Returning to Ibiza Restaurant

When you can appreciate the opportunity that is life you always find things to celebrate. But when to that vibe of thankfulness you add an unexpected, although very much wanted, amazing news you just give yourself the time to dress up, gather some meaningful people, and head to some place where you cherish yourself. 

And so, yesterday night, was one of those moments I wanted to cherish myself in good company. We knew Ibiza Restaurant was hosting a visiting Chef from San Sebastian, Spain with a new tasting menu every day of this week. The choice was obvious: we went there to try yesterday's tasting menu by Chef Iker Gonzalez - a six course menu with many Iberian essentials. 

Surprisingly, we were not offered any amouse bouche this time so the meal started with the first dish of the tasting menu - Ajo Blanco, a garlic almond cold soup with coconut and diced pineapple. A good soup (although I am not particularly excited about cold soups, exception made for summer time) with a playful game of textures. On the lower side, however, I have to point the unbalanced flavor. Except for the few bites with pineapple on them, the overall flavor was overwhelmingly garlicky. 

The second course was Los 5 sentidos del marmitako, laminated tuna, onion confit and red, green and chorizero pepper sauce. The tuna was perfectly cooked although one could notice some blandness on seasoning when the fish was eaten alone. Nevertheless, we quickly realized that the dish made sense if each bite incorporated all the elements of the dish. The sauce by itself resembled the flavors of a very common cod dish from Portugal - Salted cod Spanish way. It was a bite of home.

It was followed by Langostinos, grilled langoustines, cream cheese and Granny Smith crispy apple. The menu was notably in crescendo of quality. These langoustines were absolutely wonderfully cooked. They were tender and juicy yet with a crispy texture and a smoky flavor. The junction with the cream cheese was a bit strong for me but the sweetness of the crispy apple helped to balance the flavors. May the cream cheese had some citrus and the dish would be one of favorites from Ibiza.

Next, it came the dish we were most curious about because it looked the most delicious. It was Bacalao, home salted codfish confit, cauliflower cream and mussels. And our intuitions were absolutely correct. The cod steak was absolutely perfect. Crispy skin, juicy and flaky meat and the perfect amount of salt. Only who cooks salted cod as frequently as Portuguese and Spanish do can fully understand how hard it is to have a piece of cod cooked with this perfection. The cauliflower cream went beautifully together with the cod and the mussels. This was, without a doubt, the best dish of the night. Another wonderful flashback of Mediterranean shores...

The next to last course was Solomillo, beef tenderloin a la minute, potato, Manchego cheese pure and morcilla sausage piquillo pepper. Very good, too. The beef was perfectly cooked to medium rare with a super tender texture that did not offer any resistance to the knife what so ever and that, consequently, melted into the mouth. Beautiful! The pure was very tasty as well as the pepper.

Finally, the dessert. For the description on the menu, we were not expecting anything surprising or particularly criative. Once again, we were not mistaken. The meal ended with a Flan, ginger infused flan and passion fruit ice cream. The flan was tasty, although I felt that it was a little bit overcooked because it was not smooth as it was supposed to be. The ice cream was absolutely ordinary. Chef Gonzalez was no sweet genius.

Overall, the tasting menu was good being the cod the highest point of the dinner and the dessert the lowest. It was a strongly Iberian display of flavors that pleased us very much. But, still, we think Chef's Romero tasting menu is much better in sophistication, creativity and playfulness of flavors. 

We renewed our certainty that Ibiza is the best restaurant in New Haven, CT even though I stand by my opinion regarding ambiance and service. The lightning should be rethought as well as the service. Everyone is very kind and respectful in general, but the pace with which food comes to the table is rather slow sometimes and the strong accents have shown to be a great barrier on the communication efficiency. Nothing that hungry, flexible and fun spirits can't overcome. :)