Palma eats like an island that was once a trading port: pork sausage cured with pimentón, sea salt from Es Trenc, almond pastry and rice cooked in a clay pot. Three days of markets, cellers and vermut bars, all walkable from the old town.
Palma's biggest covered market, open since 1951, with around 100 stalls: a fish hall at the back, sobrassada and camaiot counters, and an upstairs gallery of tapas bars. Mon–Sat 07:00–14:30, Fridays until 20:00.
The oldest market in Palma (1920) in the old fishermen's barrio, smaller and less touristy than l'Olivar. Fish, olives, tomàtiga de ramellet and cured meats, plus stand-up bars pouring beer and vermouth from 09:00.
A fisherman-themed kitchen on Carrer de la Fàbrica, the restaurant strip behind Santa Catalina market. Grilled octopus, tuna tartare and rice dishes served in the pan, in a room hung with nets and buoys. Open daily from 13:00.
Serving since 1700 in a tiled room with marble tables and a chandelier. The order is hot chocolate thick enough to stand a spoon in, a warm ensaïmada, and almond ice cream — the island's oldest gelato recipe, made without dairy.
Tomeu Arbona rebuilt lost Mallorcan recipes from convent and family notebooks, and bakes them behind the modernista façade on Plaça Weyler. Gató d'ametla, coca de patata, rubiols and an ensaïmada made only with saïm (pork lard).
A narrow grocery on the lane below Plaça Major with sobrassada, botifarró and camaiot hanging in ropes from the ceiling. Vacuum-packed sobrassada de Mallorca de porc negre travels home fine; they also sell Es Trenc salt and fig cake.
A 1958 celler behind Plaça d'Espanya, its walls lined with enormous wine barrels and old bullfight posters. This is where to eat arròs brut, frit mallorquí, sopes mallorquines and tumbet at prices locals still accept.
First floor above the fishing quay at Contramoll Mollet, open since 1943, with glass walls over the trawlers. Caldereta de llagosta, gambes de Sóller and whole fish sold by weight from the day's landings.
The working-class market east of the centre, where Palma actually shops. Live poultry, whole suckling pigs, Latin American and North African stalls, and a Saturday open-air produce market spilling across the square. Mon–Sat 07:00–14:00.
A small corner bar on Plaça Llorenç Bisbal in Sa Gerreria, the old tanners' quarter. Pa amb oli on dark pagès bread with sobrassada, cheese or escalivada, plus tostadas and a short list of Mallorcan wines. Closed Sundays.
A food hall inside the 18th-century Sant Joan de Déu military hospital chapel complex, with about twenty kitchens under one vaulted roof: Mallorcan tapas, Japanese, Argentine grill and craft beer. Open Wed–Sun into the evening.
The centre of Palma's vermut revival, on Carrer de la Rosa. House vermouth on tap with an orange slice and an olive, alongside tinned cockles, anchovies and salted almonds, in a tiled room that fills up by 19:00.