Christmas and New Year wouldn't be quite right without stuffing your face just a little; even dieters indulge. If you are here for Christmas and New Year, you'll find there's plenty of places open and to speed things along we've selected some cool places for you. Happy holidays!
La Petite Table
This newly opened Santa Gertrudis restaurant boasts an Argentinian head chef who has worked in some of Spain's best restaurants. Here you are invited to leave 2015 behind you and to start a New Year full of flavours. The New Year's Eve dinner costs €100 and includes some very fine dishes like venison tartare, tempura oysters, thick tubes of pasta with lobster and wild sea bream. A crisp finish awaits with a pineapple, mango and passion fruit soup. The traditional eating of the grapes is a thing not to be missed and then you can head off out to dance the night away.
Hostal La Torre
Based in Cap Negret just outside San Antonio is this boutique hotel perched on top of a cliff with amazing views of the sea. Try the Mediterranean-influenced cuisine in its restaurant or do a combo and stay here too, and roll into bed with ease. There's a Christmas menu and special menus for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Christmas dishes include burrata with wild strawberries and basil and mains of beef fillet with truffled mash or cod confit. To ring in 2016 choose from oysters and scallops then slow cooked Iberico pork or oven roasted sea bass. Dessert is a pistachio pavlova and of course grapes for midnight. Both menus offer some real lux for €90 apiece.
Casa Colonial
From 23 December onwards you can grab a superb Christmas dinner at this place just outside Ibiza Town. The very cosy interior with logs crackling in the open fireplace will get you into the festive mood in a flash. The €69 menu is a paean to Christmas indulgence: foie gras with baked apples; blood orange sorbet with mulled wine jus; the venison stew with pumpkin gnocchi or stuffed duck leg with saffron potatoes and savoy cabbage. They'll also be open for New Year's Eve with a menu yet to be revealed - make sure you book ahead as this night is very popular.
Beach Bar Can Jaume
If you fancy Christmas on the beach, this place in Cala Vadella is hard to beat. You'll be away from it all next to the waves as you tuck in. There are no special menus, but they will be doing Christmas specials of roast lamb and suckling pig on 25 and 26 December. It's all very reasonably priced here too; they do great cocktails and there's some very decent chill out music to soothe. The staff is great and will pull out the stops to make you feel welcome; you will easily be able to spend your entire day here till the sun sets.
La Cava
This lovely little place in Vara de Rey in Ibiza Town is right at the heart of where all the New Year's Eve action will be taking place. There's a special menu for 31 December consisting of four courses with drinks included at €65 per person. Quite a bargain. There's scallops stuffed with bacon, a quinoa risotto with artichoke and tomato, suckling pig with a salad of citrus, a wild mushroom millefeuille and of course those grapes. Doors open at 8.30pm and there's DJs and dancing. What better way to start a New Year with everything you need around you.
Clandestino
Clandestino in Playa d'en Bossa has warmth and great grub in spades. The owners honed their skills in the restaurant world in some of London's finest establishments and have brought it with them. You'll be pleased to hear that on 24, 35 and 31 December there's a special Christmas and New Year menu for just €39 - a seasonal feast with Mediterranean overtones. They will even design a special Christmas menu for large groups just for you. On New Year's day there's a special pre DC-10 menu too and don't be surprised if you see the waiting staff on the dance floor later.
WORDS: Julian Heathcote
