The restaurants along Puerto de Alcudia's port front do one thing particularly well: rice. Arroz a banda is the local speciality — short-grain rice cooked in fish stock, typically served in a wide flat pan with alioli on the side, with the fish served separately or stirred in. Paella marinera, loaded with mussels, prawns, and squid, is on every menu. These are not quick dishes; most take at least twenty minutes to prepare properly, and the best places do them in cast iron pans for two or four people. Order early.
The setting is straightforward — open terraces overlooking the marina, boats nodding in the water, the smell of the sea. Lunch is the better meal here; the kitchens are at their most focused midday, and eating at one o'clock alongside the locals who come over from Alcudia town feels more genuine than the tourist-heavy evening service. Wine comes cold and cheap; order the house white.
Prices vary, but a shared paella for two with drinks comes in at around €35-50 depending on the restaurant. The more obviously tourist-targeted places charge more for roughly the same food; the smaller ones slightly back from the waterfront often do a better job. Look for places displaying the day's catch rather than a laminated menu with photographs.