Taste Ibiza Restaurant
The Dutch have a knack of making things funky. The owners of Taste, which sits just outside of Jesus, are no exception. The place was a mess before they got hold of it and in next to no time (less than three months in fact) they gutted it completely and refitted it throughout. Petra, the hostess with a long history in successful restaurants, is justifiably proud of the refit and has even made a book that maps out the progress from pit of despair to place of elegance.
Taste’s outside garden is welcoming as the evening light hits the trees and ivy climbers give it a dappled comfort. The layout is lovely and the tables are all set with a specially commissioned bull’s head ceramic plate. If you eat the Taste of Art menu at 45 bucks a pop you get to keep the plate. It’s the sort of plate that makes you want to eat steak and it was good to see the fillet steak on the menu was accompanied not by the overrated and ever present balsamic reduction (as in many Ibiza restaurants) but with a beer sauce. Mmmm…
To start, I had the sardines with escalivada (a traditional Catalan dish). These are marinated like boquerones and looked very pretty layered with a rocket salad and roasted vegetables, Catalan style. There are two chefs in the kitchen, a Catalan and an Italian and both have brought their own unique touches to the menu. The tempura vegetables with tuna tartare were good. The tartare was zingy with lemon and had a nice crunch of shallot. It was clearly made just then and there and not pulled out of the fridge having been prepared several hours before. Courgette flowers were also present amongst the crisp tempura vegetables. It has taken me a while to appreciate courgette flowers, thinking that really, they were just a gimmick, but now....
My main course, confit of duck was all that confit should be – unctuous with crisp skin and flaky, melty meat. The skin, brushed with a garlic oil and then finished in the oven was delicious, with the garlic being ever-so-slightly crunchy and sticky. Nice. My partner had the pappardelle with prawns, spinach and ginger which didn’t hit the mark, the pasta being overly oily plus the pasta/ginger combo didn’t really work for me.
The wine list is not intimidating and we had a great Palacio de Menade at an ultra reasonable €15 a bottle. This is an organic Verdejo wine from Valladolid is clean, crisp and dry with a slight fizz on the tongue.
For dessert I had the Tiramisu del chef ‘cos I’m a sucker for tiramisu. It came beautifully decorated and with a balsamic compote of strawberries. Taste has a whole section of coffees a la Irish stylee. We tried the delicious Coffee Taste, made with Frangelico which brought our meal to a gentle and slightly hazy end.
Date we ate: August 13, 2009
Our meal was very well priced at €88 for two including a bottle of wine and coffees.
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