IBIZA - EIVISSA (IBIZA TOWN) - COMIDAS BAR SAN JUAN
COMIDAS BAR SAN JUAN 2018
The owners of this unpretentious tapas bar remain impervious to Ibiza’s trendiness, refusing to change its wood-panelled decor and traditional Spanish menu. It seems to have barely changed its prices either and is one of the cheapest places to eat in Eivissa (Ibiza Town).
Serving classic dishes like whole fried fish (dorada, bacalao etc), calamari and paella. No reservations are accepted and be aware you will be sharing your table with others in the traditional workers way.
Jonathon Lipsin was there
“Lunch in Eivissa, just before boarding the ferry to go back to Formentera, we decided to venture into Comidas Bar San Juan on a side street.
This place harkens back to the old days in Ibiza before the glamour and the tourists. This is a family run place in two small rooms. and is an honest working man's restaurant where the Ibiza locals eat and is the type of eating establishment I usually seek out
It is the kind of place my socialist house painter grandfather would have felt at home. Whenever I get into a strange town I beseech the locals "Show me where the locals eat please"
At San Juan one can find honest traditional island food at prices 30% cheaper than the tourist establishments. You have to wait for a table and when one comes up you are seated with others usually local fisherman perhaps.
For €9 or less I get a full plate of grilled merluza (lluç in Catalan/Ibicenco or hake in English) which was very tasty with roasted potatoes and salad.
The meal was rounded off by this homemade caramel flan which was delicious for about €2.”
It opens at 8:30pm, and you can't book. Unusually for Spain it'll be full by 8:45. If you want to be sure of a table, you need to be outside by 8:15 at the latest.
Try to use your Spanish (if you have any), they speak English, but it's only polite in a place like this.
Two people can eat a starter and a main, with a bottle of decent wine (about €20, house wine is a lot cheaper, but not so good) and a few chupitos for under €50 easily!!
7/9/2016 Second Visit
It is my last day in Spain so I decided to do a good lunch. I walked a half hour in a desultory manner meandering here and there down side streets and back alleys taking everything in and then I remembered Bar San Juan located in the serpentine alleys fronting the Old City of Ibiza.
I deftly ducked down one street and made a quick left and here I was. It ain't fancy, but it is honest and boasts some of the best chow in Ibiza port for a third of the price.
I had done a story on them that was posted in Renoir Spanish Food Guide on Facebook and I sent it to them so when I walked in with a Hola Quetal! I was welcomed like family.
I surveyed the daily specials after having chosen to eat in the back alley out in the air. Most tourists don't know this place and here is where the locals and labourers eat and they mostly sit together sharing tables.
They had paella for 5€. This sounded impossible but I trust them. I ordered that and their aioli and a shandy. The shandy came unapologetically as a can of beer and a can of Fanta lime which I shared equal proportions in a glass and got 4 glasses out of it all. The aioli was excellent as was the crusty bread.
The paella arrived and I looked at it suspiciously. Yep all the usual delicacies were to be found. Octopus, chicken, lamb possibly, lobster, shrimp, red peppers and mussels.
The rice was cooked perfectly and I tucked into it with little ceremony. It wasn't fancy but it was a quarter of the price, had more seafood than other paellas and this was as close as you get to a working man's paella because after all that is where the dish came from in the rice fields of Valencia when the fisherman would get together after a long mornings work.
I remembered their flan (creme caramel) from last time and decided to splurge. It was good as usual.
The bill for aioli and bread, paella, a can of beer, a bottle of lemon sprite and flan came to 13€ 85 cents.
I was talking to the waiter and he said, "Elsewhere you can find more expensive paella but ours is just the same" I heartily agreed. Another great food memory is made. Anywhere else the bill would have been 35€.
Bar Sant Juan 1953
COMIDAS BAR SAN JUAN
Carrer de Guillem de Montgrí 8, 07800 Eivissa
+34 971 31 16 03
You can follow us on -
Facebook - Renoir Spanish Guides - Food Drink & Places
Twitter - @RenoirGuides
Instagram - renoirspanishguides
Mixcloud - Mikeyb
