Maleva Mallorca

Maleva Mallorca is an Argentine asador in Palma's old town, on the small Plaça Raimundo Clar. The grill is fired with wood — the house says so itself, and you can taste why: smoke, a dark crust, a centre that stays juicy. If you are looking for a grill house in central Palma that treats this craft as the main job rather than a sideline, this is the address. The restaurant presents itself as a prime-meats house, and the menu backs the claim. It distinguishes not only the cuts but also where they come from: Mallorcan beef, a Spanish chuletón aged on the bone for weeks, Irish Angus for the tomahawk, Argentine Angus for the picanha, imported entraña. That kind of openness is rarer on the island's meat menus than you might expect. The kitchen has taken gold at TaPalma, the city's tapas competition; the award went to head chef Gabriel Ángel Cañón. For a grill house that is worth noting, because a tapa asks for a different craft than a large cut over embers. What goes over the embers at Maleva Mallorca The main list reads like a map of the animal. Entraña, entrecote, solomillo and chuletón form the base; alongside them sit an aged entrecote and that Spanish chuletón left on the bone for weeks, both served whole and by weight. Tomahawk and picanha come from Angus cattle. The parrillada for two brings chorizo criollo, morcilla and several cuts together in one pass. What stands out is how much time goes into the cuts that cannot be rushed. The costilla "flauta" spends a full day at low temperature, seasoned with seven peppers and Scotch whisky. The lamb shoulder gets the same treatment. The pork bondiola cooks just as slowly, is wrapped in cured ham and served with pesto. If you would rather skip beef, there is lacquered duck breast with teriyaki, a chicken skewer, turbot and salmon from the grill. Before the meat, and after The hot starters are the most Argentine part of the menu: chorizo criollo and morcilla, both with chimichurri; a provoleta with serrano, dried tomato and rocket; an empanada whose filling is cut with a knife rather than minced — the way grandmother made it, as the house puts it. Then croquetas filled, of all things, with chuletón, roasted marrow bone under a crust of herbs and panko, mollejas, zamburiñas with passion fruit caviar, and octopus from the embers with potato gratin and pimentón de la Vera. Cold, there is a steak tartare cut from the heart of the fillet and a wagyu carpaccio. At the end the kitchen turns sweeter than you would expect from an asador: a chocolate mousse dome under a velvet coating with a dulce de leche centre, a pistachio financier with praliné, a speculoos tart with salted caramel, and a banoffee whose banana is warmed over the fire. A wine list between Binissalem and Mendoza The wine list makes the double origin of the house visible. Mallorcan bottles from Binissalem and elsewhere on the island — Callet, Manto Negro, Giró Ros — stand beside Argentine Malbec from Mendoza and Pinot Noir from the Río Negro valley in Patagonia, with Rioja, Ribera and Priorat as well. The cava may be Mallorcan too, and hierbas and Mallorcan brandy wait at the end of the meal. Ask for guidance here and you get two wine countries explained, not one. Around the Plaça Raimundo Clar The Plaça Raimundo Clar is one of those small squares in the old town where a dense little restaurant quarter has grown up: pizza, tacos, burgers and, right there, an asador, all within a few paces. The house itself talks about the square as its barri, and that is exactly how the corner works — as a neighbourhood rather than a tourist strip. The bustle of the Plaça Major is not far, yet it rarely gets loud here.