Photo: L'Artista Pizzeria NapoletanaBest Italian in Palma
Introduction
The Mallorca Italian List We Send to Friends
Sandro Restaurante, on Carrer de Ramon y Cajal in central Palma, describes its approach as fresh plates made daily, working in authentic Italian cooking with a Mediterranean lean, from antipasti and homemade pasta to meat dishes. Mozzatura, split across two locations at Escorxador and Santa Catalina, is registered with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the Naples-based body that certifies pizza made to traditional standards. Bendito Gusto, a small Santa Catalina spot, builds its whole menu around handmade pasta cooked al dente, and Pasta e Pesto does the same on Plaça del Mercat with a short list of pesto sauces over organic durum-wheat pasta shapes.
The short answer
Key Picks at a Glance
In a hurry? These are the essential picks from our full ranking below.
- Strongest local consensusSandro Restaurante
authentic Italian cooking from antipasti and homemade pasta to meat dishes, in central Palma.
- Best for handmade pastaPasta e Pesto
housemade-style pasta shapes tossed with pesto sauces on Plaça del Mercat.
- Best AVPN-certified pizzaMozzatura
verace Neapolitan pizza, registered with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.
- Best full trattoria formatBrutus
a wood-fired Italian trattoria inside a renovated brutalist building on Plaça Gomila.
Before you order
A Guide to Italian in Mallorca
The scene
Palma's Italian scene splits mostly into two formats: dedicated Neapolitan pizzerias built around a wood-fired or AVPN-registered oven, and pasta-led kitchens working a shorter, homemade-style menu. Brutus, inside a renovated brutalist building on Plaça Gomila in El Terreno, leans into the pizzeria side with a wood-fired oven visible from the dining room, alongside antipasti, pasta and classic Italian desserts. Contro Corrente runs a Neapolitan pizza operation with a Palma branch on Plaça Major, using Caputo flour and a 48-hour dough fermentation, plus two more branches elsewhere on the island. This list covers seven Italian restaurants confirmed to be in Palma proper, built from Guidavera's own verified restaurant data: each venue's own site copy on its story and menu. A wider pool of Palma venues serve some Italian-adjacent dishes, but they're left off this list because Italian cooking isn't the format itself there. A few borderline picks are covered honestly in the honourable mentions below.
What's the difference between a trattoria and a ristorante?
A trattoria is traditionally a casual, family-style Italian restaurant, simpler and less formal than a ristorante. An osteria was originally a simple Italian tavern serving wine and food, and the word is now used more loosely for casual, home-style Italian rooms. A ristorante is the more formal, full-service end of the scale.
What does AVPN-certified pizza mean?
AVPN stands for Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the Naples-based association that certifies restaurants making pizza to traditional Neapolitan standards, what the association calls 'verace' pizza. Mozzatura in Palma is registered with the AVPN under number 969, since 2022.
Where can I get handmade pasta in Palma?
Bendito Gusto in Santa Catalina and Pasta e Pesto on Plaça del Mercat both build their menus around handmade-style pasta. Bendito Gusto serves fresh pasta cooked al dente with gluten-free options; Pasta e Pesto works spaghetti, casareccie, maccheroni and pappardelle, made with organic durum wheat semolina, tossed with pesto sauces.
How We Built This List
Years of Eating, Asking, and Going Back
This list is built from Guidavera's own verified Palma restaurant data: each venue's own site copy describing its story, cuisine and menu. We cross-checked against a source-consensus pass across local Palma coverage (hotel blogs and local guide sites) to see which Italian restaurants get named repeatedly, but that pass turned up a thin, low-overlap subject: most local source lists are short (3 to 10 entries) and barely intersect, so only two venues, Sandro Restaurante and L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana, cleared a meaningful consensus bar. The rest of this list draws on Guidavera's own confirmed Italian-format venues in Palma rather than further source-matching. Restaurants where Italian dishes only appear alongside a broader Mediterranean or international menu, and restaurants outside Palma city proper, are left off; see the honourable mentions for the borderline calls and why each one didn't make the cut.
More on how we rank: our methodology and quality standards.
At a glance
The 7 Best Italian, Compared
Quick reference table. Click any name to jump to the full review.
| # | Restaurant | Neighbourhood | Price | Distinction | Signature dish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandro Restaurante | Palma | €€€ | — | Ravioli |
| 2 | Bendito Gusto | Santa Catalina | €€ | — | Tiramisu |
| 3 | Pasta e Pesto | Centre, Palma | € | — | Pappardelle with pesto |
| 4 | Mozzatura | Palma | € | — | Panuozzo |
| 5 | Brutus | El Terreno | €€ | — | Tiramisu |
| 6 | Contro Corrente - Eccellenza Italiana | Palma | €€ | — | — |
| 7 | L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana | Palma | €€ | — | — |
The ranking
7 Best Italian in Mallorca
Sandro Restaurante
1. Sandro Restaurante — A central-Palma Italian restaurant running antipasti and homemade pasta through to meat dishes.
Sandro is an Italian restaurant on Carrer de Ramon y Cajal in central Palma. The kitchen describes its approach as fresh plates made daily with select ingredients, working in authentic Italian cooking with Mediterranean influences. The menu covers antipasti and homemade pasta through to meat dishes, and the site mentions ravioli and pizza among the offering, with gluten-free options available. It's a full-format Italian menu rather than a single-specialty kitchen, which sets it apart from the pizza-only and pasta-only spots on this list.
Bendito Gusto
2. Bendito Gusto — A casual handmade-pasta kitchen in Santa Catalina, gluten-free options included.
Bendito Gusto is a small Italian place in Palma's Santa Catalina district, built around handmade pasta, and describes itself as a relaxed neighbourhood spot. The kitchen cooks fresh pasta al dente, with gluten-free options available. The menu includes a set option pairing pasta, sauce and a drink, and desserts running to tiramisu and chocotorta. It's one of two pasta-only specialists on this list, alongside Pasta e Pesto.
Pasta e Pesto
3. Pasta e Pesto — A pasta specialist on Plaça del Mercat, pesto sauces over organic durum-wheat pasta shapes.
Pasta e Pesto is a small Italian restaurant on Plaça del Mercat in Palma's Centre district, with a site tagline of "hecho en casa" (homemade). The kitchen centres on pasta, spaghetti, casareccie, maccheroni and pappardelle, made with organic durum wheat semolina per the menu, tossed with pesto-style sauces. It also runs a sizeable wine list spanning Spanish and Mallorcan bottles to French and Italian labels, Prosecco and Champagne. It's closed Sundays.
Mozzatura
4. Mozzatura — An AVPN-certified Neapolitan pizzeria with two Palma locations, Escorxador and Santa Catalina.
Mozzatura is a Neapolitan pizzeria in Palma with two locations, Escorxador on Carrer Ciutat de Quilmes and Santa Catalina on Carrer de Sant Magí. It's registered with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana under number 969, since 2022, the certification the association calls 'verace' pizza. The published menu also includes panuozzo and homemade desserts alongside the pizza. It's the only pizzeria on this list with a formal Neapolitan-pizza certification behind it.
Brutus
5. Brutus — A wood-fired trattoria inside a renovated brutalist building on Plaça Gomila.
Brutus occupies the ground floor of a renovated brutalist-style building on Plaça Gomila, in Palma's El Terreno neighbourhood, part of a wider redevelopment of the square led by the Fluxà family, owners of Mallorcan footwear brand Camper. The kitchen is Italian-influenced and built around a wood-fired oven visible from the dining room, with antipasti, pizza, focaccia, pasta, meat and fish courses, plus classic Italian desserts like tiramisu and cheesecake. Dishes lean on ingredients like burrata, San Marzano tomatoes and 'nduja, alongside raw and cured plates like carpaccio. It serves brunch, lunch and dinner.
Contro Corrente - Eccellenza Italiana
6. Contro Corrente - Eccellenza Italiana — A Neapolitan pizzeria on Plaça Major, daily dough with Caputo flour and San Marzano tomatoes.
Contro Corrente was started by two friends who wanted to bring authentic Italian cooking to pizza lovers across Mallorca; its Palma branch sits on Plaça Major, with two further branches in Palmanova and Can Pastilla elsewhere on the island. Traditional Neapolitan pizza is the centre of the kitchen: the dough is made daily with live yeast and Caputo flour, given a 48-hour fermentation, then hand-stretched past 12 inches. The pizzas use San Marzano tomatoes and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, and the menu also covers other Italian dishes.
L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana
7. L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana — A casual Neapolitan pizzeria with its flagship on the Paseo Marítimo near the marina.
L'Artista is a Neapolitan pizzeria with its flagship on Avinguda de Gabriel Roca, Palma's Paseo Marítimo, near the marina, with additional locations run by the group around the city, including one near Son Moix. The kitchen focuses on Neapolitan-style pizza, with pasta and desserts alongside. It's one of the two most-mentioned Italian restaurants across local Palma source coverage, alongside Sandro Restaurante.
Also worth trying
Honourable Mentions
Toque de Queda
Palma
An Italian-founded small-plates, deli and champagne bar near La Rambla, opened by two owners from Emilia-Romagna, with an Italian-leaning dish or two (Roman-style gnocchi with smoked burrata and speck), though most of its menu runs tapas, salads, sandwiches, hot cocas and charcuterie rather than a dedicated Italian format.
Enoteca 1918
Palma
A wine-led Palma restaurant tagged Italian cuisine in Guidavera's data, but its own copy describes a gourmet, author-style tapas format built around wine pairing, with no specific Italian dishes named, so it's not confirmed as an Italian-format kitchen.
The Olive Tree Palmanova
Palmanova
A family-run beachfront restaurant with pasta on its farm-to-table Mediterranean menu, but it sits on the Palmanova promenade in Calvià, outside Palma city, which puts it outside this guide's scope.
The bigger picture
The Italian Scene in Mallorca
Sandro Restaurante sits on Carrer de Ramon y Cajal in central Palma, working a full Italian menu from antipasti and homemade pasta to meat dishes. Bendito Gusto is the Santa Catalina pasta specialist, a short walk from the neighbourhood's market. Pasta e Pesto works the same pasta-first format from Plaça del Mercat in Palma's Centre district. On the pizzeria side, Mozzatura runs two locations, at Escorxador and Santa Catalina, both AVPN-registered; Contro Corrente has a branch on Plaça Major alongside two more elsewhere on Mallorca; and L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana has its flagship on the Paseo Marítimo near the marina, with further locations around the city. Brutus, the one full trattoria-format pick with a wood-fired oven, sits inside a renovated brutalist building on Plaça Gomila in El Terreno.
Practical tips
Know before you go
A short survival guide for eating italian in Mallorca— everything we wish we’d known on our first trip.
- 1
This list mixes pizza specialists and pasta specialists
Mozzatura, Contro Corrente, L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana and Brutus are all built around a pizza oven. Bendito Gusto and Pasta e Pesto are pasta-only kitchens with no pizza on the menu. Sandro Restaurante runs the fullest format, with antipasti, pasta, pizza and meat dishes all on the same menu.
- 2
Some of these run more than one Palma-area location
Mozzatura splits across two addresses, Escorxador and Santa Catalina, on the same AVPN-certified menu. Contro Corrente has a branch on Palma's Plaça Major plus two more branches elsewhere on Mallorca (Palmanova and Can Pastilla). L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana's flagship is on the Paseo Marítimo, with additional locations around the city.
- 3
Gluten-free options are marked at two of these
Bendito Gusto's handmade pasta comes with gluten-free options, and Sandro Restaurante's menu also lists gluten-free options.
- 4
Confirm current menus and hours directly
This pass draws on each restaurant's own site copy for story and cuisine, not a verified pass on hours or a full priced menu for every venue on this list. Check the restaurant's own site or Instagram before you go.
Know the terms
Glossary
The vocabulary you need to order italian in Mallorca like a local.
- Trattoria
- A casual, family-style Italian restaurant, traditionally simpler and less formal than a ristorante.
- Osteria
- Originally a simple Italian tavern serving wine and food; now used more loosely for casual, home-style Italian restaurants.
- Ristorante
- The more formal, full-service end of the Italian restaurant scale, as opposed to a trattoria or osteria.
- Pizzeria Napoletana
- A pizzeria working in the Neapolitan tradition, hand-stretched dough baked in a wood-fired oven.
- AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana)
- The Naples-based association that certifies restaurants making pizza to traditional Neapolitan standards, called 'verace' pizza.
- Al dente
- Pasta (or rice) cooked until firm to the bite, not soft, the standard target texture in Italian cooking.
- Antipasti
- The starter course in an Italian meal, typically cured meats, cheeses, marinated vegetables or small plates served before the pasta or main course.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
All restaurants on this list were independently verified as open and serving the dishes described as of .
Is there an AVPN-certified Neapolitan pizzeria in Palma?
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Yes. Mozzatura, with locations at Escorxador and Santa Catalina, is registered with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) under number 969, since 2022, the Naples-based body that certifies pizza made to traditional 'verace' standards.
Which Palma pizzerias run more than one location?
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Mozzatura runs two Palma locations, Escorxador and Santa Catalina, on the same menu. Contro Corrente has a branch on Palma's Plaça Major plus two more elsewhere on Mallorca, in Palmanova and Can Pastilla. L'Artista Pizzeria Napoletana's flagship is on the Paseo Marítimo, with additional locations around the city.
Where can I get handmade pasta in Palma?
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Bendito Gusto in Santa Catalina and Pasta e Pesto on Plaça del Mercat both build their menus around handmade-style pasta. Bendito Gusto serves fresh pasta cooked al dente with gluten-free options; Pasta e Pesto works spaghetti, casareccie, maccheroni and pappardelle tossed with pesto sauces.
Which Italian restaurants in Palma have gluten-free options?
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Bendito Gusto's handmade pasta comes with gluten-free options, and Sandro Restaurante's menu also lists gluten-free options.
What's the difference between a trattoria and a ristorante?
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A trattoria is traditionally a casual, family-style Italian restaurant, simpler and less formal than a ristorante, the more formal, full-service end of the scale. An osteria was originally a simple tavern serving wine and food, now used loosely for casual, home-style Italian rooms.
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About the author
Justin Mota
Guidavera founder
Justin Mota is the founder of Guidavera. He has lived in Spain for over 10 years and runs a native AI agency alongside building this platform. Food has always been the way Justin connects with friends, and Guidavera started as the list he kept sending to everyone visiting Barcelona. He built it for himself and his friends first, and now hopes it can transform the way people discover great food experiences everywhere.
More about Justin→