Ibizan cooking was not invented for visitors: it comes from the fields and from the boat, and it shows. These are long dishes, with little pyrotechnics, made to feed people who work outdoors.
The dishes that explain the island
Bullit de peix. The most Ibizan dish there is, and the one that best shows the logic of this kitchen: first you eat the fish boiled with potato, and with the resulting broth a rice is made afterwards. Two courses from one pot. It is usually served for two or more and, in many places, ordered in advance.
Sofrit pagès. The winter dish: several kinds of meat, potato and sobrassada, cooked slowly. It was made for feast days and for days of hard work.
Flaó. The dessert. A fresh cheese tart with mint, which is exactly what it sounds like: an odd combination that works. It is eaten all year, not only at Easter.
Where it makes sense to look
On the coast, in the long-standing beach places rather than the new ones. And inland, in the villages of the centre and the north — Santa Gertrudis, Sant Miquel, Sant Carles — where the restaurant belongs to the village before it belongs to the visitor.
The rule that never fails is the usual one: if the place has a menu in six languages with photographs and sits right beside a large car park, that is not the one.
When
Out of season. From October to May the restaurants that open are the ones working with local customers, the kitchen takes its time and you do not need to book three weeks ahead. You eat well in August too, but you have to choose more carefully and call first.
An honest warning
Ibiza is expensive, and that includes the table. Here the difference between a good lunch and a disappointing one is not the price, but having chosen the place for the right reason.
