El Txoko de Martín — Restaurant in Palma

Last night we had our third visit to Xtoko de Martin, for dinner for two. Upfront I should say that we wouldn’t have gone back after our second visit, were it not for the fact that we were given a very generous restaurant voucher (for XdM), with a value of €330, as a 60th birthday treat by distant friends.

The restaurant’s original dining room design makes it a welcoming place to be, while the menu has plenty of variety for everyone. Special it isn’t, while the pricing really isn’t justified. Palma has many restaurants that offer the same variety and quality, with better service, at more reasonable prices.

The menu itself was the first problem. For some reason, this ‘premium’ restaurant still insists on providing QR code menus instead of printed menus. While these may have become commonplace during COVID, forcing guests to get their phones out at the dinner table to navigate a long menu is not more convenient than a printed version. It is less social than looking through a menu together and simply doesn’t enable readers to easily leaf through the options. Browsing long wine lists online is even more cumbersome.

Presumably, it is more economical for a restaurant to provide an online menu, but I detest them. We asked for a printed menu and wine list, which were duly handed over. Why not offer them at the outset?

We were then informed that our voucher was ‘single use’. In other words, there would be no change given or credit carried over, if we didn’t use up the full amount. I provided the voucher number with my online booking, so the restaurant had advance knowledge of our payment method and the exact amount of credit we had. The manager acknowledged it as we arrived, and our server repeated ‘the deal’ with the voucher as we sat down. We didn’t appreciate being made to feel like ‘cheap’ diners who had turned up to redeem some (Groupon-style) discount voucher offer.

We had already understood that the voucher was single-use, but why is this, anyway? For this same reason, I would personally never buy anyone a restaurant voucher. The establishment has already had their money from the actual payer, and the recipient who comes to redeem the voucher may not receive the full customer experience, because they are ultimately a cost to the restaurant. There is little incentive for any establishment to go above and beyond for a voucher client.

The food we ordered was fine; some fine sliced jamón and tataki tuna, followed by a shared chuletón, fries and peppers. Nothing very fancy and while the starters were delicious, the kitchen had overdone the rock salt on the steak. But it was fine. Dinner was accompanied by two G&Ts to start, followed by a €125 bottle of Rioja. For dessert, only four choices are offered (none with chocolate), which seems sparse. We enjoyed ours, but would have appreciated more choice. We would also have appreciated our server topping up our wine glasses, which she failed to do once.

We requested the bill and then came the kicker. The total bill was €350, but the voucher value applied was only €200! In other words, the “amount to pay” was an additional €150. I recalled the server and told her of the error. She took it away, then came back with a corrected value applied, mentioned a ‘mix up’, leaving us with only a €20 balance to pay.

Perhaps it was an error. Perhaps not. I had the impression it was a try-on. The amount will have been clearly noted in their system, as I submitted it in advance, while the manager had referred to the voucher’s “very generous amount”. I will add that my wife is Spanish, so there was no linguistic confusion that might have caused the error.

Had I been the manager, I would have rushed over, profusely apologised for having embarrassed us in front of other diners, waived the €20 and offered a liqueur on the house (none of which we angled for). He did not appear at all and as we left, there was no one at the door to thank us and wish us a pleasant evening.

A very sub-par experience from an overpriced restaurant with delusions of grandeur. We...

Highly recommend the starters - we had the lobster roll - very fresh and tasty, the Iberian ham was ethereal- amazing flavour and colour - extremely high quality Iberico pork. We also had the bread with garlic aioli which was excellent- bread was soft and crunchy with a creamy, garlicky sauce. However, I would not recommend the suckling pig roll - it had an odd flavour (iron) and not great.

The croquettes (we had the Iberian ham) were amazing and would highly recommend - I also assume the other two flavours would be good.

The olives that came before the starters were very tasty with a hearty flavour and were delicious.

Finally, the mains - we ordered the beef fillet, the pork and the hake. The beef we ordered medium - we received a blue rare to rare level of steak - but it was quite tender (needed salt however) and would have loved some more sauce. The pork was slightly dry and the sweetness overpowered the dish - the garlic aioli (which we ordered a second helping of) contrasted the tamarind. The hake was incredible, flaking with a tasty sauce - would recommend.

Overall the tapas and starters were incredible (except the suckling pig), the mains could have been better, but the croquettes and the olives saved the day. I would give the starters 5/5 and the mains 3/5 and the olives+croquettes 5/5 (I would give it 6/5). Therefore I would come again but would avoid the suckling pig and the pork...

A basque restaurant in Mallorca? Please do not overthink it and just make a reservation to eat here. The kitchen is superb! I was here two times in a week and both times the wine and food were great. Because we were a bit late with our reservation the second time, there was only room at the bar; which turned out to be unsurprisingly comfortable and even romantic. Me and my companion chose the menu degustacion (85,- pp in 2023) meaning a choice of about 9 of the typical dishes on the menu. Gazpacho of squid (delicate foam) with thin sliced bacon and crumble of pistachios marinaded in vanilla was great as starter, a bigger version of gazpachio with tomatoes and ansjovis even better. Heek filet as one of the main courses was tender and very well cooked but my favourite is the grilled sirloin with the potatoe, rosemary and bacon tartarin. A deliscious cocktail, chocolate desert and some chocolate bonbons finished the explosions of flavour. Staff is super friendly and with their help we choose some great wines to accompany the savoury food. I will come back every time we...