Unlike a traditional walking tour, FTB tours are self-guided. Created by two food-loving friends, Emily and Michelle, the company aims to facilitate the real taste of Mallorca “without the research, the hassle, or the tourist traps”. 

Emily and Michelle spent years exploring the culinary scene, getting to know chefs, and building up connections. The current offerings are Wine & Dine and Brunch & Ride (on the e-scooter). The concept is simple: Emily and Michelle plan your itinerary and make timed reservations in the city’s best restaurants. Each visit includes a food and beverage pairing, showcasing the island’s true culinary essence as local chefs envision it. Each experience comes with a guided tour, accessible through a web app, with a clear map. A selection of cultural points of interest with historic annotations are noted along the way. 

The tour is incomparable to the traditional walking food tour, not only because it is self-guided, but mostly because it takes you to new and elevated restaurants, offering a unique experience for each visit. 

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This experience was hosted by Food Tours Balearics, who did not review or approve this story.

Vermuteria La Rosa: Russian potato salad with anchovies, served with an Iberian ham croquette and blue cheese, a spinach croquette, and house-made vermouth. Images by Kateryna Topol.

Decision-making behind the scenes

Emily and Michelle have built a network of restaurant partners and keep a close eye on all new openings in the city. “When a new spot opens, we’re usually among the first to try it and see if it fits our standards,” Michelle added. The duo try every dish with the restaurant’s chef, who might even create a custom dish for the visit. The dishes chosen typically reflect that restaurant’s speciality, “if a place is famous for its meat, we won’t serve dessert there”.

“We aim to start the tour with lighter fish or vegetarian dishes, have a more filling meat dish in the middle, and finish with dessert,” Michelle shared. The order of the restaurants is based on their capacity to receive guests that specific evening and the logistics of getting easily from one place to another. Naturally, this means that today’s tour might not be the same as the tour tomorrow.

When selecting restaurant partners, Emily and Michelle look for three key qualities: excellent and welcoming service, willingness to share the story behind the palace and the dish, and the quality of food. “We’re not doing a standard tapas tour, so the food needs to be creative, high quality, and part of a more gourmet experience,” Michelle stressed.

The points of interest stops are chosen based on the restaurant route, “Palma is full of stories, so there’s something interesting to mention around every corner”.

The Wine & Dine Tour of Palma Old Town

The Wine & Dine Tour of Palma Old Town took us away from the tourist centre and into the neighbourhoods. Our tour started at La Rosa Vermutería, steps away from Plaça del Mercat. La Rosa is a vermouth taberna with an old-fashioned vibe, framed with subway-tiled walls and curved brick arches. The walls are stacked with preserves, drying vegetables, and cured meat in that uniquely odd manner where food becomes interior decor. On today’s menu is a Russian potato salad with anchovies, served with an Iberian ham croquette and blue cheese, and a spinach croquette for contrast. House-made red vermouth over ice is served as a beverage pairing. 

Further away from the centre, past La Misericòrdia, we find L’ànima Restaurant in an airy plaza. It is still early in the day, so at first, the co-owner Adrià Salas Rotger is able to give us his complete attention, recommending wine (Els Vinyerons Pregadéu Rosé) and sharing insights about the business. On the menu are roasted lettuce hearts with escalivada and falafel. Spicy olive olives hit the table first with the wine, in case we got there a little peckish.

The next stop takes us to Palma’s brand new 5-star hotel Concepció by Nobis, a Michelin guide hotel with a beautiful restaurant, Xalest. Led by an award-winning chef, Xema Álvarez, Xalest offers a sharing menu of tapas, pintxos, appetisers, and entreés to showcase not only Mallorcan food by the Spanish way of dining. An artfully plated pork cheek, served on a vegetable puree, is paired with a generous glass of Spanish red wine, neatly wrapping up the savoury portion of this experience. To complete the meal, we head to El Neo for a sweet treat, taking us back closer to the city centre.

Xalest: Pork cheek served on a vegetable puree. Images by Kateryna Topol.

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We met Joan from Nofrills Excursions Mallorca in the plaza near the Royal Palace of La Almudaina, surrounded by street vendors and caricature artists seated in the palm tree shade. Equipped with a bottomless backpack (water? napkin? I got you), Joan handed each of us a map of the route for the Foodie tour in Palma de Mallorca. Having taken a brief look at the map, everyone promptly tucked it away in their pocket and proceeded to blindly follow the orange t-shirt through sunny Palma.

This article might contain affiliate links. Read the disclaimer about affiliate links & PR gifting here.
This experience was hosted by Nofrills Excursions Mallorca, who did not review or approve this story.

Royal Palace of La Almudaina, Palma de Mallorca. All images by Kateryna Topol.

Joan has been hosting food tours for ten years, “last year, I took 2,000 people on a tour,” he proudly announced. Throughout the day, he swiftly switched between English and Spanish, occasionally translating various narratives to German for a family in the group. Mallorca uses three languages: Spanish (Castilian), Catalan, and Mallorquí (local Catalan dialect), but most people speak at least some English. With direct flights from most of the UK, this part of Spain has been a popular tourism destination for decades, attracting hospitality workers from around the world. This part of Spain is where I’ve spoken the least Spanish. 

Weaving through the city streets, Joan shared various pieces of historic knowledge, occasionally gathering us in a tight circle to share a story. “See this building,” he points our attention to Can Forteza Rey, “it looks like an Antoni Gaudí building, doesn’t it? It is actually the work of his student, Lluís Forteza Rey”. Gaudí’s influence is very prominent in Palma’s modernist architecture, so this was not the first architectural work of art we came across on this day.

Empanadas from Ca na Cati Pastisseria, Palma de Mallorca.

Having situated us by Palma City Hall, Joan ran across the street to bring us the special treat: Empanadas Mallorquinas. This round pastry, made with soft crumbly dough, encloses a delicious combination of jamón ibérico (Iberico ham) and a mix of vegetables in a perfectly rounded little pocket. The dish is typically served on the last day of Easter and requires an extensive amount of labour to produce, “altogether it takes eleven hours to make this,” Joan paused for effect. Ours came from Pastisseria Cort (Ca na Cati Pastisseria), “best empanadas in Palma,” he pointed at the corner shop.

We looped through Carrer de Sant Miquel pedestrian street multiple times, “watch your bags on this street,” Joan patted his backpack. The first sit-down portion of the tour took us to Omare, where the team greeted us by promptly pouring wine for the table, some of which they produce themselves. One by one, tapas plates began to hit the table: tortilla Española (Spanish egg omlet), croquetas de pollo (chicken croquettes), followed by octopus with potatoes. And for the grand finale, a charcuterie board with local cheeses, grapes, and jamón ibérico. Gasps of excitement echoed across the table at the sight of the sharing plate. 

“Bon profit!” he held up his wine glass, “that’s how you say bon appétit in Catalan”.

For the next half hour, we were instructed to explore Mercat de l’Olivar, solo. My initial confusion dissolved as soon as my eyes met the open market. Fresh produce stalls, cheese vendors, multiple ibérico ham counters with rows and rows of ham hanging from the ceiling. All the brightly lit up pintxos stations, and quick service bars were calling my name. Some tour attendees chose to shop. Others, having quickly toured the market, found a spot between the locals to enjoy a quick glass of sparkling wine and absorb the vibes of the casual afternoon market magic. The free time was well justified. 

Looping back around and into a narrow alleyway, we made our way to Orxateria I Xocolateria Ca’n Joan de s’Aigo for a sweet surprise. This intricately decorated cafe has a rich local history, both cultural and culinary, but that bit, you will have to hear from Joan. On the menu as a parting sweet note is ensaïmada – a light, sugared pastry made with reduced lard from ibérico. Yes, it sounds weird, but it is absolutely delicious. The pastry is accompanied by a cold glass of “almond milk ice,” something you can only get here, in this shop.

Like most food tour groups, we all got to know each other a little better. Joan’s new family portrait was taken shortly after, under the one-thousand-year-old olive tree in Olivera de Cort. 

Vegetables at Mercat de l’Olivar on each side and the thousand-year-old-olive tree at the centre.

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