Salinas has got to be one of the greatest beaches on earth. Whenever I walk through the sandy pine shaded dunes and see the glittering sea ahead, the word enchanted fills my head. I always take the same route onto the beach and so of course The Jockey Club is always the first place I come to.
The Jockey Club. An Ibiza institution. Always buzzing with the relaxed energy of people on holidays. ‘This is the place’ it announces on its menu and damn straight it IS the place.
You can eat on the beach or in the restaurant. Football jersey and earphone wearing waiters dart up and down the beach continually and waitresses in black dresses and customised tees take care of the restaurant indoors. This is a team that works well together. Owner Oliver Lanzoni informed me that 80 per cent of his staff have been with him for over three years now. No mean feat on an island that by its very nature is fleeting. For me, service is equally important as food and these guys are a credit unto themselves.
The restaurant itself is beach, beach, beach – open plan, wooden furniture, driftwood fittings and sand being brushed back outside in the continual battle to keep beach and venue separate.
All the food coming out of the bustling kitchen looked good and the portions large. ‘Order carefully and you’ll get a good deal,’ was the thought that went through my mind. I didn’t. I ordered way too much but goddammit that’s what I’m supposed to do. I looked through the menu and on the back noticed they had pretty much done their own critique. Chiringuito or restaurant, restaurant or chiringuito? It asks itself. Well, The Jockey Club is both and then some more on top of that, because it’s also got a pizza menu and a sushi section to boot.
The main section of the a la carte menu is chiringuito stylee. It reads “clams, mussels, prawns, sardines, calamari and cigala (rather oddly headed with foie gras mit cuit and tailed with asparagus omelette). I chose the clams with white wine and parsley and got the most fantastic bowl of big Venus clams cooked exactly right with a sauce that just had to be slurped then mopped. I also tried the bresaola with buffalo mozzarella and cantaloupe melon wanting to see if the combination worked. It did, a lovely soft dish with an interesting dressing of purple basil and limoncello.
The self-critique also states the cuisine is modern Mediterranean and it is on the specials board where this becomes evident. My main course was tuna tataki with sushi rice, steamed tiny octopi (looking like tiny little Casper the Ghosts sitting on square clouds) and a slightly spicy red pepper sauce. The tuna was not as rare as I have come to expect tataki to be but nonetheless beautifully tender with good texture. The fillet steak the photographer had was stuffed with torta de casar, a brie-like melting cheese. In a rare fit of lunacy she had ordered it medium cooked and that is how it came. Even though to my mind medium is a waste of good steak this was still tender enough to cut with a fork – the standard by which I judge all fillet steak and the cheese went well with the strong pepper sauce and dauphinoise with courgette.
It was my birthday so we splurged and had a bottle of champagne with our meal – an unusual champagne by Andre and Michel Drappier. Unusual in that it is entirely made with pinot noir grape. Goddamn excellent. Its woody flavour easily stood up to the various dishes we were eating and it was fantastically dry. Unfortunately the bottle got emptied somehow so I had to go onto something else with dessert and there waiting for me was a small yet well chosen selection of dessert wine. Fantastic. I LOVE dessert wines. There was Pedro Ximenez, port and a muscatel. I had the muscatel and drifted away on its sweet thick aroma. The dessert brought me back down though. It was pancakes with ice cream and chocolate sauce and gave me the impression it was on the menu because it had to be, not because anybody actually wanted it. A shame really because apart from this, the meal, the service and whole Jockey experience was truly wonderful.
Date we ate: 29/08/09
The meal for two (including fabulous Champagne, remember) came to 168€ including coffees.
Read more about and book your table at Ibiza restaurant Jockey Club