many people told me about their special connection to gozo. about its energy, the peaceful environment, the lovely walks.. so far i couldn’t really share it, i’ve only been there for a lunch or a day on the sailing boat and couldn’t really understand it so far… but now, after living in malta for 1,5 years (!), life somehow crossed all plans and somehow took me on a nearly 2week vacation to gozo.. and i finally fell in love too ❤
xlendi bay was the homebase for the first week, gharb, a cute little sleepy village in the north west of the island, for the second (spend a week of yoga holiday there with www.yogatraveller.com).and i have to say: i was just amazed by the friendliness of locals…gosh! they ARE friendly, doesn’t matter if in restaurants, when you ask for help or just start chatting with some random people at the sea…. many of them seemed to share the same passion of eating, nice wine and enjoying life and i talked about my blog not only once with them 😉
the beaches and the cristal clear water in the different bays are just divine for long swims and also perfect for diving. san blas and mgarr-ix-xini i loved the most. but enough of the ‘talking’, let’s now focus on my culinary highlights i’d love to share with you:
mgarr-ix-xini (gozo)
let’s start with the best 😀 this was absolute my favourite place of the holiday. a hidden gem in a tiny bay, located under some shady trees this place is a very low key, casual restaurant for yummy seafood and wine. the prices are not low key at all, but it doesn’t really matter, as we are used to spend that amount of money for a nice meal in malta, too.. the lovely family run restaurant just wins your heart with their very simple charm and just the freshest ingredients. my favourite was the vongole with orange and a glass of crisp greco di tuffo. can it get any better???
maji wine & dine, victoria (gozo)
my second favourite of this holiday. unfortunately we went there on a very windy day so the terrace was closed, but i still sneaked up the stairs and the view was just amazing. bit disappointed we got a table inside, but the food and the lovely service made it all up. again: super friendly staff, top reaction after we claimend about the wine (why don’t all the restaurant owners understand that this is one of the most crucial situations how to make your customers really happy!?) and some amazing food. my favourite: the terrine of salmon and cream cheese.. hmmmmmmmmm!
not sooo special: all the restaurants at xlendi bay. they all have really good ratings on trip advisor, but in comparison to the ones i mentioned above i don’t get it why they have all those top ratings. maybe it’s just too busy there… don’t get me wrong, we tried them all and they were all quite nice (again: service, wine, complimentary bruschette before your meal etc.) but still nothing super special. what i appreciated though was that home made pasta is very popular there and also the salads are always super fresh and yummy on a constant level (mixed greens, gozitan capers, bright red tomoatoes and sometimes even some fresh gbejna, the gozitan cheese, – yum!). out from all those places (zafiro, boat house, il-terrazzo, ta’ karolina, stone crab etc.) i liked zafiro most (watch out for the amazing musician who sometimes plays the guitar there and sings!) and stone crab least.
gozo – i’ll be back soon….
Nadisunshine 