Tom Parker Bowles & Olly Smith: Ibiza's new star restaurant and the best blends Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Food Tom Parker Bowles & Olly Smith Ibiza’ s new star restaurant and the best blends By You Magazine - September 5, 2021 With sand between his toes, Tom tastes the fishy delights of Ibiza’s newest star restaurant. It’s just past two in Ibiza, which means all thoughts turn towards lunch. And the exquisite agony of choice. Arroz negros and a whole grilled john dory at Es Torrent, eating gazing out over the sea, washed down with buckets of rosé? Or gambosi (tiny fried prawns), chanquete (tiny fried fish) and baked bream at Es Xarcu, alongside endless buckets of rosé, and eating gazing out over the sea? Marinated oysters at beach-front Ibizan restaurant Jondal. Image: Daniel Balda These days, I’d probably go with the latter, seeing as Es Xarcu is one of my favourite restaurants on earth. In fact, it was the first thing I did upon landing a few days back, dumping the bags into my friend Serena’s car and driving a quarter of an hour west. Where piscine paradise awaited. But today, we’re going to Jondal. Serena has been singing its praises since it opened. And Serena really knows her stuff. ‘It’s new, but you’ll love it.’ It is, and I did. You sit among the sabina trees, the sand between your toes, with no music to spoil the mood, save the clink of ice on glass and the cicadas’ ceaseless chat. The crowd is glossily international, but neither boorish nor rude. Service is warmer than a Formenteran rock pool. As for the food… cheap it ain’t, but this is fish cookery to make you weep salty tears of pure joy. Plump anchovies in the glossiest green of oils; a hauntingly delicate red prawn carpaccio, which looks like Murano glass; pert, gently chewy raw clams in an avocado and Basque pepper sauce. Huge grilled langoustines, hewn in half, their impossibly sweet, pearlescent flesh doused in butter and garlic. We suck every last scrap from their crimson carapace. Local tomatoes are drenched in local olive oil and salt, tasting of long, hot summers and fertile volcanic soil. A vast king crab leg (the only thing that isn’t local) is packed with still more blissfully scented flesh, while a giant scorpion fish is gutted, skinned, then deep fried and served whole. It looks like something out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, but tastes like a Renaissance masterpiece, the succulent nuggets of fish wrapped in fresh tortillas with pickled onions and a healthy squirt of lime. It’s hot today, brutally hot, but a gentle breeze runs through the trees, the canopies keep the sun at bay, and we’ve got nothing to do save think about that next glass of wine. And maybe a few more of those clams. About £80 per head. Jondal, Cala Jondal, Ibiza; casajondal.es DRINKS Olly s best blends Growing grapes is a risky business. Different grape varieties ripen at different times so blends emerged in part as an insurance policy for winegrowers against periods of inclement weather – with the handy bonus that blends often taste greater than the sum of their parts. Europe has a long history of making the best of blends and, as harvest time approaches, I’m raising my glass to their superstar status. WINE OF THE WEEK LE TEMPS EST VENU CÔTES DU RHÔNE 2019 DOMAINE MICHEL ET STÉPHANE OGIER (14.5%), £13.48, laywheeler.com. Silky, classy and gently spicy, this hits the bull’s-eye. FITOU 2019 (14%), £7, Marks & Spencer. Easy, sleek and fulsome, this is a steal for the final few barbecues of the year. PAUL MAS WHITE RÉSERVE LANGUEDOC 2019 (13%), £9.39, Waitrose Cellar. Peachy and pure with a rich gingery kick, this is perfect with prawns. THE BEST AMARONE DELLA VALPOLICELLA 2016 (14.5%), £16, Morrisons. Star quality for a full yet bright red. Top billing for serving with beef. HOWARD’S FOLLY SONHADOR BRANCO 2019 (13.5%), £120 for a case of six, howardsfollywine.co.uk. This lemony white blend with its subtle toasty twist is fab with fish. 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