080 Bistro' Cucina Italiana

080 Bistro' Cucina Italiana is a small Italian place in the middle of Palma's old town, a few steps from the Mercat de l'Olivar. It sits on Carrer de Josep Tous i Ferrer, a short street beside the market hall, and it is easy to walk past: a narrow dining room with a handful of tables and a few seats outside. That is all it is, and all it wants to be. Behind it stands a family business. Alessandro and Marianna opened the house out of a wish to bring the old flavours of Puglia onto a plate, and they cook from their grandmother Lucía's recipes. This is not a phrase for the shop window; you can read it off the menu. The Apulian signature It shows most clearly in the orecchiette pugliesi e rape: the small hand-shaped little ears of pasta, served with cime di rapa, the faintly bitter flowering shoots of turnip tops. In Puglia that pairing is the dish above all others; in Palma you rarely find it. If you want to know where this kitchen comes from, order exactly that. The second signal is the focaccia, freshly baked and as sought after as a starter as it is as the base of a filled sandwich. Then there is the parmigiana of fried aubergine, mozzarella, mortadella and tomato sauce, southern Italian through and through. What else is on the menu The rest is pasta, and plenty of it: carbonara and bolognese, lasagne including a vegetable version, spaghetti aglio e olio, spaghetti with mussels, spaghetti with clams and house-made pesto genovese, black spaghetti with calamari and cherry tomatoes. The casarecce bring together house-made pesto, cherry tomatoes and salsiccia; the ravioli are filled with artichoke and Brie and arrive with almonds and red Mediterranean prawns. For two there is a risotto of the sea. Pizza is on the menu as well, margherita and vegetarian alike. To finish, a tiramisù or a cannolo with pistachio. And the coffee, which gets singled out here: pulled the Italian way, not as an afterthought. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan The gluten-free pasta at 080 Bistro' is not a fig leaf. Anyone who has to avoid gluten can eat straight across the menu here rather than staying at its edge, and will find more than the single token dish that is usual elsewhere. Vegetarian and vegan plates stand alongside them. A place for a working day The position beside the Olivar shapes who comes in. At midday people arrive from the offices and from the market, there is a set menu of starter, main course and dessert, and the tone stays unhurried. The room is tight, the service runs on few hands, and the kitchen works in small batches — which sometimes costs you a wait and in return brings plates that really have only just been finished. If you are after a spectacle, this is the wrong address. If you want an honest Italian meal in a quarter otherwise crossed mainly by streams of visitors, 080 Bistro' is precisely that.