Ca n'Ela Vegan Restaurant

Ca n'Ela sits on Carrer de la Mar, in the middle of the La Llotja quarter of Palma's old town, and is one of the few houses in the city where everything on offer is plant-based: no meat, no fish, no dairy, no egg. The restaurant is run by Ela and her daughter Andrea. The name is a double pun — in Mallorquin, Ca n'Ela simply means Ela's house, and said out loud it sounds like canela, the Spanish word for cinnamon. Before they had an address of their own, both women worked in the kitchen of Bon Lloc, the house that established vegetarian and vegan cooking in Palma in the first place. When Bon Lloc closed, mother and daughter decided to go into business together and open something of their own. They looked deliberately in the old town — for the lanes, for the people who move through them — and what they found was the room on Carrer de la Mar. Since 2021 they have been cooking there on their own account. The menu changes every day, and that is not a slogan: they cook with whatever is there, organic and from the island as far as possible. Come two days running and you will not be served the same thing twice. The kitchen at Ca n'Ela The approach is Mediterranean and thought out from the vegetable up. One of the dishes Ela is known for is the raw beetroot ravioli: instead of pasta dough she wraps wafer-thin slices of beetroot around a cashew cream, with chopped walnuts and fried capers alongside. The tomato salad with vegan basil cheese and herb oil works on the same principle, as does the paté of roasted carrot and thyme served with bread — dishes that get more out of a single vegetable than you would credit it with. In the evening a distinctly Mallorcan idea joins them: a vegan sobrassada, spread on toasted bread. The carte also carries smoked aubergine tartare, tagliatelle in the manner of a carbonara, house-made seitan, rice with ceps and shiitake, filled bao buns, nem with gomasio toasted in the house, and a burger. To finish there are home-made cakes, chocolate and nuts recurring, and a café solo to go with them. Lunch menu and evening carte The house works in two registers. At midday there is a fixed menu of four courses, each with a choice of two options, with bread and water; a juice or a cream soup often opens the sequence. There is no carte at lunchtime. In the evening it turns around: then the food is served à la carte, and anyone who wants it can take the tasting menu. The ambition differs too — at midday Ca n'Ela is unpretentious and easy to fit into a day, in the evening the cooking is noticeably finer. Anyone eating gluten-free is well looked after. The menu lists the allergens and marks which dishes can be prepared without gluten, and the set lunch usually carries one such option per course. That does not make it a gluten-free kitchen of its own — with a strong intolerance it is best to say so directly when you order. The room on Carrer de la Mar The place is small, with a handful of tables spread over two floors joined by a staircase. Downstairs, large windows let in the light of the lane and you watch the street go by; upstairs the decor follows a maritime theme, which suits the address, since Carrer de la Mar means nothing other than street of the sea. The walls are planted, and between the greenery the marès is left exposed, the golden sandstone the old town is built from. The result is a room that manages to be stylish and homely at once. Because there are few seats, booking is sensible; the house is well attended. Dogs are welcome, and anyone who would rather eat the food elsewhere can take it away — the take-away service has been there since the opening. To drink there is craft beer, kombucha and a wine list with local and organic bottles. And when time allows it, Ela or Andrea come to the table and talk to their guests.