Casa Jondal

About Casa Jondal

Over a kilo of caviar leaves this kitchen on a busy August afternoon. Casa Jondal sits on the sand at Cala Jondal on Ibiza's quiet southern coast, and it is run by Rafa Zafra, the chef who came up through the kitchen of elBulli before building his Estimar seafood restaurants in Barcelona and Madrid.

The food is simple in form and extravagant in cost: the best fish and shellfish the boats bring in, treated with restraint, and caviar layered onto almost anything that will hold it. A smoked-salmon-and-caviar bikini runs €110; expect €100 or more per person once the seafood adds up. The Michelin Guide lists the room. For the island's wider map, see our Ibiza dining guide.

The Kitchen

Rafa Zafra's cooking is built on the elBulli idea that the finest product needs the least intervention. Grilled red prawns (gambas de Dénia), oysters topped with caviar at €25, raw and salt-cured fish, and his caviar bikinis are the signatures. There is little plating theatre; the luxury is in the sourcing and the timing of the grill.

Zafra splits his year between Ibiza in summer and his mainland Estimar rooms the rest of the time, and the same hand shows here. For another high-end island seafood table, compare Es Torrent down the coast.

The Room

The setting is a polished beach club rather than a chiringuito: white parasols, linen, bare feet welcome at lunch, and the water a few metres away. There is no thumping soundtrack, which is the point. Lunch service stretches long into the afternoon; the lighting is sunlight, then candlelight as the evening turns. Book the front tables for the view.