Ola del Mar, Palma

When holidaying in Mallorca, the Spanish royal family has dined several times at the restaurant Ola del Mar in Portixol, Palma’s former fishing village. You’ll find plenty of locals too eating out in Ola del Mar which, not surprisingly for its location, specializes in seafood.

Although close to Palma’s city centre and the busy seafront highway, Portixol itself has a more relaxed vibe with plenty of people indulging in leisure pursuits such as walking, bike riding, or skating. It makes for good people-watching from the terrace of Ola del Mar.

Indoors, the dining room is contemporary in style but retains exposed stone walls, beams, and metal tie bars. Light-hued wooden floors and large white wall panels accommodating artworks lighten this space. ‘Ola’ is the Spanish word for ‘wave’ and the restaurant’s name is reflected in the eye-catching wave-themed paintings. As in many seafood restaurants, you’ll spot a tank of lobsters.

We arrived for lunch without a reservation just as the restaurant opened. We were lucky to get a table as the terrace tables were soon filled with people who had booked.

The à la carte menu is for lunch and dinner. Starters (priced from 16,35 € to 27,60 €) are designed to be shared. Unable to resist ‘zamburiñas’ (queen scallops), we shared the dish of six of them (18 €) – perfectly grilled and served on the shell.

Bread (not the typical Mallorcan), olives, and aioli cost 2,80 € per person.

If you enjoy rice or pasta dishes, you have eight to choose from here including two featuring lobster – marked in the price column as S.P.M. (‘según precio de mercado’), so ask before ordering if you need to know the price first.

Before we’d ordered, servers brought platters of the fresh fish of the day for us to see. Although tempted by the platter of shellfish, we went for the menu.

The menu offers three meat dishes, but we were there for fish, choosing Mallorcan-style sole with toasted almond velouté and paprika oil, topped with sweet potato chips (26,90 €) and corvina on a parsnip cream with a vinaigrette of bacon, garlic, and pine nuts (27,65 €).

From the five desserts, we had passion fruit tart topped with toasted meringue and a loquat coulis (7,35 €) – which I really enjoyed – and chocolate coulant. We ended a pleasant and relaxing lunch with a Marabans coffee.

We found the service friendly and efficient, and they were not aware that I was reviewing the place.

Ola del Mar also has an upper floor that’s ideal for private events.

OLA DEL MAR WILL BE CLOSED FOR HOLIDAYS FROM FEBRUARY 5TH – 21ST INCLUSIVE.

Photos: Jan Edwards