Margo’s, Mistra Bay

Myself and my better half ate at Margo's yesterday lunchtime. I have to say if it wasn't for the recommendation of a business associate I wouldn't have gone near the place as I don't carry much affection for Palazzo Santa Rosa (it's sister establishment) which really doesn't live up to its own hype.

However be that as it may we turn up at a cavernous restaurant with a charming patio area and are greeted warmly and seated promptly. The menus, when they arrived, are short and, shall we say the "enthusiasm to illustrate superiority" over other mere restaurants shines through clearly. If you want an example of what I mean go to the palazzo santa rosa website which is a false modesty free area.

 

My better half has a little difficulty communicating to the waitress that she doesn't eat meat, a point that needed repeating before it hit home. However with our orders taken we settle back to enjoy the magnificent surroundings. They really do have a lovely location.

When the food arrives quickly (which surprises me as the service, whilst warm and friendly is not overly prompt) we are confronted with two pizzas of generous proportions. They were superb, absolutely first class. One of the best I have had in my three years of living here. The base was beautiful and just the right texture, the tomato puree/sauce really shrieked tomato flavour and the quality of the buffalo mozzarella and the meat (cured on the premises naturally) really shone through.

 

I ate every scrap on the plate which is unusual for me. My girlfriend wasn't as enthusiastic about her choice but she still devoured it all (well she left the olive stones).

The prices are shockingly reasonable and the bill came in at under thirty Euros including water and beers. Like I say the service was very friendly and relaxed so this isn't a place to take in a 'quick bite', do plan on spending some time here.

 

In fact the only downside to the meal was the loud animated conversation from a nearby table where a Finish Actor was holding court discussing, quite audibly, his upcoming roles to the shrieks of one of the assorted female sycophants. However isn't that always the case, you try to go out for a quiet relaxed meal and there is inevitably a Scandinavian Thespian or two to detract from the serenity of the surroundings. If only I had a dollar for every time that happened....in all seriousness they were fine, just one woman was a tad loud.

To sum up, Margo's is well worth a visit. Take the kids as there is plenty of space for them to entertain themselves without being a nuisance to others, the prices are very reasonable and the pizza is absolutely excellent. There is one other place on the island that has comparable pizza (Vechia Napoli in Sliema) but Margo's knocks them into a crocked hat with their location and produce.

Etienne’s, Attard

Quite by chance I and my superior other found ourselves in Attard last weekend with some time to kill.

I've been reading about a restaurant and wine bar called Etienne's for some time since I moved to Malta. The proprietor writes a piece in the monthly Air Malta magazine and as I do a fair bit of short-haul travel in Europe in my role as a corporate whipping boy I've read a few of his articles.

So why not try it out eh? Well that's just what we thought at the time. We found the place, a small charming little establishment with a wine bar on the bottom floor that might seat twenty people at a push and an equally small but charming restaurant on the first floor, by randomly driving around Attard before I remembered that my blackberry has a GPS system and hey presto there we were.

It was a Friday evening in May but we were able to get a table without a reservation which was a bonus. We sat downstairs and waited to be served a drink whilst the owner prepared to come and 'Explain' the menu to us (his words not mine). We ended up having to ask for our drinks order to be taken and perversely as we were sipping our drinks a table that had been present and seated when we walked in the door were just getting their drinks order brought to them as we started on ours. So the drinks service, whilst superbly polite and friendly wasn't particularly efficient.

In due course we had the menu read to us, which is something I can't say I enjoy as its more of a test of your short term memory than a chance to peruse the dishes and arrive at a considered decision. Anyway there was no fish available that day (the purveyors had not delivered) but there was a decent choice of starters and a few main courses comprised entirely of steak/beef dishes with a prawn dish or other. I opted for a rib eye and to start a Porchini mushroom risotto. My other half ended up with a pasta dish as a main course and sorry but I can't remember her choice of starter.

My risotto when it arrived was rich and delicious but the mushrooms were dried and soaked and hadn't been sautéed well (if at all) and as such were very stringy and unpleasant. However my other half, who has a unique palate at times, thought they were delicious and graciously ate them for me.

When the mains arrived (a good forty minutes after the starters were cleared) I was greeted by a large rib eye which was unusually thin and lean. It was cooked beautifully pink, slightly over the medium I had asked for but it was overly dry for my liking and I ended up leaving a fair portion of it. My other half had chosen one of the appetisers (a shrimp pasta) as a main course and stopped a waitress/chef and asked for some parmesan to adorn the dish. Now I'm sure you're aware of the cheese/no-cheese rule for non-fish and fish based pastas. Well, as it happens so was the waitress.

Now in all fairness to the light of my life, she is a pescitarian and a smoker and has what can only be described as a deep longing for good parmesan so her palate isn't conventional to say the least. So when the waitress not only questioned the request but then, get this...., point blank refused to bring any cheese at all, you can imagine my surprise. The attitude she displayed was of incredulous shock, as if we had offended her culinary ethics in a deep and unforgiveable way. It wasn't the refusal to bring the cheese that incensed me it was the attitude displayed towards, not only a paying customer, but a paying customer that I happen to be quite fond of, that really pissed me off.

I won't bore you with the details of earlier that day but we'd had a bit of an emotionally draining day and the last thing my other half wanted was me starting a scene so she very graciously acquiesced to the Cheese Nazi and shot me a look to warn me to do the same.

So in true British style I sat there and fumed at the audacity of the hired help but very wisely kept my feelings to myself. We declined desert and coffee and I couldn't pay the bill quick enough to get out of there and vent.

So there in a nutshell is my Etienne's experience. It really is a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful part of Attard. If you can visit on a day when they may have some fish and if you can ensure you don't offend the hired helps sense of culinary ethical behaviour then you should have a decent experience. It probably will take you a while to eat three courses so make sure you have the time to kill. The wine list is very good, one of the better ones I've seen, but as my first choice wasn't available I wonder how much of the list is actually in stock at any one time.

As for me and the woman with "that" palate.... well we won't be returning any time soon, if at all.

 

 

 

 

The Kitchen – Sliema – December 2009

Date:                     Dec 2009

Pretentious Factor:     Public Schoolboy Level

Rating:            Well worth a visit

Category        Quite posh like!!!

Comments:    This review is from Dec 2009, again from another site I posted this to.

 

 

My Girlfriend and I ate at the Kitchen two nights ago). I have eaten there once before about two years ago and for some reason which I can't define have not been back since.

The restaurant is as I remembered it, very pine inspired decor however I am not an interior designer so perhaps I missed what they were aiming for.

The service was good, very friendly and relaxed. 

The wine list was a tad disappointing, very modestly priced Italian, Maltese and new world wines. You can find some decent wines to accompany your meal there but you wont find a bottle to treat yourself with if your intention was to celebrate something or other. Saying that we were out for a casual, impromptu dinner and I wasn't looking to deplete someone's stock of Chateau Lafite so we ended up with a really nice Semillion / Savignon Blanc blend which we both enjoyed.

Now onto the food. We started with a amuse bouche of a cream of vegetable soup. I thought it was okay but my partner loved it and would have been happy with a big bowl of that and a basket of warm Maltese bread. 

The starters arrived. I had a breaded fried egg with asparagus and prosciutto and the ball n chain had a ravioli of prawn mouse, My starter was absolutely superb, I can't comment on hers as it disappeared at a rate of knots. Both were beautifully presented.

The main courses were a fillet steak with a mushroom risotto and a flllet of salmon (I don't recall how it was cooked). Again they were absolutely excellent and the steak was cooked to my (but probably not the chefs) exact tastes (I like my steak slightly over medium).

Desert was a lemon tart which we shared, very good but not up to the standard of the starter and entree.

I walked out of the restaurant pleasantly surprised, I must admit I don't recall what I ate there two years ago when I last visited but it will definitely not be two years before I return as this meal was absolutely excellent, one of the best I've had in some time.

Its a shame about the decor, the pace does feel like a hotel lobby but the food was absolutely worth the visit.

If you are in the area and have an evening free I'd definitely recommend it.

Palazzo Santa Rosa – From Feb 2009

Date:             Feb 2009

Pretentious Factor:     Public Schoolboy Level

Comments:    This review is a little over a year old and describes the one and only time I've eaten at PSR, I have decided to give it a second try this Summer as I've heard rumblings that they have improved somewhat since I wrote this piece.

 

And onto the food......

My girlfriend and I ate at Palazzo Santa Rosa last night, a long awaited treat after a hectic business trip to some of the less spectacular parts of Europe.

It was my first trip to the Restaurant, but since moving to Malta two years ago I've heard mumblings about the place. Chef Camilleri writes a monthly article style advert in the Air Malta in-flight magazine where his strong devotion to gastronomy comes across loud and clear. Actually if you read the most recent piece (Feb 2009) his arrogance towards customers that don't share his highly refined palate also takes centre stage. 

Indeed his use of the words 'then don't come to a place like Palazzo Santa Rosa' towards someone whose culinary appreciation is, in Chef C's opinion limited, really did draw a line in the sand for me. Either this man is a temperamental genius modelled after the Pierre-Whites of the kitchen world, or he has issues with pretentiousness.

Well we arrived slightly early and after working out how to enter the restaurant (the front door sticks and appeared to be locked to us) we were greeted warmly, given a choice of table and handed the menus.

The menus are very nicely done, printed on good quality card with differences in the copy depending on if you are male or female. Only the male menu carries pricing details which is a really nice touch and one which amused us both no end. 

However, whilst I am no prude the use of the F word in one of the lengthy anecdote like descriptions of a dish was a little over the top. Whilst this is presented as the initial F then the required number of random symbols, it has no place on a menu in a restaurant which aspires to a Michelin star. I agree that a good steak shouldn't be overcooked but frankly there is no need to swear about it to paying customers. 

Perhaps Chef C really is a temperamental gastronomic genius, well we shall soon see.

Whilst we were looking over the menus and wine list we were offered a bread basket with a small bowl of olive oil which I understand they make on the premises from their home grown Olives. This was without doubt one of the finest olive oil's I've ever tasted, if not the best. We asked for a refill once we had rapidly worked our way though the initial offering. I cant say enough good things about this wonderful olive oil.

I ordered a ravioli of Beef, Pork and Veal and a cut of milk fed Veal cooked Sous-Vide, a technique involving vacuum sealing ingredients and heating to a consistent temperature in a precisely controlled water bath. Sous-Vide is a technique championed by three star chefs such as Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal so I was very interested to see what Chef C could do.

My partner ordered Asparagus soup to start followed by a Vegetable Risotto (ah the joys of dating a vegetarian). To drink a bottle of 2000 Guado al Tasso was ordered. I did see a favourite of mine, the Tignanello on the wine list but sadly they only had the 2005 which is a disappointment after the superb 2001 and 2004 vintages, perhaps in a few years it will improve.

Sadly this is where the evening starts to disappoint. The wine remained in the bottle and a decanter was not in sight. The wine did greatly improve with aerating, slow as that process was whilst the wine remained in the bottle, but the slight sediment in the final glasses could have been avoided by using a decanter.

As we were enjoying the initial glass of this nice but not life changing wine the starters arrived. A small bowl of ravioli appeared, presentation was not overly clever but I was really looking forward to the dish. Sadly it was bland, the filling was overly dry and lacked anything specific in taste, even seasoning. The tomato and garlic sauce was nice but again had little wow factor. I was expecting something more spectacular after all I have read about Palazzo Santa Rosa.

My partner's soup was pronounced as nice and that was as much as I delved into that. It is fair to say at this point that I began to suspect that a recent bout of flu had impacted my palate but it didn't seem to affect my enjoyment of the olive oil or the wine so I have my doubts about that.

In due course the Veal arrived. My initial thoughts were that the presentation was dull (a lump of mashed potato with the Veal presented on top), accompanied by some well cooked but unimaginative vegetables (the obligatory carrot and broccoli combination, still they were very well cooked, nice and firm to the bite).

The Veal was also bland. Now Veal is a subtle meat to begin with, particularly when it is milk fed and cooked sous vide, which will not develop any charred notes from the meat. Saying that there should have been some taste, again there was very little. When you cook sous vide you have to be very careful with seasonings as if you used a conventional amount of say salt or garlic then those flavours would be overly present in the finished dish. I suspected that either the Chef had used too little or no seasoning at all (and also in the sauce) or that my palate was completely shot from my recent bout of the flu.

The tasteless dish began to turn on me, after all who would want to chew though mouthful after mouthful of insipid food. I left about half of the dish and turned my attention to desert.

Chef C had written about his Chocolate Fondant and Pistachio Ice cream dish in the most recent Air Malta in-flight magazine so I promptly ordered it along with a glass of a local desert wine. In short, the desert was superb, the flavour of the Pistachio's came through with a beautiful closing milky creamy note. The Fondant was delightful, light with a pleasantly rich chocolate flavour (as you would expect).

It was this dish as well as the olive oil that make me wonder if my palate was fine and the starter and main course were indeed quite bland and not a product of my having had the flu recently.

I have read in one of Chef C's in-flight articles (I spend a fair bit of time on good old Air-Malta) that he aspires to a Michelin Star and appears quite proud of the fact that his is the only restaurant in Malta to be reviewed by the guide.

In my limited experience of this restaurant I would say there is a ways to go before he could challenge for his first star. The food and presentation aren't at the level yet. I ate at Marcus Wearing at the Berkley last month and if Chef C wants to cook in those circles then he has a lot to achieve (if indeed that is what he wants).

The presentation of the food was unimaginative and the food seemed bland. The wine could have really benefited from decanting. Finally, and this might seem like a petty issue, but if you want to install in your guests a sense of luxury, of being present in a temple to gastronomy, then a little more expenditure on quality crockery, glassware and flatware wouldn't go amiss. The cafeteria style flatware and crockery didn't help set the tone I believe the chef is aiming for.

Finally a word on pricing, I've read several reviews of Palazzo Santa Rosa where people complained about the price. I couldn't disagree more. I didn't pay particular attention to the cost of the dishes, however when the bill arrived, a tad under Two Hundred Euros I scanned the bill carefully as I honestly believed they had left the wine off the menu. This wasn't the case and all of our order had been accounted for correctly. As far as I'm concerned the restaurant is very moderately priced and is certainly no more expensive than many of the other better quality restaurants in Malta.

To sum up, I believe that Palazzo Santa Rosa is over rated, however I'll probably eat there again in case it was my palate that was jaded and not the food that was quite as bland as it seemed. I think I'll try a lunch seating in Summer to really appreciate the setting in all its glory. Until then, I won't be recommending it to any close friends any time soon.

Dude’s n Food

I've been living in Malta for a few years now and I like it here, pretty much. Of course there are some things I dislike and a couple that really piss me off but as a guest in this country I'll stick to one thing in this new blog and that is food.

Boy do the Maltese love to eat, which is lucky for me as I happen to share that particular pleasure as well. The Malta yellow pages lists over five hundred restaurants which seems a little on the low side to me, I'd guess there are well over a thousand, not including the kiosks and snack bars.

However how does one find out where to go and eat? Trial and error is fun but I recently rheard eating out in a new restaurant described as being similar to a blind date. You want it to be magical but a little insider information wouldn't hurt. Personally I couldn't agree more and enjoy doing a little research on where my dining dollars (okay Euros) are going to be spent.

When I first moved here I first turned to the ever present "The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants" which promotes itself as "Malta's best-selling foremost objective survey-based restaurant guide on the island"...now there are a lot of words in that description. In my experience it's useful to a point but not really that objective, I've had a few pretty poor meals at some of the places it rates quite highly and there are no poor reviews, whilst I know for a fact there are plenty of poor restaurants, so where else might you turn.

I also found the far more objective "Mona's Meals", using Mona's blog I managed to find a couple of real gem's to dine at which have become firm favourites for myself and my better half. I can't say I agree with everything she writes but more often than not she gets it spot on. Mona has a style all her own, which you'll pick up on when you read her very well written articles so where can a dude find a relaxed unpretentious (well on occasion) guide to some of the more day to day eating establishments in Malta.

Well I don't know to be honest so I thought I'd add my limited input to the wealth of information already online. After all It might keep me out of the Pub for an hour or two which wouldn't hurt my waistline or my wallet.

The aim of this blog is to give you opinionated, honest reflections of some dining experiences that I've had. I can't say I'll avoid pretentiousness but I'll warn you when it's coming.

Right then, onto the food.