Bendito Gusto

Bendito Gusto is a small pasta house on Carrer d'Anníbal in Palma's Santa Catalina quarter, and the concept fits into a single sentence: the pasta and the sauces are made by hand on the premises, and you put your dish together yourself. First you pick the pasta, then the sauce that goes with it. The menu is split into two families for exactly that reason. On one side the classic pasta in freshly cut shapes, on the other the filled kind — mezzelune above all, those half-moon parcels that also turn up as a starter with three sauces to dip them in. Menus are built around both families and step upwards: pasta with sauce, the same with a drink, or all of it together with a dessert. Antonio, who comes from Bari in Puglia, runs the kitchen. Lucio, an Argentinian, runs the dining room. Bendito Gusto has been going since 2024, and that division — kitchen on one side, dining room on the other — is what carries the house. What comes out of the kitchen at Bendito Gusto The sauces cover the standard Italian repertoire, but every one of them is made here. Bolognese goes on tagliatelle rather than spaghetti, a detail Italian kitchens care about. Amatriciana is on the menu, and so are pesto and napolitana. With the carbonara the house is close to dogmatic: egg, pecorino romano, black pepper and guanciale — the creaminess comes from the emulsion of those ingredients, not from cream. Anyone after something heartier will find tagliatelle with sautéed mushrooms and truffle, and alongside it a salmon and gorgonzola risotto. You can eat well here without meat: pesto, napolitana, the mushroom sauce, mezzelune with four cheeses or with truffle and parmesan, and a caprese to start. Gluten-free pasta can be ordered too. That does not make the place a dedicated gluten-free kitchen — anyone who reacts strongly is better off flagging it when they order. The best way in comes from Sicily: arancini, breadcrumbed and deep-fried rice balls, kept on the small side here and filled with ham and cheese that melts in the fryer. To finish, the tiramisu is Antonio's speciality, generously dusted with cocoa and light rather than heavy. Next to it sit a cheesecake on a biscuit base and the chocotorta, an Argentinian classic — which fits a house whose dining room is run by an Argentinian. The room and the Santa Catalina quarter From the outside the place is easy to miss; if you don't know the address you walk straight past it. Inside it is small: wooden tables, worn leather chairs, and pictures on the walls that deserve a second look — famous monuments laid out in pasta. There are games on the tables, a detail that gets the tone right: relaxed, with nothing staged about it. Santa Catalina is the right quarter for that. The former fishermen's and dockworkers' district west of the old town has grown, around its market hall, into one of the densest eating areas in Palma, and Bendito Gusto sits right in that grid of small streets. The price level stays unpretentious; the house sees itself as a neighbourhood place. If you would rather not eat in, you can take the pasta away or have it delivered.