No more guessing where to find today’s best daily menu: the new Mallorca app

No more guessing where to find today’s best daily menu

Midday in Palma: On the way from Mercat de l'Olivar towards Passeig des Born you hear the clatter of plates, snippets of conversations and now and then an overly loud scooter horn. Today many bars display small handwritten boards with the daily menu — some neatly designed, others hastily scrawled with a marker. Who likes deciding on the go? A new app aims to solve that daily puzzle.

The application is called Menú de Hoy and was created as a local project for Mallorca. Developer Miguel Titos Ramis built it so users can see at a glance which dishes are available nearby. Technically speaking: currently more than 130 bars and restaurants across the island are listed, about 80 daily menus are published each day, and over 60 venues update their offerings regularly — either daily or weekly.

Convenient for those short on time: the app is free and ad-free. Users can filter offers by distance, location, price and type of cuisine. Someone working in Santa Catalina with only a 15-minute break can search by radius and quickly find a suitable option. If planning a big family meal, the group feature can be used to collect several options and decide by poll — very handy when the mother-in-law wants a say.

The app is also intended for the hospitality industry, not just guests. A photo of the menu board is enough: the app reads the entries, automatically translates the dishes into Spanish, Catalan and English, and stores them in the system. Restaurants can manage their own menus and notify regulars about changes. This saves time compared to constantly posting on various social media channels and reduces the risk of the daily offer being misrepresented.

At launch, most listings are in Palma and the Part Forana. The iPhone version is available in the App Store; Android users can currently sign up for an early access program and receive an installation link via the website menudehoy.app. The regular Android app is expected to follow in the coming weeks.

What I observed while testing in recent days: on the Plaça Major a group of older women loudly debated the fish soup of the day while a young tourist-souvenir vendor commented on the scene with dry humor. With a few taps in the app the group found two places offering soup, compared prices and distances and decided within minutes. No more aimless wandering through the alleys — that is everyday convenience, not a gimmick.

Of course it would be desirable for more places to join the platform — especially smaller villages inland would benefit when their specialties become visible. (See Why the Menú del Día on the Balearic Islands Remains Expensive — what's missing from the conversation?.) Ideally, allergens, daily portions and direct reservation links could be integrated in the future; these would be helpful additions for people with special dietary needs or for larger groups.

Why is this good for Mallorca? (See Mallorca Leads Again: Daily Menu Is Most Expensive in Spain.) Because it strengthens the local gastronomy: smaller bars gain visibility, decisions about lunch are made faster, and guests can more easily find authentic offerings off the usual tourist routes. For professionals, families and visitors this means less time wasted and more lived island culture — get in, search, eat.

If you’re curious: download the app, allow location access, set filters and off you go. And if you work in a bar: upload a photo of the board and the daily menu will appear on multiple phones instead of just a piece of cardboard at the door. In Palma life keeps buzzing, the midday bells ring, and hopefully finding the right menu will be made easier by a screen.