Palodú

A neighbor's complaint cost Cristina Cánovas and Diego Aguilar their terrace in Teatinos, so they moved Palodú to the center, beside the Atarazanas market where two stalls now supply their fish and their meat.

Why go

Book Palodú when you are happy to let the kitchen choose. There is no carte, the two menus are barely written down, and they move with what the market sends.1

The Michelin guide gave this room a star for the first time in its 2026 edition.6 Guía Repsol has given it a Sol since 2024.10 Cánovas and Aguilar met at El Lago, trained together at the Escuela de Hostelería La Cónsula, and turned down a contract at Albert Adrià's Tickets because they missed Málaga.1 They started in forty square meters in their own district with a gastrobar and turned it into a restaurant.2

They cook as a pair and call it cocina dual, two chefs with no hierarchy between them, and nothing leaves the pass without both of them.8 Cristina Cánovas told 7 Caníbales why both names belong on the door: When they finished eating they would come up to the glass box where I was working and ask for the chef, to congratulate him. I would thank them, but they kept insisting on the chef. I am Diego's greatest admirer, but there are two of us.1 No more than three things go on a plate, carried by broths, sauces, escabeches and infusions.1

The Palodú menu cost 135 euros a head and the Alcazul 115 euros, read on the house's own pages in September 2026.11 The wine pairing adds 85 euros.10 Alcazul cost 57 euros in July 2022, in the old Teatinos dining room, so it has more than doubled in four years.3 What the money buys is a kitchen that takes its bread from Ana La Fantástica and toasts it over the robata.1 Its ibéricos come from Dehesa de los Monteros, and part of its olive oil from Diego Aguilar's own father.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the griddled red mullet. Lakshmi Aguirre called it the memorable griddled red mullet, juicy in the extreme, with a gazpachuelo made from its own bones.1
Order: the squid, cooked over the robata and sauced with pepper and mushrooms on a broth of Iberian pork shank.1
Order: the pilpil de miel, a honey emulsion that has followed the pair through every version of the menu since Teatinos.1 3
Order: the peppers, if they are on. Lori Zaino found Málaga's roasted red peppers with fried fish rebuilt as dollhouse-sized peppers toasted in caramel and suero de cebolleta, paired with hake jowls in egg yolk with tempura.5
Avoid: planning a Tuesday around it. The room served Wednesday to Saturday in July 2026, and shut Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.10 In 2023 it closed only Sunday and Monday.4

What locals & experts say

Diego Aguilar, on what he is cooking: There is nothing to rescue in malagueño cooking, you only have to remember it.1
Gastroactitud (2023): José Carlos Capel and Julia Pérez Lozano, the nearest thing to a reservation anyone has printed: Close-to-home cooking, of not very complex resolutions, in which the flavours of the products prevail over the way they are prepared.4
The Infatuation (2026): Palodú is a fancy, 'let's celebrate that promotion or anniversary' restaurant.5
Diario Sur (2022): Cristina Cánovas on what the Michelin listing did to the bookings: We could not be more grateful to the guide, because an audience has started arriving, foreign above all, coming in search of a gastronomic experience.3
Award: one Michelin star, new in the 2026 guide, reported by andalucia.com.6
Award: 1 Sol Guía Repsol, held from the 2024 and 2025 editions.7

Good to know

Where: Calle Sebastián Souvirón 7, a few steps from the Mercado Central de Atarazanas.9
Booking: essential. There are few tables and the room asks you to book well ahead.10 Booking portals have been showing out-of-date prices, so take the figure from the house's own pages.10
Where to sit: at one of the tables over the kitchen, for the view of the plating.5
The street: the alleys outside do not go quiet even in the small hours, and the kitchen inside is the opposite: A quiet kitchen in which the dishes are the only ones talking.1
The name: palodú is the sweet licorice root Andalusian children chew, and it comes back in the last sweet of the menu.1 10

Verdict

should-visit — Cristina Cánovas and Diego Aguilar cook side by side with no head chef between them, and nothing leaves the pass unless they both agree on it. There is no carte, the two menus move with whatever the Atarazanas market sends them that morning, and the bread comes from Ana La Fantástica and goes over the robata. The Palodú menu was 135 euros a head in September 2026 and the pairing adds 85. Book well ahead and do not plan a Tuesday around it.