Pescados Consuelo & Pardalet
The freshest fish doesn’t start in the fridge or the holding tank, it starts with the relationship built with those who set out to sea every dawn without knowing exactly what lies ahead. Juanjo Pardalet knows this better than anyone. Behind every piece of fish that arrives at his premises is a fisherman from Ibiza or Formentera with whom he’s worked for years, 15 boats with whose crews he works closely and maintains daily contact, and an approach to the trade that allows no intermediaries between the water and the customer.
Consuelo y Pardalet has been one of those names in Ibiza that has needed no introduction for over three decades. What began as a small family fishmonger’s in Santa Eulària des Riu has become the benchmark for local seafood in the Pityusic Islands, with premises covering over 500 square metres, a presence in the Santa Eulària des Riu market and a distribution network that supplies the most discerning restaurants on both islands, but what Juanjo has built with the greatest care over all these years isn’t the infrastructure but the human framework that underpins it.
The 15 boats he works with form the backbone of that framework. Thirteen llauts, those traditional wooden fishing boats used for small-scale fishing that have for centuries been the most honest way to fish in these waters, and two sustainable trawlers that operate in harmony with the rhythms of the sea and within quotas that ensure there will be fish tomorrow and 20 years from now. It’s not a catalogue of suppliers, but a community of fishermen with whom Juanjo speaks daily, with whom he negotiates within the various fishermen’s guilds and whom he knows by name and by their way of working. It’s this closeness that ensures the produce arrives in exceptional condition.
The freshest fish doesn’t start in the holding tank, it starts with the relationship with those who set out to sea every dawn
The Ibizan lobster remains the star of the show and the product that best encapsulates the philosophy of Consuelo y Pardalet. Their holding tanks, the largest in Ibiza and Formentera, aren’t mere storage deposits, but living systems designed to keep the lobsters in the best possible condition until it reaches the customer. The water temperature, oxygenation and space are all designed so that the lobster doesn’t feel the stress that ruins its texture and flavour, because a lobster that has lived well tastes different. And anyone who has tasted Pityusic lobster treated the way it is here knows this perfectly well.
But if the lobster is the queen, the Ibizan prawn is the treasure that the island’s top chefs aren’t prepared to compromise on. Its intensity, its texture and that distinctive briny sweetness set it apart from any other, making it one of the most sought-after and also rarest items in Juanjo’s catalogue. When they’re available, they disappear quickly. And when they’re not, they aren’t replaced by another: you wait. That’s the philosophy of a company that has decided not to scale up at any cost, but to do it well, maintaining the standards that its customers have come to take for granted.
In a market where origin is cited all too easily and “zero-kilometre” has often become more of a marketing ploy than a matter of conviction, Consuelo y Pardalet remains one of the few companies on the island capable of proving exactly where every product it sells comes from. Fifteen boats, two islands and over 30 years of honest trade.
There’s probably no need to say much more.
