Fine Dining on Foot: The Michelin Stars Around Es Princep
Palma builds its centuries in layers. Beneath the cobblestones of La Calatrava, medieval tanners who gave the streets their names once worked alongside the merchants who built this quarter in the shadow of the city wall — and today, some of the most precise chefs in the Mediterranean. There's no need to cross the bay or book a car to find them: in Palma, fine dining is a walk, not a drive.
Zaranda, without leaving the hotel
The first stop is also the shortest: none at all. Zaranda occupies the ground floor of Es Princep, built over the remains of a former leather tannery that chef Fernando Pérez Arellano has turned into a culinary narrative. His two tasting menus, A flor de piel and Plena flor, are served across different rooms of the building — the Salón del Gremio, the Rincón del Talabartero, the Comedor del Curtidor — each a nod to the trades once carried out on this very site. Zaranda once held two Michelin stars at its previous home, Castell Son Claret; today, settled in the historic heart of Palma, it holds one of the Michelin stars that still shine over Mallorca, without ever leaving Es Princep.
DINS Santi Taura, a five-minute walk away
Heading toward Parc de la Mar, barely 200 metres separate Es Princep from DINS Santi Taura, housed on the ground floor of the boutique hotel El Llorenç Parc de la Mar. Here chef Santi Taura serves a single tasting menu — Origens, eleven courses that change with the seasons — built entirely around traditional Mallorcan recipes: snails, sopes, sobrasada and island cheeses, reinterpreted with a technique that never overshadows the ingredient. It's an adults-only restaurant, and it has held a Michelin star since 2020.
Marc Fosh, a quarter of an hour through the old streets
The walk stretches on into the heart of the old town: about fifteen minutes through the squares of the centre lead to Carrer de la Missió, where British chef Marc Fosh — the first of his nationality to earn a Michelin star in Spain — runs his namesake restaurant inside the Convent de la Missió hotel, a converted 17th-century seminary. His contemporary Mediterranean cooking draws heavily on Finca Son Mir, the restaurant's own farm, and is served in both lunch and more elaborate evening menus.
Adrián Quetglas, the long way round via Passeig Mallorca
For those who fancy stretching their legs, a twenty-minute walk — or a short taxi ride — leads to Passeig Mallorca, where Argentine chef Adrián Quetglas, trained between Buenos Aires, London, Paris and Moscow, has run the restaurant bearing his name since 2015. Its five- and eight-course tasting menus are renowned for making haute cuisine (Michelin-starred until 2025) accessible to everyone at a surprisingly affordable price, particularly at lunchtime.
In Palma, fine dining isn't a destination you drive to — it's a habit you walk into.
