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.
If you enjoy food that’s a creative fusion of Japanese and Peruvian with Mediterranean influences, a restaurant in the heart of Palma’s prestigious shopping area should be on your list.
Now is an excellent time to eat out in Mallorca – and here’s why!
The first time I ate chef Santi Taura’s cuisine was at his original restaurant, which opened in 2003 in his hometown, Lloseta. I was blown away by the experience and excited to find such an appealing representation of the local cuisine.
Canela is the Spanish name for one of my favourite spices, cinnamon. It also happens to be the name of one of the cosiest, tucked-away places to eat in Palma. This restaurant took its name from the building’s original purpose as a gourmet deli.
Having been a fan of Andreu Genestra’s Palma restaurant, Aromata, since it first opened, I was shocked late in 2024 to hear that the restaurant was leaving its original premises with no new address revealed at the time.
One of Palma’s most popular tapas restaurants, El Camino, now has a younger (and smaller) sibling – the appropriately named El Caminito, which opened in early October. British restaurateur Eddie Hart and his professional team created this new eatery in a tucked-away lane, strategically located only a few minutes away from El Camino.
If the Christmas decorations or some festive gift shopping mean a trip to Palma, you’ll probably need some midday sustenance. For a touch of luxury, an escape from the bustle of Mallorca’s capital, and good food and service, head to The Merchants in the area known as La Lonja.
If your palate becomes a little jaded with the arrival of autumn, I have the perfect prescription: Lunch or dinner at KOH in Palma, where the fresh and vibrant cuisine of Southeast Asia is a wake-up call for the taste buds.
The 30-plant challenge has been gaining momentum since Professor Tim Spector of Kings College London cited research on his nutrition website, Zoe, finding that eating 30 different plant foods a week benefits the gut microbiome. Mallorcan chef Andrés Benitez was ahead of his time, four years ago, when he launched his plant-based menu at Botànic, the restaurant at Palma’s 5-star Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden.
I must have passed Gigi’s Piccolo Ristorante in Palma many times, walking between El Corté Inglés and the Mercat de l’Olivar, without realising what I was missing. When a friend suggested the place for lunch together, I discovered it was home to the authentic Italian cuisine of chef Gigi and the warm hospitality of his wife, Jackie. This is where you’ll find slow food, cooked with love to order, and served with what the Spanish call ‘don de gente’ – people skills.
If one of your criteria for a place to eat out is a great view, L’Atic in Palma should be on your restaurant radar. L’Atic is on the seventh floor of the Hotel Saratoga – the home of the former Blue Jazz Club – but more than impressive views await you.
You’re unlikely to come across Basic Bar Restaurante on a wander around Palma because it’s tucked away in a side street off Carrer Aragón, close to the rear of El Corte Inglés on the Avenidas.
If you browse the web for Mallorca’s luxury hotels, you’ll find Cap Rocat near Palma. This 5-star hotel is a spectacular and award-winning renovation of a fortified citadel by the architect Antonio Obrador. I’ve always wanted to stay there, but Cap Rocat’s eyewatering accommodation prices are sadly beyond my budget. Fortunately, eating at the hotel’s Sea Club restaurant is a more affordable treat. And what a treat!
Authentic Canary Islands’ cuisine – with contemporary touches and creative presentation – is on the menu at the Palma tapas bar and restaurant, La Vieja de Jonay Hernández. Owner and chef Jonay is from Tenerife, and his New Canarian cuisine pays homage to the archipelago of his birth.
Palma is home to no fewer than four Michelin-starred restaurants – each offering the gourmet diner a memorable but different culinary experience. In 2015, the eponymous Marc Fosh was the first restaurant in Mallorca’s capital to gain the coveted star – a distinction it’s held every year since. And Marc is still the only British chef in Spain at the helm of a Michelin-starred restaurant.
If eating out in one of Palma’s oldest palaces sounds expensive, the three-course set lunch at NOI Palma within the Scandinavian-owned Nobis Hotel Palma may surprise you – at just 25€ a head.
Palma offers a fantastic choice of cuisines but if eating authentic Spanish food in a cosy, unpretentious ambience is what you’re craving, Cantina Panzà ticks that box … and others. Located along the iconic Paseo de la Rambla – home of the scented, colourful flower stalls – Cantina Panzà offers tapas, sharing plates, and a weekday ‘menú del día’.
Lume & Co is located in the former stables of Mallorca’s 15th-century Son Berga castle, just outside Genova. The restaurant is in gated premises, with a large private car park. Although only a short drive from the centre of Palma, it has a rural setting and makes a change from the bustle of the capital.
When holidaying in Mallorca, the Spanish royal family has dined several times at the restaurant Ola del Mar in Portixol, Palma’s former fishing village. You’ll find plenty of locals too eating out in Ola del Mar which, not surprisingly for its location, specializes in seafood.
It takes a brave Englishman to open a tapas restaurant in Palma, but not when that man is Eddie Hart. Eddie was one of the brothers behind the successful Spanish restaurants, Fino and Barrafina, in London. With the launch of El Camino five years ago, Eddie brought a new level of sophistication and vibrancy to Palma’s tapas scene.
Italian restaurants are ubiquitous in Palma, so which do you choose for authentic ‘la dolce vita’ cuisine? You could follow in the footsteps of the King of Spain and Hollywood ‘royalty’, actor Morgan Freeman, who have both dined at Sandro Restaurante this year.
If a trip to Paris for some traditional French cuisine is out of the question, a visit to Mallorca’s Les Artistes could be the next best thing. This cosy French bistro in Palma has the ambience and cuisine of the ‘city of light’ itself.
New restaurants are tempting – especially for those who like to post about them on social media. But established eateries with a good reputation will always have appeal, and if you’re looking for a seafood restaurant, where better than one located right above the fish market where the catch is auctioned in the early mornings?
Palma’s Santa Catalina district is packed with ethnic food eateries. ‘Mallorquín’, Spanish, Peruvian fusion, Lebanese, Thai, Japanese, and Korean are only some of the cuisines on offer. But for top-quality, interesting British cuisine – with a twist – and the most hospitable hosts in town, head straight for Market Kitchen.
Fans of the TV series ‘Friends’ will know that “Joey doesn’t share food!”. If you have a friend like Joey Tribbiani, don’t take them to Lassala Grill in Mallorca. Go with a foodie friend or two and order a few of the delicious dishes created specifically for sharing by executive chef Andrés Benítez – who is also behind the critically acclaimed plant-forward cuisine at Botànic restaurant in Palma.
Weather is warming up and we were in a mood to sit outside and enjoy a good glass of wine with a bite or two. Some friends had told us about this very authentic Spanish tapas bar in Ciudad Jardín.
On a rather chilly and windy Monday evening in Palma, the area of Santa Catalina was eerily quiet. Until we entered The Duke – a cosy nook of a restaurant in a side street near Santa Catalina market. This was where everyone was, creating the buzzy warm ambience that’s evidence of an eatery that knows how to please its punters.
Like several other chefs who have opened their own successful restaurants, Adrián Quetglas used to work for British chef Marc Fosh. After a decade working in Russia, in 2015, Adrián opened his own restaurant, which has a Michelin star. He also has the neighbouring D’Gustar tapas bar.
Plaça Raimundo Clar has become quite the foodie destination in the regenerated quarter known as Sa Gerreria, in Palma de Mallorca. Bars and restaurants border the attractive large square and, since last September, Japanese cuisine has expanded the variety of international flavours on offer here.
Toothsome isn’t a word I use very often, but it sprang to mind as I was eating a delicious lunch at Bi Bap restaurant in Palma de Mallorca last week. If I hadn’t been eating alone, I’d have used that word in conversation with my lunch companion. Instead, I’ve saved it for this review.
Arume restaurant in Palma is still my favourite place to eat Asian cuisine – with some Mediterranean touches. The amiable Mallorcan chef and owner Tomeu Martí honed his Asian culinary skills during his travels to that part of the world. He opened Arume in 2006, five years after winning the title of Spain’s best young chef, aged 21.
Forn in Palma is in a former 19th-century bakery in La Lonja that was converted into a restaurant in 1992. The founder’s sons Carlos and Christian are now responsible for Forn restaurant, which has recently undergone a stylish makeover.
This week’s Restaurant of the Week is, in fact, a café, but it’s one with oodles of style, delicious international food, and friendly table service. Café Rialto is within the Swedish-owned lifestyle store Rialto Living, offering a comfortable and super-stylish place to eat and drink at any time during the day.
Tucked away around the corner from Palma de Mallorca’s Jaime III, Fera Restaurant and Bar first opened in the autumn of 2017 and quickly gained a loyal following. The restaurant is in a tastefully restored old palacio and you enter through a small courtyard. Even before you pass through the automatic glass doors, you can see that the experience of eating here is something different.
The old town of Palma de Mallorca is home to Quadrat, within the 5-star Sant Francesc Hotel Singular. It’s an elegant restaurant located in this former palacio’s original stables and you’ll see hints of the space’s original use in the interior décor.
Offering one of Palma’s most diverse and innovative menus, Vandal is the product of its two creative owners’ international careers. Executive chef Bernabé Caravotta worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in France and Denmark – Mirazur and with René Redzepi at the renowned Noma, respectively – and at the Blue Elephant Thai cooking school in Thailand, before moving to Mallorca in 2007.