The Travel Critic

Going out for dinner with friends should be an occasion. It isn’t always. Sometimes it’s just another meal—food arrives, you eat, you leave, and if you’re lucky, you remember what you had. But a truly great restaurant needs more than just good food. There are four main considerations when choosing where to eat.

First, the food. The quality, the style, the execution. Second, the service—attentive but not intrusive, efficient without making you feel like you’re being hurried along to free up the table. Then there’s the venue: the atmosphere, the setting, the kind of place you actually want to spend your evening.

But the final, often overlooked element, is entertainment. Not in the “man with a guitar butchering Ed Sheeran” kind of way, but in the sense that a restaurant should give you something. A pavement café in Paris, where people-watching becomes your dinner theatre. A bustling trattoria in Rome where waiters are part of the show.

And then there’s Pabblo, where entertainment is quite literal. Every 15 minutes, the lights drop, the chatter hushes, and a singer takes the stage. It’s not background music. It’s a full-on performance, breaking through the usual rhythms of dinner to demand your attention. And, honestly? It’s really quite special. Unusual, yes. But special.

The food is good. The service is nice. The venue is beautiful. But Pabblo is more than that—it’s an occasion. One of those rare places where dining feels exciting, like you’re discovering something new. Would I want my dinner interrupted by a cabaret act every night of the week? No. But for a fun night out with friends, in a place that truly feels like an event? Absolutely.