devonfunlovers
New Member
Just a small review from our point of view of some of the bars in Playa D'en Bossa this summer, hope it helps future visitors to the resort, please remember this is just our personal views on the bars.
Marias (Marianas?)
This is the bar that stands in front of the Jet Supermarket. Think this is mainly aimed at the German visitors as we found that the German staff tend to serve German clientel first. They justify their rather high drink prices by the fact that they use genuine Smirnoff/Bacardi/Bells etc. This is a fair point, but in our experience of bar working just because a pig is born in a stable....doesn't make it a horse!
In other words just because vodka is served from a Smirnoff bottle, doesn't always mean it is Smirnoff and not Roscoff....not an accusation just a fact of life in bar work in Med resorts.
Murphys Irish Bar.
It does what it says on the tin, Murphys is an Irish style theme bar that could be picked up and planted in any resort anywhere from Cyprus to Ibiza to Gran Canaria to Blackpool. At least they are not pretending to be something they are not and for those who like Irish theme bars then Murphys is ideal.
Joy Bar.
Last year a great little bar but this year totally devoid of any atmosphere. Same DVD's of clubs playing as last year and the year before that, music far too loud for such a tiny little streetside bar as you can't make the tablestaff hear what you are ordering. The fantastic PR girls from Germany and Slovakia they had last year have moved to other bars in the area and somehow the Joy Bar was poorer for that fact. Will be surprised to see it open next September in its present form. Far too much ice crammed into the ridiculously narrow glasses meant that their two for one drinks are anything but good value.
Pago Pago Beach
Gave it a go this year because the PR girls from the Joy Bar last summer were doing Pago PR this year and recognised us and persuaded us to give it a try, even though last summer Pago was very poor.
Potentially Pago could be very succesful, in reality the only thing that was saving it this year was the PR girls working the street corner getting the punters in. Pago has made very little improvements on last summer, but to be fair to them the bar is in a terrible wind trap and I think that this means that people don't hang around once they see their table being buffeted by the strong breeze that seems to haunt the place. Drinks were an improvement on last summer though.
Tantra
To say that the Tantra Bar looked tired and run down is an understatement, it prides itself on always having been the best place to get club tickets and was always the best seller of Space tickets of any D'en Bossa bar....would be very surprised if this is the case in '07!
Tantra seriously needs a facelift, it is far too dark and dismal, and the Tantra staff out on the opposite side of the street doing PR and ticket sales were verging on the desperate at times, sorry guys but you just don't have it any more.
Zanzibar
A bit of a favourite amongst the Spanish and the last bar before Space, again far too strong handed on the PR and ticket sales, it almost seemed as if the ticket sales were more important than the bar itself. Not a bad spot in the mornings before Space opens, but not operating anywhere near it's potential....a big dissapointment.
Our favourite bar is not so easy to choose from, our second place is potentially the best bar in D'en Bossa but has an air of pretention that puts lots of people off from using it twice...
Manoa
A great layout and a really good look, great music and comfortable seating and tables, good drinks but the high price of setting it up is refelected in the drink prices which are a bit inflated at times. We did comment on the bill for two Vodka and Oranges being 16 Euros, and an apology and free round followed fast.
We believe that the best way to judge a cocktail bar is simply by the cocktails themselves, and Manoa were a poor second to our favourite bar on cocktail making. A bit of tweeking by Manoa next summer could pay dividends.
So our favourite bar in D'en Bossa....we know we have left other bars off the list but feel we have covered the main players, we haven't reviewed Coco's as when we went there one night there was a scuffle at the threshold so we passed on the visit.
FunKafe
What a great find!, this small bar is on one of the sidestreets that leads onto the beach, the next one along from Bora Bora coming towards Space.
Great sounds, a really cool chilled atmosphere, and the friendliest owners/staff of any bar we have ever been to in D'en Bossa.
But any bar is only as good as the drinks, not the cheapest but not nearly as expensive as Manoa, and the drinks were simply the best in the resort.
Will go as far as to say that the cocktails are as good as any you will find on the island and at Eur6.50 are really great value.
No silly over the top pushing of club tickets, free wireless internet use and a totally relaxed atmosphere even when the bar got busy....and it does get busy as word gets around.
Marias (Marianas?)
This is the bar that stands in front of the Jet Supermarket. Think this is mainly aimed at the German visitors as we found that the German staff tend to serve German clientel first. They justify their rather high drink prices by the fact that they use genuine Smirnoff/Bacardi/Bells etc. This is a fair point, but in our experience of bar working just because a pig is born in a stable....doesn't make it a horse!
In other words just because vodka is served from a Smirnoff bottle, doesn't always mean it is Smirnoff and not Roscoff....not an accusation just a fact of life in bar work in Med resorts.
Murphys Irish Bar.
It does what it says on the tin, Murphys is an Irish style theme bar that could be picked up and planted in any resort anywhere from Cyprus to Ibiza to Gran Canaria to Blackpool. At least they are not pretending to be something they are not and for those who like Irish theme bars then Murphys is ideal.
Joy Bar.
Last year a great little bar but this year totally devoid of any atmosphere. Same DVD's of clubs playing as last year and the year before that, music far too loud for such a tiny little streetside bar as you can't make the tablestaff hear what you are ordering. The fantastic PR girls from Germany and Slovakia they had last year have moved to other bars in the area and somehow the Joy Bar was poorer for that fact. Will be surprised to see it open next September in its present form. Far too much ice crammed into the ridiculously narrow glasses meant that their two for one drinks are anything but good value.
Pago Pago Beach
Gave it a go this year because the PR girls from the Joy Bar last summer were doing Pago PR this year and recognised us and persuaded us to give it a try, even though last summer Pago was very poor.
Potentially Pago could be very succesful, in reality the only thing that was saving it this year was the PR girls working the street corner getting the punters in. Pago has made very little improvements on last summer, but to be fair to them the bar is in a terrible wind trap and I think that this means that people don't hang around once they see their table being buffeted by the strong breeze that seems to haunt the place. Drinks were an improvement on last summer though.
Tantra
To say that the Tantra Bar looked tired and run down is an understatement, it prides itself on always having been the best place to get club tickets and was always the best seller of Space tickets of any D'en Bossa bar....would be very surprised if this is the case in '07!
Tantra seriously needs a facelift, it is far too dark and dismal, and the Tantra staff out on the opposite side of the street doing PR and ticket sales were verging on the desperate at times, sorry guys but you just don't have it any more.
Zanzibar
A bit of a favourite amongst the Spanish and the last bar before Space, again far too strong handed on the PR and ticket sales, it almost seemed as if the ticket sales were more important than the bar itself. Not a bad spot in the mornings before Space opens, but not operating anywhere near it's potential....a big dissapointment.
Our favourite bar is not so easy to choose from, our second place is potentially the best bar in D'en Bossa but has an air of pretention that puts lots of people off from using it twice...
Manoa
A great layout and a really good look, great music and comfortable seating and tables, good drinks but the high price of setting it up is refelected in the drink prices which are a bit inflated at times. We did comment on the bill for two Vodka and Oranges being 16 Euros, and an apology and free round followed fast.
We believe that the best way to judge a cocktail bar is simply by the cocktails themselves, and Manoa were a poor second to our favourite bar on cocktail making. A bit of tweeking by Manoa next summer could pay dividends.
So our favourite bar in D'en Bossa....we know we have left other bars off the list but feel we have covered the main players, we haven't reviewed Coco's as when we went there one night there was a scuffle at the threshold so we passed on the visit.
FunKafe
What a great find!, this small bar is on one of the sidestreets that leads onto the beach, the next one along from Bora Bora coming towards Space.
Great sounds, a really cool chilled atmosphere, and the friendliest owners/staff of any bar we have ever been to in D'en Bossa.
But any bar is only as good as the drinks, not the cheapest but not nearly as expensive as Manoa, and the drinks were simply the best in the resort.
Will go as far as to say that the cocktails are as good as any you will find on the island and at Eur6.50 are really great value.
No silly over the top pushing of club tickets, free wireless internet use and a totally relaxed atmosphere even when the bar got busy....and it does get busy as word gets around.
