Es Vaixell

In Portitxol, across the road from the promenade and a few metres from the water, this small wood-panelled café-bar has long been where people in Palma go for a llonguet, the city’s crusty bread roll, split and filled like a sandwich. The blackboard lists plenty: the classics with sobrassada and Mahón cheese, camaiot (Mallorcan cured pork), tortilla, anchovies or trampó (the island’s tomato, pepper and onion salad), a few with mussels or sardines, and newer ones such as mortadella with burrata, sun-dried tomato and pistachio. Sobrassada and cheese is the one on most tables. There are also toast with tomato and olive oil, salads, smoothies and coffee, and it’s open from morning to night, though its moment is breakfast or a mid-morning bite. The terrace, about ten tightly packed tables, faces the road more than the sea. It isn’t cheap for a sandwich – a llonguet and a coffee come to about ten euros – and service this season has left a lot to be desired; what keeps it going is the bread.

Reviewed in November 2026