BISTRO MERCAT

Bistro Mercat stands where Llucmajor meets: on the Plaça Espanya, the town hall square in the middle of town. The name is not decoration but an address — three times a week, all year round, the weekly market sets up its stalls directly outside the door. The house is run by Claudia Schramm and Luis Alonso, a married couple: she is German, born in Ravensburg, he is Spanish. The two originally came to Mallorca only for a practical semester in hotel management — they stayed, and the semester turned into a place of their own. Before that, both had worked exclusively in luxury hotels, and the standard of guest care they learned there came with them. “Sometimes the service matters even more than the food,” Schramm says. The Mallorca Zeitung has since included the couple in a series on the island's friendliest hosts. The kitchen at Bistro Mercat The menu is broad but has a clear core: Spanish and Mallorcan, fresh and seasonal. On one point the house commits itself — no convenience products go into the kitchen. Tapas are the best way in: croquettes, calamari, pimientos de Padrón, prawns in garlic oil, papas arrugadas with their salt crust, olives with bread, grilled vegetables with a dip. Then come soups, salads — the one with goat's cheese gets named often — pasta, woks, fish, meat, pa amb oli, baguettes and paella. Over the years the crêpes have become the signature of the house, and they are available gluten-free. The sweet side continues with cakes, cheesecake, brownies and an apple strudel that guests keep mentioning by name — the German half of the kitchen showing itself for a moment. Alongside it, wine, ideally after an explanation from Luis Alonso, plus cocktails and coffee. Vegetarian and vegan are not a footnote here but marked out on the menu: vegetable rice, grilled vegetables, coffee with oat milk. “If someone lives vegan or can't tolerate gluten, we look for a solution that fits,” says Claudia Schramm. Intolerances are raised by the house rather than waited for. Your hosts Claudia Schramm and Luis Alonso What guests describe first about this place is rarely a dish — it is the care. For Schramm, good service starts with the phone call: even when the place is full, someone picks up, including on days off and over the holidays. The real test, for her, is being recognised. Anyone who visits a restaurant repeatedly and still isn't recognised the third or fourth time, she says, won't come back — however good the food is. Behind them stands a team that has worked together for many years. Schramm herself speaks English and French alongside German and Spanish, which is no small advantage in a town with a market, incomers and day visitors. The tone stays familial: a couple's business, not a concept. A seat on the Plaça Espanya The terrace of Bistro Mercat sits directly on the square. In summer you are in the middle of the bustle; in winter you are drawn inside, where warm colours and a wide window front keep the square in view. On market days the character of the plaça changes completely: stalls, voices, shopping bags. From a table at the edge you get a good view without standing in the middle of it — and if you want to sit outside on such a day, it is worth announcing yourself in advance. Llucmajor itself lies inland in the south of the island, even though the municipality reaches all the way to the sea. It is a country town with an industrial history of its own and a museum devoted to the carob tree, not a holiday resort. Bistro Mercat fits that picture: a restaurant that lives less on passing traffic than on people who come back.