Pleasant friend cheers up on island retreat (9)
I believe the answer is:
palatable
'pleasant' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'friend cheers up on island retreat' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'friend' could be 'pal' (pal can mean a friend) and 'pal' is located in the answer.
'cheers' could be 'ta' (both can informally mean thank you) and 'ta' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'able' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palatable that I've seen before include "good to eat" , "Tasty" , "Of food, tasting nice; of idea, acceptable" , "Pleasant to the taste, acceptable" , "pleasing" .)