NOI, Palma

If eating out in one of Palma’s oldest palaces sounds expensive, the three-course set lunch at NOI Palma within the Scandinavian-owned Nobis Hotel Palma may surprise you – at just 25€ a head.

Originally built as a Muslim palace in the 12th century, it has gone through several reincarnations over the centuries. Following a painstaking renovation, the gorgeous 5-star Nobis Hotel Palma opened its doors last autumn. When the Michelin Guide announced its 15 new Michelin Keys for Mallorca last month, the Nobis Hotel Palma was one of the awarded hotels.

Its restaurant, NOI Palma, has a separate direct entrance at the side of the hotel (the impressive hotel entrance is reserved for guests only). Open for lunch and dinner, it’s at lunchtime that you can have one of the great-value-for-overall-quality lunch deals in the city.

The three-course lunch menu offers a choice of three dishes for each course (always with a vegetarian starter and main), bread, and water for 25€. The menu changes weekly, is available Monday to Friday, and is published each week on the NOI Palma Instagram page.

Chef Luciano di Clemente is Italian, so you’ll spot some culinary influences from his country, but I’d describe the cuisine in general as international.

For our latest visit, I started with the Japanese chicken KARAGAY karaage – marinated thigh meat dusted with flour and fried, served with a Korean cucumber salad and wasabi mayo. My companion enjoyed his pickled mackerel with cumin carrot and grilled avocado (served with the peel on).

For our mains, I had Greek-style lamb on a bed of lentils with mint sauce – but not the mint sauce traditionally eaten with lamb in Britain. This was a mint-flavoured yogurt dressing. My companion chose turbot with saffron sauce and peppers. We both enjoyed our dishes.

Home-made Italian ice creams and fresh seasonal fruits are usually two of the three dessert options. For my last visit, I chose the other option: Ibizan-style cheesecake with mint ice cream and what was described as lard crumble; the latter tasted better to me than it sounded!

There’s an interesting list for wine enthusiasts and a decent selection of wines available by the glass, starting from 6 €.

My only gripes about this place were that one of the two types of bread offered – carob– is sourced from Barcelona, and the extra virgin olive oil is not Mallorcan. I’m sure the 5-star hotel guests would appreciate island-sourced alternatives.

The quiet location of this hotel restaurant – in the narrow lanes behind Carrer Unió and opposite the Convent of the Immaculate Conception – makes this a retreat from the bustling city-centre streets as well as a good place for lunch.

Photos: Jan Edwards

Prices correct at time of writing.