Last night we went to the Pacha restaurant in Ibiza.  The restaurant is part of the club and consists of an outdoor terrace section, along with an indoor air conditioned bar section which also has dining tables.

We had booked for 12:30am (which was practically the only slot available), however when we arrived the (seemingly typical) unwelcoming Spanish reservations manager told us that we had to wait 5 or 10 minutes – that turned out to be more like 35 minutes.  Whilst we were waiting at the entrance to the restaurant, along side an increasingly large number of others who had booked for the same time (all English) a Spanish couple arrived, hugged and kissed the door staff and were immediately escorted to their table. 

Whilst it may well be to the lack of understanding on our part as to how to greet and treat Spanish bar and restaurant staff, there has been an obvious difference in attitude from the waiters and waitresses when they serve Spanish customers, as opposed to us (2 English men and 1 Czech girl).  Establishing and maintaining a network of relationships on the island is essential for getting on to guest lists and receiving the special treatment, but I get the feeling that it would be much easier for us next time if we bring a Spaniard along.

When we were eventually shown to our table, we were pleasantly surprised by the cool decor of the terrace section where we were seated.  Individually lit tables, palm tree surroundings, softly lit fabrics above our heads, rustic beach style chairs and stylishly decorated table tops with a hint of Asian influence created a very relaxing and trendy place to eat dinner.

The menu consists of mostly Spanish fish dishes or a Spanish/Japanese sushi fusion selection, however there were also some impressive meat dishes including chicken, beef and duck.  The sushi was prepared in an open kitchen, by Japanese chefs who went to the excruciating effort of creating rice rolls, wrapped in seaweed with the Pacha cherry shape in the middle using various different coloured raw fish.

I chose the duck leg with sweet potatoes, which was cooked perfectly so that it simply fell off the bone as my knife slid over it…

Ilona opted for sushi rolls (and avoided the wasabi)…

I can’t remember what Mark had, but it didn’t look that interesting on the plate, so I never took a photo of it.

Providing you spend 70 Euros per head or more, entrance to the Pacha nightclub is free after eating in the restaurant.  We didn’t know about the minimum spend, and only ordered one course (we were keen to get in the club ASAP), so we had to top up our bar bill with a few more Vodka Redbulls (which also helped keep us awake since we didn’t leave the restaurant until after 2am!).

Unfortunately, the club itself was PACKED! And apparently Swedish House Mafia who we had gone to see were ill .  We forced our way through the crowds for a while, made it up to the top chill out bar for some fresh air and ended up only staying for a few hours before calling it a night.  On this occasion, the pre-club meal was more to speak of than the club.

For the first time in months, last night I went along to Mango in Reading (Berkshire) last night for the re-launch of Lunar.  The night promised to to provide some ‘exciting new developments’ for the main room and the garden.  I have lost track of the number of club nights which have promised to provide something ‘different’, ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘surprising’, etc…, however Lunar really did deliver on it’s promise by providing the audience with a huge surprise half way in to the evening!

In a club known for a stomach rumbling sound system, stunning lighting displays and a packed dance floor full of dance music fans shouting ‘TUNE!’, the last thing everyone expected was a Spanish (as a tribute to Ibiza) dancer to inject a little bit of culture in to a House/Techno night, but that’s exactly what Carrie and Sam arranged for their Lunar Cosmonauts. . .

Click the image below if you would like to see the flyer the night. . .

We saw Steve play for the first time in Pacha, Ibiza about a month ago, where he totally rocked Swedish House Mafia on the Monday night!

The Saturday afternoon at Global Gathering was a slow start, due to amazing and slightly crazy time everyone had on the Friday night.  We arrived at the main arena at about 3pm, although spent most of the first hour or so chilling on the floor of the Golden Circle section.  When Steve got on the decks, right from the first tune we were up our feet, shouting ‘tune!’ continuously and joining the ever increasing crowd to support Mr Angello during his superb set!

Here is a video clip with a cheeky Basement Jaxx remix early on in the set (note how busy it was behind the golden circle!)…

Half way through Steve was also accompanied by some pyrotechnics which included smoke, explosions, confetti and a few other bits.  I managed to get a bit of video of the confetti falling whilst Benni Bennasi was on his way in…

All in all, the best 1.5 hours of house music I have had in a long time! Great work Steve Angello! We are thinking of going back to Ibiza just for the Swedish House Mafia closing parties now!

Oh, one last thing.  We even got our photo published on the BBC website (I’m the one on the left) (click to view)…

(The ‘Tune’ and sunflower glasses were hand made by Ilona whilst we were sitting in the tent during the day.)