Ibiza’s reputation as a party island has obscured a quieter truth: the island’s food scene, built on its fishing villages, salt flats, and family-run casas payesas (farmhouses), is one of the most interesting in the Balearics. Away from the clubs of San Antonio and the beach clubs of Playa d’en Bossa, you find a cuisine shaped by the sea and by centuries of subsistence farming — bullit de peix (a two-course fish stew served with rice cooked in the broth), sofrit pagès (a slow-cooked meat and potato dish for celebrations), flaó (the island’s mint-and-cheese cheesecake).
The best Ibizan eating happens in the fishing villages: S’Escalinata in Dalt Vila for sunset small plates, Can Berri Vell in Sant Agustí des Vedrà for traditional pagès cooking, La Paloma in San Lorenzo for a long garden lunch in a 200-year-old farmhouse. The north of the island — around Santa Eulària and Sant Joan — holds most of the serious farm-to-table restaurants. Order the local salt, sal de Ibiza, to take home. It’s better than Maldon and costs a third as much on the island.