by Jan Edwards
Each week Jan presents her chosen Restaurant of the Week on her Saturday morning show TABLE TALK. Find out more about her featured restaurants here.
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.
It’s January, or Veganuary – as it’s become known around the world, since the vegan awareness campaign was launched in the UK in 2014. Last year a quarter of a million people committed to avoid consuming animal products for a month and it’s been reported that 300,000 people around the world had signed up for Veganuary 2020 before the year even began.
Sandra may not sound like a Chinese name, but it’s how customers of Restaurante Made in China know its owner Weifan Wang. Sandra is from Canton, southern China, but Spain has been her home for some thirty years. She had a restaurant in Madrid before opening Made in China a few years ago.
Lume & Co is in what were once the stables of the 15th-century Son Berga castle, just outside Genova. The restaurant is in gated premises, with a large private car park. With the convenience of only a short drive from the centre of Palma, it has a rural feel – and this is appreciated when eating al fresco on the terrace or having a drink in the outdoor chill-out area.
You’re unlikely to stumble across Basic Bar Restaurante on a wander around Palma de Mallorca. This restaurant is tucked away in a side street, off Carrer Aragón, close to the rear of El Corte Inglés on the Avenidas.
Canarian cuisine with creative modern touches awaits you at La Vieja de Jonay Hernández – located in the increasingly trendy Plaça de Raimundo Clar, in the regenerated area of Sa Gerreria, in Palma.
Opened in July, Avocado Club is an independent restaurant in Palma’s Passeig de Mallorca. The clue that you’ve found the place is the large wicker peacock chair outside, adorned with artificial flowers. Your first Instagram moment.
No self-respecting foodie should miss the opportunity to try the Michelin-starred cuisine at Marc Fosh restaurant in Palma de Mallorca – where an excellent-value lunch is on offer.
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.
Everyone should know a place to eat in Palma de Mallorca where they can escape the summer crowds and enjoy a well-priced lunch or dinner.
Santosha restaurant is in a quiet lane in the heart of Palma, offering sanctuary from the bustle of the more tourist-populated areas. Owners Ruth and Eran previously worked in the yachting sector as chef and captain respectively and put their roots down in Mallorca to open this restaurant in 2016.
Palma’s newest tapas bar is alongside, and belongs to, Hotel Mamá in Palma’s iconic Plaza de Cort. As with the adjoining hotel, the look of the place was created by the famous French interior designer Jacques Grange.
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.
Botànic is the restaurant of the stunning 5-star hotel Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden in Palma’s La Lonja – but you don’t have to be staying overnight to eat here. Botànic opened late December 2018, offering all-day dining and a refreshing culinary concept for Palma: nourishing gourmet cuisine that’s largely plant-based, using organic local produce.
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.
Bindi is a popular restaurant in the bohemian Palma district of Santa Catalina. It offers delicious authentic Indian cuisine, based on fresh products and traditional spices. British woman Bindu Shah and Patryk Kusiak own this restaurant, which has been pleasing fans of Indian food since 2014 and attracts an international clientele.
A renowned London restaurateur is behind this smart tapas bar, opened last September – just steps away from Palma de Mallorca’s Borne.
Quinta Avenida has been open only since the middle of December last year but has already found fans for its delicious Japanese cuisine, which has a few small Mediterranean touches.
The 5-star Hotel Glòria de Sant Jaume in Palma’s Old Town is home to this restaurant, which has its own entrance from the street. A year after opening, El Patio de Glòria now has a new chef, à la carte menu, and maître.
Palma’s Santa Catalina district has yet another eatery to please vegetarians and flexitarians. Temple is owned and run by charming Parisians in a beautifully restored townhouse, with exposed stone walls, slim iron pillars, and stunning photographic artwork on the walls.
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.
The former Meliá Palas Atenea is now known as the Meliá Palma Marina Hotel and, in giving the hotel a brand-new look and facilities, Meliá opened the hotel’s ground-floor all-day eatery, Moss.
If you like to eat out in Palma but close to the Mediterranean Sea, the restaurant at the Hotel Portixol is well worth a visit. The Swedish-owned hotel has bags of Scandi style and a prime position in the picturesque Portixol harbour – a pleasant walk from the city centre.
The Santa Catalina restaurant Smack Mallorca opened in April this year, as the realisation of a dream for a foodie couple – who moved from Paris to open their own restaurant here.