Bam-Bu-Ku — Restaurant in Sant Antoni de Portmany

This review is for the El Kiddo event

We thought we’d visit El Kiddo to see if a kids party could also be fun for the family. Overall, the team at Bam-Bu-Ku really put in the effort but there were some misses. It’s a really well branded and publicized event, but not at the quality I expected from the social media / branding I saw.

The 3 points for this review are: Staff = wonderful Kids activities = sweet, but just okay Food = not good

The staff: Extremely nice and helpful, especially when a bed booking went wrong (unbeknownst to me) and letting our friends come to our bed. Also helpful with food orders, clearing up quickly and quick service. The front entrance team were very nice and the “characters” really tried to engage the kids. A thank you to the staffing team because if it wasn’t for the service, it would have made it a terrible experience.

Kids activities: things didn’t get started until after 2pm ish. Give or take.

Pool: A plus and lovely that there’s a swimming pool — the pink and white tile decor is fun. However —- there’s an awkward rock entrance thing that kids keep falling on, and it’s full of the sand from the surrounding area so the water is very cloudy and therefore looks terribly dirty. They had some heart inflatables in the pool for the kids to share and play with which was nice, and the lifeguard was very very attentive and active. There’s also a small hot-tub style pool and there’s a small kids paddling pool too. There a double beds around the pool, otherwise there are “beach beds” on the boardwalk side. Note: it is not on the waterfront beach, it’s a sand-filled zone for the location.

Characters: Spider-Man, Snow White, a robot disco person, a blow-up unicorn and some others. Honestly — they were friendly and nice with the kids (although my daughter was incredibly scared of the man inside the unicorn outfit as he just stood there with a very intense and scary face - maybe someone who smiles more should go in this costume?! But then I wouldn’t be so happy to be in that costume in that heat) and the outfit with the extra legs was just a bit weird for kids. I felt bad for the people in these costumes in the intense heat.

Activities: there’s a mini kids club on the side by the toilet which is covered and nice. Although the turf grass is directly on the concrete floor so that was incredibly hot under the foot. It had 2-3 staffed who were also hot and not very engaging. You can leave a child there for up to 2 hours if you sign them in, but most kids were there with parents. There are sweet mini play house, swings, a book / craft table and some other activities. But again - even though it was shaded and had lots of fans, it was on covered, hot concrete. Too hot for the kids. There was a glitter face painting person who charge €5 for a swipe of glitter on the face … I was expecting a bit more creativity / face painting! There was also a balloon person, which the kids loved. There was a young person DJ’ing fun music and all the characters did dances together. And that was it.

Food: I didn’t have high expectations for gourmet cuisine, but everything was cold and not cooked through enough. The sushi was ok but too much mayonnaise that took the flavor away, just overall unflavorful. Fries were just served in a bowl with nothing else so we had to ask (again - very helpful staff). It was very basic with process and speed as the focus - at least what I experienced.

Overall, a nice attempt but just didn’t hit the mark. Maybe the family brunch is nicer - a bit more easy and entertaining than the “circus themed” El...

On arrival the ladies in the shop were lovely and very welcoming, this soon went down hill We went to the checkin desk to be allocated our beds that we had pre booked and we waited and waited and waited , eventually after I asked someone if we could check in to which I received an arrogant dismissal again we waited, now getting hot and frustrated I said loudly to my husband enough for the staff walking around ignoring us to hear “when are we going to be allocated our beds before I get extremely annoyed “ We then got a response from a rude blond girls and it came across as if she was too good to be working there and was doing her job as a favour to us.

We were given beds down on the beach area furthest away from the main pool area amongst 20 somethings and as you can imagine with two children this was not the best location we could have been given and with arriving with ample time and lots of vacant loungers they maybe should have been more thinking in our location and put us near the other families.

Our waiter was a nice guy and I must say we have no complaints he smiled and was polite and did his job well.

The swimming pools One was a paddling pool which was taken over by the 20 somethings. The main pool was tiny and extremely busy The space was not suitable for the number of people, it was grey, muggy and dirty.

The food was passable.

The main thing you are paying for is the atmosphere and this is what was most disappointing, the complete lack of energy that you would expect with a day club aimed at parents and children. As I regular visitor to Ibiza with friends and as a couple and numerous times with our family over the last 21 years, we were excited that finally a bar that was promising to allow us to enjoy the Ibiza vibes with our children and show them how fun and magical this island can be had finally been set up.

Well we were sorely disappointed!!! We could have been at any tacky beach bar in any county.

It was not family and child friendly like advertised with nothing other than a dirty pool to offer. No face painting, no kids DJ both, no interaction or ideas out the box to make this anymore special.

An amazing opportunity has been missed her and this idea had the Potential to be an amazing business with longevity but unfortunately doesn’t do what it...

Incredibly rude and unorganised staff. Food was the only saving grace for this place - everything else was a shambles. We had pre-booked a table of 5 for lunch for convenience as we were heading to Ocean Beach after. We were put on a table of four which meant one of us had to sit on the corner of the table which was really awkward when trying to eat. There were plenty of free tables but when we asked to move we got told ‘they were all pre-booked’. We said that we had also pre-booked for 5 people too so not sure why we couldn’t have a table big enough to accomodate us. We were reminded consistently that we had to leave after 1.5 hours despite us saying that’s fine which made us feel very unwelcome throughout our lunch. Several tables were still available when we left so not sure why they couldn’t have given us a bigger table. When we left they told us we have to pay €15 per person extra as we visited during ‘el kiddo’ kids event’. We were never told when we booked or on entry that there was an extra charge for dining in the restaurant on this day - ridiculous as we were not there for the kids event and we were 5 girls in our 20’s with no kids. Also not sure why we had to leave after 1.5 hours when we were made to pay to attend the kids event? I’m sure everyone else who paid entry didn’t get told they could only stay for 1.5 hours? We were disappointed but not argumentative or impolite so can’t think of any reason for being treated the way we were. Overall a very...