I was skeptical about the restaurants in Ibiza. I was worried we’d get a lot of instagrammable, aesthetically pleasing spots without any real substance, but, much to our surprise, we were completely wrong.

Our first dinner spot was Mint by Mambo. You’ve probably heard of Cafe Mambo – an Ibizan institution on the sunset strip. Well, think of Mint by Mambo as the slightly more low key cousin. At the family BBQ, Cafe Mambo is the loud, slightly obnoxious, older who brags about their success whereas Mint by Mambo is quietly confident, more refined and the cousin you actually like hanging out with.

The decor is more understated and has a more minimal, modern vibe to it. The other big difference is the price. The minimum spend for a table on the regular terrace at Cafe Mambo is €100 per person, whereas the same table at Mint is €70 per person. The two restaurants literally share the same seating area so, it’s essentially the exact same table for €30 less – it’s a no brainer.

On to the food, it was so so so delicious! We weren’t expecting much, thinking it would be style and no substance but we were shoooook with how good the food was. The menu has something for everyone and our dishes came out relatively quickly.

To start, we ordered: garlic prawns, goats cheese salad, (100000% order this!), and bruschetta. We all had a main each and shared two desserts between 4 of us. This was all washed down with 2 jugs of sangria and a tequila rose shot each for good measure. In total, this came up to about £66 per person.

The only disappointing thing about our dinner at Mint was the sunset. It was a cloudy day so we didn’t see much in the way of those gorgeous sunsets you see on Google images. Everything else was 10 10 10s across the board.

Our second dinner spot was Bambuddha. My friend recommended this and I didn’t do much research into it. I cast an eye over the menu, saw it was extensive and said, ‘yeah, book it’. So when we arrived I was literally awestruck.

It feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but you understand why once you enter through the glass doors into a bamboo lined, low lit courtyard leading to the main dining area. The best way I can describe Bambuddha is sexy. It has such a sensual air to it with the moody lighting, karma sutra carvings and statues all over the place. The decor is just enough without being tacky or obvious. It’s incredibly instagrammable and aesthetically pleasing but with all the substance to match.

As mentioned, the menu is extensive but not without reason. The menu is desrcibed as ‘MediterrAsian’ with curries, sushi and carpaccio putting in an appearance. The idea is to share dishes to make sure you get to try as much as you can.

We ordered: 4 starters, (soft shell crab baos, ebi tempura, crispy spring rolls & green papaya salad), 4 mains with rice, (salmon ginger & honey, Malaysian tiger prawn curry, Vietnamese chicken & wok fried aromatic rice with tofu) and one dessert called ‘the group orgasm’, (we all finished…), a bottle of wine and one cocktail. The total came to about £65.

If I could pick up Bambuddha, bring it to Manchester and eat there every single night, I absolutely would!

Another thing to mention was the service in both places – Mint had very friendly, chatty staff and Bambuddha had very attentive staff who would give you tips on dishes to order and how best to eat them. I’d recommend both of these places highly and I would also recommend booking both in advance too: I think you’d be hard pressed to rock up as a walk in and get a table. Find Mint by Mambo here and find Bambuddha here.