Krishna Curry Bar Santa Catalina

Krishna Curry Bar sits on Carrer de Sant Magí, and anyone who knows Santa Catalina knows what that means: this street is the artery of the quarter, and the cataliners have always called it the carrer gran, the big street. Within a few hundred metres you pass bars and kitchens from all over the world. Santa Catalina counts as Palma's most cosmopolitan neighbourhood, and an Indian house belongs here as a matter of course. The kitchen is Indian, and the menu turns that into a system that makes ordering easier than you would expect. It is not sorted by finished dishes but by three decisions: first the sauce, then what goes into it — chicken, lamb or prawns, vegetables — and finally the heat. Every dish can be cooked mild, medium or hot, and that applies explicitly to the entire curry list. The house describes its own range as the path from intense, spicy flavours to the mildest and most delicate plates. And Curry Bar is meant literally: cocktails belong to it, and the house sees itself as a bar as much as a restaurant. The curries at Krishna Curry Bar: sauce first, then the filling At the mild end stand Korma with coconut cream and restrained spices and Badami with ground almonds and coconut milk. Butter Curry is the classic with a smooth buttery tomato sauce, Tikka Masala arrives creamy with ground almonds and spices. It gets more pungent with Rogan Josh, a Kashmiri curry with an intense spice note in a creamy tomato sauce, and with Kadai, made with onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and freshly ground kadai masala. Jalfrezi brings onions, mixed peppers and sliced green chillies, while the Goa style curry works with coconut, onion, coriander seeds, green chilli and curry leaves — the south-west Indian handwriting on the menu. It turns green with the Green Masala of green herbs, spinach, green pepper, chilli and mint, while Dahiwala comes semi-dry in the Punjabi manner, slow-cooked in a very light yogurt sauce. If you are after heat, you end up with Madras and its garlic and ginger, or with Nihari, which the menu credits with a rich, spicy flavour. What matters is that this whole row exists three times over: with chicken, with lamb or prawns, and entirely plant-based with vegetables. At the table everyone orders the same sauce in their own version — the vegetarian part is not an appendix, it is the same menu. Tandoor, breads and a cheese from the neighbouring island The clay oven carries a good share of the starters. Chicken tikka is marinated and cooked in it, and so are paneer or tofu tikka — the same skewer, once with Indian fresh cheese, once entirely plant-based. Achari mushrooms are marinated and roasted in the oven, and tandoori prawns appear on the menu subject to availability. The rest comes from pan and fryer: chicken pakora in chickpea flour, onion bhaji from finely cut onion, samosas filled with minced lamb or with vegetables, plus a prawn taco with prawns sautéed in onion and tomato, served with puri. Two plates are worth a closer look: Murgh Kali Mirch, chicken with freshly ground black pepper and a potpourri of further spices, and Hazari Chicken — tikka chicken under melted Mahón cheese. Menorcan cheese on an Indian skewer is an idea you will hardly find a second time. One house speciality turns up twice, among the starters as well as the side dishes: naan bombs, cheese bombs with garlic and herbs. The other breads stay classic — naan plain, with garlic, with cheese, with both, plus peshwari naan and chapati. Beside basmati and pilau, the rices include vegetable, mushroom and lemon. At the end the menu holds exactly two desserts, and both are deliberately not Indian: a chocolate coulant and a mango cheesecake. Santa Catalina around Sant Magí Santa Catalina, Palma's old fishermen's quarter west of Avinguda de l'Argentina, carries its dining in two streets above all: Carrer de Sant Magí and the pedestrianised Carrer de la Fàbrica. Sant Magí is the row with the cocktail bars and the live music, and the covered market hall on Plaça de la Navegació, the oldest in Palma, lies a few streets further on. Krishna Curry Bar itself sits at the lower end of the street, close to Avinguda de l'Argentina. You reserve a table through the house's own booking system, and if you would rather eat at home, you order through its own online service.