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.