Bambuddha Ibiza claims itself as “The MediterrAsian food village offers modern fusion recipes inspired by the ancient Spice Route from Spain, through Thailand, Vietnam to Japan”. Indeed, the kitchen impressed us with their Asian recipes when we visited on Saturday April 30 

The place has truly zen spirit and vibe typical in Ibiza. Stylish and trendy. Located just outside of St. Eulalia on the road to St. Juan. The restaurant opened in 1999 and has been one of the hotspots on Ibiza ever since. 

The food was nice but extremely expensive as many high ends dining on the island these days. They had a very long food menu and a large drink list. But what makes it particularly special was the exotic setting and the beautiful waitresses that parade along the tables to serve the food. 

Even though, when we went to Bambuddha, there were a lot of tables with kids and young children, but to our taste, the venue does not really suite for kids. 

Bambuddha is the kind of place you go only once if you have the means to do it, otherwise there are much better venues on the island and less expensive to dine.

Bambuddha Ibiza

Carretera de, C. de Sant Joan, Km 8.5

07814 Santa Eulària des Riu

Balears Island, Spain

El Chiringuito Ibiza in Es Cavallet is the ideal spot for bohemian chic clientele. It is a perfect location to chill out for lunch. 

Es Cavallet is ideally located near the natural parc of saltwork near one of the famous nudist beaches in Ibiza. 

The Chiringuito is beautifully decorated with woody and design furniture with a view to its wonderful beach. 

The food was good but nothing extraordinary and very expensive. We must spend 55 Euros per person for three cocktails, three dishes and two desserts. 

The service, the restaurant had an armada of waitresses and waiters, they were fine and efficient. 

El Chiringuito is the place you come to see and be seen, but also to chill out under a hot sun and to bath if you are not afraid to dive in a chilly water.

El Chiringuito Ibiza

Playa Es Cavallet

Tel : +34971395355/+34971395485

www.elchiringuitoibiza.com

El Pins Resort in Ibiza located in Sant Antoni de Portmany and it’s a four stars hotel. 

The resort has been recently renovated and it looks like brand new. We like the design and luminosity; most of the areas in the hotel are very clean; from the pool area to our room; from the gym to the breakfast restaurant and from the lobby to the spa. 

Here is our review for El Pins Resort: 

The positive points: 

- Well located for visiting the prettiest beaches on the island 

- Pleasant swimming pools (nice music, bar) 

- Very clean room, each with its own terrace 

- Good breakfast, they have good and tasty natural fruits 

- Good bedding 

- Good gym room but a little bit small 

- Quite correct multisport field (tennis, basketball, and football) 

The negative points: 

- No real bathroom in the room, there is a toilet, a shower but the sink is next to the bed, it's 

  quite strange 

- Absence of tissues and iron in the room 

- Absence of dressing gown for the pool and the spa 

- No complementary water bottles and coffee 

- Paid parking (15 Euros a day) extremely expensive 

- Paid Spa (12.50 Euros each time) 

- No game room for junior kids even though it said that there is a junior room 

- All balls, from basketballs to footballs have been teared down with a knife by an unknow 

   and deranged person during our stay 

We have expressed our negative points to Alberto, the manager of the hotel and he seemed quite embarrassed by our points. 

Overall, we had a pleasant nine days stay at this hotel. It was very good value for our stay.

El Pins Resort

Carrer des Caló, 

07820 Sant Antoni de Portmany

Balears Island, Spain

Tel +34 971 34 03 01

www.elspinsresort.com

Scotch Whisky Experience is fun experience fro whisky lovers or novices like us, the location is on the same street that leads to the Edinburgh castle.

When the visitors enter the museum, they are invited to visit the shop which is expertly and beautifully displayed with all types of bottles and products based on the whisky flavors, but also souvenirs and paraphernalia from Scotland.

The tour started with a « Barrel Guide »  which involves jumping into a (clean!) “whisky barrel,” and riding your way through the production stages in a “whisky distillery.”

At the Scotch Whisky Experience, they’ve integrated the background information into a ride, using video and sound to capture the visitors attention with the key information of each stage, in a very clever way, and it did hold the attention much better than a typical speech from a tour guide.

Once the ride is over, the visitors moved into cinema room where a film will feature different landscapes and regions where whiskies have been produced through out centuries. 

When the film is over,  our guide invited us to the nosing and tasting area for an introduction to the five Scotch producing regions — Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Islay, and Campbeltown, and to work at discerning the differences in terms of taste and aroma.

Our guide introduced us to the four main regions, and helped us through the aromas using the scratch and sniff and some actual whisky.

After the nosing, it’s time for tasting the Scotch and we have to choose which region we wish to taste by putting our whisky glass on the color that represents the region on the card that has been handled out to us by our guide.

The highlights at the end of our experience, we are invited to enter into hidden place that houses the world’s largest collection of whisky, and where we can marvel at each of the 3,384 bottles displayed.

The best is for the end our visit when the guide informed us that we can keep our beautiful glasses in which we had tasted our whisky.

Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre

The Royal Mile, 354 Castlehill

Edinburgh EH1 2NE, UK

Telephone : +44 131 220 0441

www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk

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Dean Banks at the Pompadour was remarkable fine dining in Edinburgh, it located in one of the most famous hotels in the city, the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian.

To fully experience our romantic evening, we went for a cocktail drink first at the beautiful and stylish Peacock Alley that set in the heart of the hotel.  After our drink, we walked slowly to the grandiose stairs to Dean Banks restaurant. 

The restaurant itself is wonderfully blue turquoise and it has a small blue boat that indicated that the sea is not far away, and that we will be tasting some great seafood for our dinner.

Once seated near the magnificent windows with a view on the Edinburgh castle, The head waiter handled out our blue book menu which has two menus, a Classic one (Six courses tasting) and a Chef’s Signature menu (8 courses tasting). 

For our dinner, we chose the Classic menu, from the snacks to the dessert, every dish was perfectly presented, cooked, and enhanced by the freshest products and ingredients.

Dean banks’ cooking is inspired by Asian flavors, like his hand dived scallop with Dashi and Kimchi or his grass-fed beef cheek with ponzu and sesame.

The wine is list is wonderfully eclectic from the cheapest bottles to the most expensive ones, wine lovers have the choice to enjoy a wide range of great wines.

The service was very nice, helpful, and professional at the same times.

With Dean Banks at the Pompadour and Aurora, we had two outstanding meals in Edinburgh for our romantic weekend.

Dean Banks at the Pompadour

Princes Street Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh - The Caledonian

Edinburgh EH1 2AB, UK

Telephone : +44 7770 451668

www.deanbanks.co.uk