Amar Sushi and Seafood Bar

Amar Sushi and Seafood Bar is a sushi and seafood counter inside the Mercat de Santa Catalina, Palma's oldest municipal market hall. Not a restaurant with its own dining room, but a market stall with bar stools, a few steps from the fishmongers the kitchen buys from. That is not a marketing image but the working basis: what lies in the hall in the morning decides what gets sliced and seared at this counter. Amar has been here since 2022, starting as a narrow bar for oysters and sushi — nine stools, no tables. Chef Esteban Lisiotti gradually widened the offer with fish dishes drawn from the market's seasonal supply, and the nine stools later became a larger counter. The place is still run by two people: Esteban cooks, Francesca receives the guests. Whoever sits down watches the kitchen at work. How sushi and seafood belong together at Amar The menu does not split into a Japanese half and a Mallorcan one. It is a single run of dishes, and the warm seafood is explicitly meant as company for the sushi — the red prawns from Sóller as much as the squid that cooks slowly in its own ink with confit garlic, a traditional Mallorcan dish. In the other direction, the Japanese side pulls Mallorcan produce across to itself. It shows most clearly where the seasoning changes sides. The boquerones, anchovies marinated in mild vinegar with mustard seed, get a touch of shichimi togarashi. The zamburiñas, small queen scallops, come off the plancha under an emulsion of white miso and lime — the house itself calls them its signature. The negitoro maki with tuna belly is finished with a homemade sofrito, a base straight out of Mediterranean cooking. And in the opposite direction, the red Sóller prawn sits as a topping on the tempura prawn roll. Then there is the dish most guests name first: the taco de langostino, a tempura prawn wrapped ssam-style in a lettuce leaf with mango, cucumber, mint, coriander, crisp onion and spicy mayonnaise. Order more classically and you get nigiri and sashimi of salmon and bluefin tuna, a tuna tartare cut by hand with the knife, or the ceviche with prawn and local corvina. From the fish stall to the counter The proximity to the hall's pescaderías shapes the menu more than any concept idea. The Sushi Roll del Chef is deliberately not fixed: it is built from whatever is fresh at that moment and changes accordingly. For the fish of the season, the menu simply says to ask what is available — an honesty you rarely see in print. Not everything comes from the island, and the house says so plainly: the oysters are Gillardeau from the French Atlantic, meaty and clean in flavour. The wine list stays short and is aimed at what suits raw fish and shellfish — lean, fresh whites from Verdejo to Albariño, a Mallorcan white, rosé and cava brut nature. What kind of place this is Amar lives by the rhythm of the market hall. This is a daytime operation among shopping trolleys, shouted greetings and crates being shifted, not a quiet evening room. On Saturdays especially, when half the neighbourhood meets in the hall, it gets tight at the counter. If you want a seat for certain, book ahead; otherwise you wait for a stool to come free. The rest is unshowy. There is no decorating narrative and no service that performs. The team explains the menu, recommends and works in full view of the guests — the best seat is the one right at the cutting board. Amar beyond the market What is made at the counter is also available to take away: sushi platters, the cold classics from the menu, oysters with cava to order. Beyond that, Esteban and Francesca work as a private kitchen service across the whole island — at a house, a finca or on board, from the market shopping through the cooking to the clearing up. Anyone who has got to know Amar in Palma can take the same cooking somewhere else.