Zaranda

Beneath the Es Príncep hotel, in the Calatrava quarter, the vats of an old tannery have been preserved, and Fernando Pérez Arellano has built an entire menu on top of them. Zaranda, his fine-dining restaurant, spent years in a castle hotel out in the countryside, where it held two Michelin stars; since moving to Palma it has one, and the cooking is still unmistakably his. The long menu, called 'A Flor de Piel', is a tribute to the tanners who once made this neighbourhood: hides, dyes and textures turned into dishes, using island produce. Dinner moves through three spaces: you start in the bar with the snacks, move to the kitchen counter, where the chef and his team finish several dishes in front of you and explain them, and end up at the dining-room table, partly over the floor that reveals the tannery remains, for the mains and two desserts, before returning to the lounge for the last bites. There's a long menu of around 18 courses and a shorter intermediate one. Among the dishes people remember most are the cod skins and the black egg, one of his classics. Front of house is highly professional and the sommelier knows how to steer you through a long cellar full of special bottlings. It's for anyone after high-end cooking with a storyline and a whole evening at the table; if you'd rather choose from a menu, this isn't the place.

Reviewed in November 2026