Round-Up of restaurants visited in October, 2014

Lunch at Cardini Pizza, Pasta, Grill Restaurant, Sliema.

Wednesday, 1st October, 2014.

Cardini Restaurant on Tower Road, Sliema, has for some time been one of our favourite restaurants when we happen to be in the area. We’ve been a number of times for lunch, which is a quieter time weekdays than during the weekend, but the place is normally quite well attended in the evenings. The menu gives a range of pizza which are very large; good portions of pasta dishes which can be taken as starters or main courses; antipasti; grill; and fresh fish which is delivered daily.

Portions are normally very large, with massive side servings of freshly fried chips; roast potatoes, vegetables in season and fresh salad with all main courses of fish and/or meat, all included in the menu price of the main. A daily specials menu is also made available with whatever is found fresh on the day.

We took a look at the menu and the specials, and noted that they were serving a special of seafood as starter or main course, and we were also shown a selection of fresh fish which had just been delivered.

A bread basket with home-made selections of dried tomato stuffed bread, ftira and Maltese bread was placed on the table. Fresh and tempting.

We settled for a mixed seafood platter to be shared between four as a starter, which turned out to be a feast on its own, with grilled fresh tuna steaks; local red prawns; black mussels and razor clams in broth; langoustine; scallops, octopus and deep fried calamari rings. Side serving of a home-made saffron sauce and tartar sauce were served with the starter.

Main courses were a choice of two wild spnott (sea bass); and two pagell (red bream). The fish were grilled to perfection and served with rizzi rice, pea puree’ and asparagus on the plate. Side dishes served with the main courses, were fresh, crunchy chips, roast potatoes, veg in season with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and asparagus and fresh salad. The main courses as presented had already enough ingredients on the plate, and what all of us just added was a bit of the vegetables. As we said earlier portions at Cardini are large, but the quality is not compromised in any way, as everything is fresh.

We absolutely had no room for dessert, but we were served a complementary home-made ice-cream, amuse-bouche size, but excellent to clear the food taste and enhance the flavours of very good food on the palate.

One bottle of white wine; one beer; two bottles of water; and espressos completed the lunch.

Price of the food as shown in the photos in this review was EUR132 (EUR33 per person). Wine, beer, water and espressos EUR28 (Eur7 per person. All inclusive per person EUREUR40.

Very good food with good presentations and portions for big eaters; very good service; good value for money.

Cardini Pizza, Pasta Grill Restaurant, is listed as one of the WRMC top ten, family-oriented casual dining restaurants in the 2014 WRMC Restaurant Guide.

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Dinner at Wejla Restaurant - Smart City.

Wednesday, October, 1st, 2014.

This was our second visit to this restaurant since it opened in earlier on this year in April.

As such all dining outlets at Smart City were to my knowledge supposed to have completed the refurbishment of the outlets and opened their doors to the general public by the end of April. Up to now only four outlets are in operation these are Choccafe; Laguna; Wejla and Bistro Ten-0-One.

The Londoner, Incredible Asia, British Pub, Melita, are still light years away from being anywhere completed. The grapevine also has it, that Busy Bee, are interested in an outlet here, on the restaurant walk, in front of the laguna, which I’m sorry to note, seem to be in a sort of perpetual maintenance programme.

Back to Wejla. Wednesday evening seem to have been the last one with balmy weather to enjoy a dinner under the recently erected canopy at the al fresco section of this restaurant. It does seem that the Schiavone family wanted to make things right from the start, and have in my opinion opened the only restaurant at Smart City that is offering a “premiumised informality” dining experience. They do have a considerable amount of experience in this regard through their other outlets in Marsaxlokk namely, Harbour Lights and Tartarun.

James the Tartarun’s chef, has now moved over to Wejla with his brother Stephen as front-of-house, to get things running smoothly in way of excellent cuisine and service.

Food ordered on this occassion:

Starters: Oysters and two freshly made aljotta (fish soup), for two persons; Home-made, lobster stuffed tortellacci; and pan seared scallops

Main Courses: A selection of very fresh fish, and seafood were shown to us, and we selected

a serving of the red, Mediterranean king prawns, served on a bed of couscous;

Grilled trill (red mullet); and grilled whole calamari.

A serving of roasted potatoes and salad were served as side servings.

Desserts: Home-made Mille foglie; two ice-creams; and pannacotta.

Two bottles of water; on bottle of Chablis; espressos and complementary Avernas, completed the dinner.

Value of the dinner as described above and as shown in the photos of the food as served excluding the wine and pre-dinner drinks came up to: EUR153.30 (EUR38.33 per person).

Cuisine quality and freshness of ingredients were very good; service outstanding; value for money reasonable.

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Dinner at Ali Baba Restaurant, Sliema

Wednesday, 15th October, 2014.

Ethnic restaurant such as Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, various other combined Asian, Moroccan and other Arabic cuisine restaurants, etc., have always been operated in Malta under one form or another, as happens always, most simply cater for local tastes rather than projecting the authentic, ethnic cuisine, with choice of the freshest ingredients which depict the mother country, and which would, for a couple of hours transport the diner to that far away place through the authenticity of the cuisine, its flavours and taste.

The review for this restaurant has been published separately with rating on this website, where one can view full set of photographs of the cuisine as served.

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Dinner with the family at Don Berto Restaurant, Vittoriosa Waterfront.

Friday, 17th October, 2014.

Don Berto Restaurant at the Vittoriosa Waterfront, is without a doubt the most busy and sought after restaurant in this location. Boasting a very good terrace overlooking the yacht marina, and which is essential for al fresco dining most of the year; and two spacious internal sections, one for normal a la carte service, and an inside section that can be used for private functions, such as parties and large group dinners without interfering with other diners; coupled with good food in very substantial portions that do not compromise on quality, good management and service, and value for money, is what makes this place so popular and successful .

Food choices:

My five year old granddaughter was served a very good pizza sepcially made for her with topping ingredients that she likes.

Starters for us adults were selected from the specials and were :

A serving of their home made tortellacci stuffed with seafood and ricotta, served in seafood bisque with a huge portion of calamari tings, black mussels, clams and a king prawn;

A serving of black mussels in white wine;

Carrot and pumpkin cream soup;

and a serving of the spaghetti vongole, cooked perfectly al dente.

Main Courses:

Two servings of venison fillets;

One grilled pagella (red bream);

and the Scottona T-Bone

Desserts:

No real room for desserts, but one coconut ice-cream and one choice from the display (not home-made) were made.

The dinner was complemented with one bottle of wine, three bottles of water, espressos and complementary liqueurs.

Value: Cost of food as shown (excluding wine) EUR145 ( EUR36.25 per persons);

Good food, good service, good value. Booking is essential.

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Dinner at Commando Restaurant, Mellieha -

Friday, 24th October, 2014.

We had reviewed this restaurant on Wines and Restaurants of Malta.Com earlier on this year, on the 25th of April to be exact. At that time we gave this restaurant a top rating of 9/10. We were more than pleased with that assessment when we re-visited the establishment last Friday, as the consistency of both the cuisine and the service were top notch.

I kindly invite you to view the cuisine photo album which contains 15 photos of the food as served. Clicking on any of the photos will indicate the descriptive caption, and by clicking on the title of the album, one can see the full collection at one glance for easier reference.

Cuisine quality, preparation and presentation superb, service well above the norm bordering on very good +; Portion size, very decent without being overwhelming and prepared with excellent ingredients.

Price of the dinner excluding the wine and pre dinner drinks, but including two bottles of water and espressos, came up to EUR 158 between four persons (EUR39.5 per person). Value for money very good.

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Dinner at Nan Yuan Cantonese Restaurant at the Valletta Waterfront.

Thursday, 30th October, 2014.

Wandered along to the Valletta Waterfront for a stroll and some dinner hoping that the projected Grigale and rain would not come for a while. They did not, but driving down to Marsascala later on in the evening we noted that some heavy rain did strike there. Such a small country as Malta, and weather can strike differently at various locations. The Valletta Waterfront was a bit quiet this Thursday, but that is understandable in Malta, as when the hour is pushed back on the Winter time clock, and everyone tries to settle down in the Winter routine, with kids back to school and all that, weekday quiet periods are expected everywhere.

We did have our pick of restaurants, so we decided to go a bit out of our weekday comfort zone and opted for a Chinese, (or shall I say Cantonese), dinner at Nan Yuan. Been there several times, and have always enjoyed it. Portions here are a larger than other Chinese places, but the quality have always been good. In view of this, one has to be careful not to over order as we have seen various diners asking to have various untouched dishes to be packed as takeaways. One can only eat so much at any time.

Our selection of food were for a mixed hors d’oeuvres platter to share and to enjoy over a glass or two of white wine, wonton and creamy, sweet corn soups; and for main course we opted for the newly introduced aromatic duck glazed with orange sauce, to share between two. A very good choice. Dessert - one order of the lychee fritters, and Jasmine tea. A good bottle of Cote du Rhone blanc, exactly chilled, and a bottle of water completed the dinner. Very enjoyable.

Price overall excluding the wine came up to EUR28 per person, very reasonable and very good value. Service was very good too, provided by a very attentive and efficient Maltese head waitress, who in the absence of the owner was doing a very good job indeed.

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Oceana Restaurant at the Hilton Malta.

October, 2014

The Sunday buffet lunch season has started in earnest with the major hotels all vying for clients through their offerings. Various good buffets are available yearly between October and May, with prices ranging from about EUR23 (in four star hotels) to about EUR35 (in five star hotels).

Yesterday we decided to open the season with the Oceana at the Hilton and as usual we were not let down, either by the quality or the vast selection of food laid out on the various counters and stations. Last Sunday’s theme was Asian oriented plus selections of old favourites.

Food was arrayed and displayed on some fifteen counters and live stations , which included, vast selections of antipasti with seafood, Sicilian specialities, savoury creations; Soup station; Pasta station with selections of ricotta ravioli, farfalle with seafood, and rice with chicken fillets; Seafood cooking station; The main Course counter with selections of some six different choices of fish, meats, veg., etc; The Carvery - honey roasted pork loin; Thai live station; Asian duck and pancake station; Waffle and ice cream station; cheese table; and some three or four dessert stations. A veritable feast for all the family especially big eaters.

Price of the buffet lunch excluding drinks was EUR35 per person. Enjoyable.

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Dinner at L’Agape Restaurant, Rabat, Malta.

Friday, 31st October, 2014.

Friday dinner was enjoyed this week at one of our regular restaurants, L’Agape in Rabat, at which we are always assured of a warm welcome by Pierre and Chris the hands-on proprietors. Pierre runs front of house to perfection whilst Chris is the executive chef.

We were surprised to see the addition of a selection of very fresh fish which was displayed on a couple of dishes, and as Pierre explained, they only buy a very limited amount of the freshest fish available from their supplier, which is served on the same day.

The place was as usual throbbing with clients both downstairs as well as on the first floor private dining room. If one decides to pay a visit, early booking is required.

Food choices centred around some of the chef’s recommendations the home-made liver pate’ and the Peponata, and the less adventurous but good grilled brie cheeselet. An pre dinner antipasto and an amuse bouche were also served. For mains, two of the group opted to share the 1.4kg dentici, cooked in acqua pazza, and a choice of the grilled veal T-Bone and the stuffed chicken leg. For desserts, a creme brulee; chocolate pannacotta and one serving of the date parcels with icecream.

Espressos; two bottles of wine, one white and one red from the L’Agape self imported wine stable, and complementary avernas finished of the dinner.

Price for the above between four persons, excluding the wines came up to: EUR158 (EUR39.50 per person).

Cuisine quality, preparation and presentation and service very good, all contributing to an enjoyable evening at a very good value for money.

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