Here is a brief synopsis of the restaurants I visited (all of them good to varying degrees) from my July 7-20 trip.. Of course, these are all subjective and coming from a person that is a foodie:
La Oliva - (old town) Always reliably good. Had a kick ass meal and didn't break the bank. I had truffled raw egg yolk over ham and potato starter (awesome!). The main was quite good. Love this place, I always come here
Bella Napoli - (PDB) man, this pizza kicks ass for Europe. Very good, ate here twice. Good for a cheap eat, but I wouldn't eat there often since I would probably end up with a heart attack given all the fat and cheese.
Minami - (PDB, Ushuaia) not as expensive as I originally thought it would be, but there is some stupid crap about 'if you order an app they throw in an 8 euro service charge' or something equally ludicrous. The inside space of the restaurant is musty due to their water decorations, so definitely eat outside even tho the music will be very loud. The sushi was surprisingly good for Europe, but the selection of fish and rolls is mostly limited by US standards. However, what they did have was all excellent. My main was the tuna belly, which was tasty but only 8/10 given the price. Would I come there again? Definitely! The meal was generally very good.
Ushuaia beach bar - (PDB, Ushuaia) had the tuna burger with some starter (forgot). Good, but given that the price was similar to Minami, I would rather just eat there next time.
KM5 - Always enjoy eating here. The food is 9/10 for Ibiza. Had the 'nebraska' steak main and foie gras appetizer. Everything was very tasty, but I am reminded constantly how much better the steak houses are in the USA than Europe, for a significantly lower price. Having said that, our wine prices start at 100 euro whereas you guys can get a great bottle for 30-40 euro. When I come back, I will definitely get this 'nebraska' steak again, since it was really much better than last years steak I ordered. Afterwards, hanging out in the outdoor lounge was pretty cool.
La Paloma - (middle of nowhere) I love the picturesque setting. Very nice place. Had a good meal here, but not as good as I had hoped considering I read about La Paloma in the Wall Street Journal and other 'top restaurant in IBZ' sites. The food was good, 'local', without significant flaws. However, it was all just average or slightly better. I had the sea bream main.. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the fish. But I would probably come back here to give it one more shot. Considering the food was better at other places (or more my style), not sure it would be worth the effort if the next meal is also average.
El Ayoun - Pretty nice place, but still empty when we showed up at 10p. Looks like more of a midnight place. Anyway, the food was a nice change, given that some of the dishes had a middle eastern slant. I had some kind of deep fried goat cheese with honey.. pretty good. Overall, had a good meal, and worth checking out to vary things up a bit.
Bambuddha grove - Definitely my favorite meal. Awesome atmosphere, lots of good looking people, great wait staff, really good food. Taste wise, I probably enjoyed this meal the most out of all the restaurants we visited. Definitely a must visit. If I had more energy on the last day, I would have gone to this place twice. However, they have a tendency to mess up the bill. They put our mains onto someone elses bill, and the waiter had to chase us down to correct the mistake and get more $ from us. They also messed up someone else's bill too, so double check to make sure you don't have other peoples food on your tab.
Guarana - (las salinas) Where the hell did my calamari a la plancha go ?? Otherwise, served up an average version of fried calamari. At least the beer and atmosphere were good. Definitely be checking out one of the other bars next year.
