01
The coffee
Some say La Palma’s coffee is like no other, and some cross town every morning to check. We are not giving out the recipe. We will pour you one.
La Palma Restaurant · Estepona · since 1964
Estepona starts here.
An early coffee with a bocadillo de carne mechá, fish straight from the market at lunchtime and a terrace on Plaza del Huevo where nobody checks the time. Sixty years laying the table in the heart of Estepona.
- Tuesday to Sunday, 7:30 to 00:00
- 4.4 on Google from over 1,800 reviews
- Calle Terraza, 57
There are places you go to. And places you come back to.La Palma, a restaurant in Estepona since 1964.
Since 1964
Plenty of people who arrive in Estepona for the summer have the same habit: drop the suitcases and come to La Palma. We are not the ones saying it; they are, every year, the moment they arrive.
La Palma opened in 1964 with a long bar and little else. Through it have come day labourers at dawn, bosses closing deals over a coffee, grandparents who brought their grandchildren and grandchildren who now bring their own. Sixty years on we are still at it: buying at the fish market every morning, cooking without shortcuts and laying the table the way you do at home when someone who matters is coming.
Since 1964
The story of a family.
In 1964, Francisco Galán Palma opened a small bodega on calle Terraza. He was eighteen, and he named it after his mother’s surname, María Palma Márquez. That is how La Palma began.
That bodega became a meeting place for the town. Generations, conversations and a warm way of looking after people passed across its bar, and that way of doing things is still part of this house.
Today his daughter, Cristina Galán, is at the helm, though she would rather say La Palma is run by its team of twenty: the ones who raise the shutter before half past seven, and the ones who keep it going in the kitchen, at the bar and on the floor until the last table. Because here, family is not a matter of surname.
Every morning
The menu is written by the fish market.
Every morning the fish arrives and goes into the display case, where everyone can see it. What you see is what there is, and what there is gets cooked: on the griddle, butterflied, fried in just enough flour, or in a rice dish that is started when you order it. That is why some prices on the menu say “market price”: on the day, the sea decides.
01
From the sea
Conchas finas, coquinas, gambas al pil-pil, fritura malagueña. The Estepona bar in full or half portions.
02
Rice
Caldoso with scarlet prawns, seafood paella, black rice. Made to order and for two at least, because some things are not for eating alone.
03
Butterflied fish
Sea bass, bream, red porgy, turbot, red mullet. Market price, as it should be.
04
From the land
Presa ibérica, shoulder of milk-fed lamb, entrecôte. For those who come from the sea and fancy something else.
05
To start
Gazpacho, octopus salad, aubergines with cane honey, jamón. What you order while you decide.
The usual
Dishes that already belong to Estepona.
- 01
Bocadillo de carne mechá
Hot, with the house carne mechá, at the bar and standing up. The breakfast that made this corner of calle Terraza famous; some people order it even on Christmas Day.
- 02
Arroz caldoso con carabineros
Soupy rice with scarlet prawns: the red of the prawn colouring the broth, the grain just right and two spoons crossing.
- 03
Gambas al pil-pil
They arrive at the table sizzling. Olive oil, garlic, chilli and bread that is never far behind.
- 04
Conchas finas
Smooth clams from the bay, opened to order, with lemon and little else. Ordered by the piece, and it is never just one.
- 05
Fritura malagueña
Anchovies, squid, baby squid, small red mullet. Fine flour, clean oil, a lemon cut in half. For two that end up being three.
- 06
Boquerones en vinagre
Anchovies in vinegar, cleaned by hand one by one. Vinegar, olive oil, garlic and parsley, and a very cold beer on the side.
Every morning
From the fish market to the counter.
Fish comes in early, sits on ice in the counter and is chosen with a point of the finger. What there is today depends on the sea; what never changes is that you see it before you order.
Bonito from the south, just in01
Scorpionfish and skewers02
Red sea bream03
Smooth clams04
Today’s fish and shellfish05
Scallops06
Turbot07
Prawns08
Bluefin tuna09
Cuttlefish10
Today’s catch, on the wall.
See the full menu
A day at La Palma
The whole day fits in here.
07:30
Shutters up
Calle Terraza is still yawning and the bar already smells of coffee. The regulars are always first in.
08:30
The bocadillo
Bocadillo de carne mechá, hot, at the bar and standing up. The breakfast that made this corner famous.
10:00
The fish arrives
The catch of the day goes into the display case, where everyone can see it. What you see is what there is, and what there is gets cooked.
12:30
Aperitivo
First beers, first conchas finas. The terrace starts filling up with conversation.
14:00
The rice
Started when you order it, and at the table when it is ready. Someone asks for more bread.
16:00
Sobremesa
Nobody asks for the bill. Another coffee, another glass and the conversation that never quite ends.
17:30
Merienda
Coffee, something sweet and Plaza del Huevo in the shade. The afternoon takes its time.
20:00
Blue hour
The terrace lights come on and the square changes colour.
21:30
Dinner
Conchas finas, very cold wine and a dinner that lasts as long as it has to.
00:00
The last table
We close at midnight, or when the last dinner is done: in summer, it runs late. On Mondays we rest; you have to live too.
Scroll and spend the day with us ↓
What people say about La Palma
Four things people come back for.
02
The bocadillo de carne mechá
Some people describe it on Google better than we can: “pitufo with carne mechada and a little coffee”. Hot, at the bar, standing up.
03
The rice
“The best seafood paella we have ever had”, one of our guests wrote on Google. It is started when you order it, for two at least, and it arrives when it is ready.
04
The welcome
Twenty people in the house, Víctor, Francisco and Valentín at the head, and a way of looking after people that guests have described with the same words for decades: like being at home.
Calle Terraza, 57
A bar, a dining room and a square.
Inside, linen tablecloths, lamps made from glass buoys and wicker fish traps, the day’s menu handwritten on the wall. Outside, the terrace on Plaza del Huevo, where Estepona walks by, says hello and, more often than not, sits down.
See the place
What they say on the way out
The ones who come back tell it best.
«The first thing my family and I do when we arrive in Estepona is go to La Palma.»
A summer guest, for many summers now
«The oldest restaurant in Estepona and my must-stop whenever I come back to my beloved town.»
Joseda M., on Google
«Eating there is like eating at home. I have been enjoying this restaurant for over twenty years.»
Alexander, on Google
«The seafood paella was the best we have ever had.»
María S., on Google
«Unbeatable fried fish: baby squid, and anchovies with lemon to die for.»
Enrique M., on Google
«Lovely breakfast of pitufo with carne mechada and a little coffee, on Christmas Day.»
A guest who comes back every year, on Google
Events
The important things get celebrated here.
A long family table, a company lunch, the reunion of those who come back every summer, or a dinner that has to be set up for tomorrow. We adapt to whatever it is, and the menu is designed around each plan. We have spent sixty years in the photos of the people of Estepona and we want to stay in them.
Plan an eventLa Palma notebook
What goes on in the house.
What comes in from the fish market, whose birthday it is behind the bar, what is cooking in Estepona. Eight entries, no rush.
Since 1964
Book your table.
At weekends the terrace fills up early and, in summer, almost always. Book here in a minute, with instant confirmation.
- Calle Terraza, 57 · 29680 Estepona
- Tuesday to Sunday, 7:30 to 00:00
- Parking on the same square