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ROUND-UP OF RESTAURANTS VISITED IN AUGUST 2015.
Dinner at Sepia Restaurant, Marsascala.
Wednesday, 5th August, 2015.
It is great to discover a new restaurant from time to time, which exceeds your expectations in all respects, great food, nice presentations, good service and very good value for money.
Sepia Restaurant of Triq Sant Antnin, Marsascala, has only been open since December of last year, just eight months to-date, and it seems that Chef Jonathan Vassallo is gradually establishing it as a destination restaurant, but one which is relaxed and casual, offering cuisine using seasonal, fresh and local ingredients where appropriate. The place is not a huge affair, having a seating capacity of just 30 covers, but this might be another feather in its cap, as it is quiet and unobtrusive. Pleasantly furnished, and with a good air-conditioning system in this heat, the establishment is certainly one that we shall be visiting aga...
Restaurant
ROUND-UP OF RESTAURANTS VISITED IN JULY, 2015.
Dinner at Gate of India - Indian Restaurant - St. Paul's Bay.
Friday, 24th July, 2015.
Gate of India by Ghosh - Indian Restaurant, opened its doors to the general public in September of 2014, and has since established itself as one of the best Indian restaurants in Malta, serving selections of authentic cuisine mainly oriented from North India, but also with some East India influence, cooked and prepared traditionally by Indian Chefs and hands-on Indian manager and host who introduced himself as Ghosh, and who has been in the industry in Malta since 1995.
North Indian States include: Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, so food presentations might depend on the Chef's original domicile, and might vary from restaurant to restaurant. The style of food consist of curries that usuall...
Restaurant
Pintonino Restaurant at the Valletta Waterfront.
[caption id="attachment_5804" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Charles DeManuele and Natasha Tonna of Pintonino receiving the WRMC 2015 Blue Riband Award conferred on the Top 30 Restaurants in the Maltese Islands.[/caption]
We have been frequenting Pintonino Restaurant at the Valletta Waterfront for a number of years as regular patrons. This has not come about lightly, as we are extremely particular about our choice of restaurants, especially those that we tend to consider an escape from the mediocrity that we sometimes see around us, and especially those that we select to be featured in the WRMC Gourmet Network. Only the very best make it to this network, as it is our responsibility and obligation to recommend only the best of the very best restaurants to our members.
Pintonino run by Chef Charles DeManuele, is one of those establishments where seasonal, local and fres...
Restaurant
Nan Yuan Cantonese Restaurant - Valletta Waterfront.
One of the very best Chinese restaurants in the Maltese Islands.
We have been regular clients at this restaurant for a number of years, and have seen Nan Yuan Cantonese Restaurant improve year by year, in all respects:
An excellently furnished and kept restaurant;
Very good hands-on service by the owners;
Outstanding Cantonese style cuisine, which lately have been elevated to fine-dining status, yet in a very up-scale casual dining format.
This restaurant has been awarded the WRMC Blue Riband award as one of the top 30 Restaurants in the Maltese Islands as well as the WRMC Award for the Best ethnic -Chines Restaurant at the Valletta Waterfront during the WRMC awards ceremony in January, 2015.
The newly compiled menu, introducing various healthy dining dishes, as well as keeping various old-favourites, which have also been elevated in quality, have come ...
Restaurant
Round-Up of Restaurants visited and reviewed in June 2015.
Lunch at Qbajjar Restaurant,
Marsalforn/Zebbug- Saturday, 27th June,2015.
When we spend a weekend in Gozo, we invariably stay either in a penthouse belonging to a friend of ours at Qbajjar, just in front of the Chez Amand Restaurant, or in one of the hotels. This time we stayed at Qbajjar, and as my good friend Chef Amand Verraneman and his daughter Caroline, no longer run Chez Amand, we tried out the neighbouring establishment to it, Qbajjar Restaurant. We were actually surprised at the quality of the service and the food, and like many others it seems, we were not disappointed to have done so.
The restaurant's menu is quite detailed and caters for all tastes and pockets, and include selections of: Hot and cold starters; various salads; soups; fresh pasta dishes; risotto dishes; meat and fresh fish; and of course selections of some ten pizzas. Home-ma...
Restaurant
The WRMC Restaurants Quality Recognition Awards are the ultimate in quality recognition as they are conferred after professional adjudication and assessments by the WRMC survey and review teams. Selected restaurants would have been short-listed from among over 120 restaurants inspected during the preceding year. Restaurants are not obliged to pay any fees or to take up, and/or pay for any advertising to be assessed. The WRMC inspects restaurants at will, and only those that demonstrate the utmost in quality will be shortlisted, let alone be finally considered for an award.
If an award, is applied for, and paid for through fees, or the commissioning of adverts, this in our opinion would be a purchased token, and not an award conferred on sheer merit through professional assessments.
WRMC assesses and adjudicates restaurants on:
Ambience; Atmosphere; Cleanliness; Management; Service staff attitude, smartness, profici...
Restaurant
Sunday lunch at Brown's - Valletta Waterfront.
Sunday, 7th May, 2015.
Sunday lunches shall soon come to an end with the start of Summer. According to some restaurateurs, Father's Day on the 21st of June, will signal the start of Summer, hot weather which will make dining outside unbearable at lunch time, and still warm inside even with the AC on, and people starting to enjoy the sea, therefore a drastic reduction in lunch time trade will be experienced. This was not so yesterday, Sunday 7th May, at the Valletta Waterfront, where all restaurants of whatever genre and concept, were enjoying a thriving trade. Good luck to all, it goes to show that competition creates quality, which in the end results in good business and tangible rewards. Naturally, this seasonal change in business trends will be translate into a larger business move in dinner trade throughout the weekend, from Friday to Sunday, as well as on weekdays when ...
Restaurant
May Round-up Restaurants visited.
Dinner at Ristorante La Vela, Pieta Garden.
Saturday, 30th May, 2015.
Another enjoyable, fish and seafood oriented dinner at Ristorante La Vela, at Pieta Gardens.
Food ordered:
A good look at the fish display and discussion with the head waiter to see and verify the freshness of the fish as usual, and four fish consisting of two kahli, and two bazug and a dot steak were picked. These were removed from the display, placed on a tray and taken to the kitchen.
Starters: chosen were three servings of Chef Enrico's seafood soup, rich with mussels, clams, the medium sized red prawns, langoustine and baby lobster;
One Linguine seafood;
One Linguine with scallops
and one penne rizzi for my five year old granddaughter.
Main Courses:
The fish for the main courses were cooked acqua pazz...
Restaurant
Sunday lunch at La Capanna Restaurant, Marsaxlokk.
Sunday, 24th May, 2015.
La Capanna Restaurant is one of those establishments that have been around for a good number of years in Marsaxlokk, but which we have always seemed to walk straight past. Not that there is anything wrong externally with it, quite the contrary, but possibly due to the very busy stretch of street that it is situated at. Nevertheless, on Sunday morning, I woke up with a craving for fish, and a desire to try out somewhere new. Obviously, La Capanna was one choice out of a few in Marsaxlokk, that I thought that would suit us. A table reservation was placed on Sunday morning, with the person that answered the phone telling me, that a table for two would be available at 13.30. Fine.
On arrival we were seated at our table, and rather than looking at the menus which were presented, we asked the head waiter to show us the fresh fish displa...
Restaurant
Dinner at The Arches Restaurant - Mellieha.
Saturday, 25th April, 2015.
The Arches Restaurant has always described itself as an exclusive restaurant boasting exquisite international cuisine, impeccable service, starched linen, and a sophisticated ambience, with every endeavour being made to ensure a memorable evening of fine dining. This has always been so, ever since we went to this place for the first time some twenty years ago. The place has naturally seen various management changes, staff and chefs over this time, but the onus has always been to maintain this establishment as a top, occasion oriented, fine dining restaurant. Naturally this does not come cheap, but then again who ever said that fine experiences are cheap? The kitchen is run by one of Malta's top young chefs, Luke Borg who had even won the European Chef of the Year Trophy in 2014 in Turkey. so naturally food quality expectations are somewhat high.
Service sta...
