasant surprise.

The lunch menu changes weekly and offers a choice of two starters, three main course dishes, and two desserts – one of which is always an assorted fruit platter. 

On the occasions I’ve visited, the starters have comprised a soup and a salad. The latter have included a fresh-tasting Mediterranean salad with feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, and honey vinaigrette; an endive,

octopus, and seafood salad – including prawns and mussels – with chives and a citrus vinaigrette, and a very satisfying salad with goat’s cheese and fig jam.

Main course choices usually include a fish plate, a meat dish, and a pasta dish. Vegetarian dishes have not been on the menu when I’ve visited Protur Naisa’s Cafetería. I’ve enjoyed a chicken breast filled with sobrasada and figs with a reduction of Malvasia wine, two tasty hake fillets with saffron, prawns, and crunchy squid, and most recently, Mediterranean-style fillets of sea bass.

The lunch menu price includes a basket of bread, a carafe of still water (there’s a charge for sparkling), a soft drink, a beer, or a glass of wine. In a city where a ‘menú del día’ for less than 20€ is becoming harder to find, it’s helpful to know that lunch in the Cafetería at Protur Naisa Palma Hotel can cost only 17€.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.