as most of you know it’s not only the cooking which is my passion, it’s also eating out! therefore it’s time to share some of my outside my kitchen experiences again- and don’t worry, i’ll skip all the bad and will only focus on the good 😀
angelica, valletta
if you are in malta and you are intrested in food you’ve pretty surely heard of mona farrugia, also blogging about food, travel and restaurants on her website planetmona. lucky her, she opened up her own place in valletta and i was really keen on checking it out. after getting fan on her facebook page my mouth got watery everytime i read a new post of her place. finally we made it 2 weeks ago and we were not disappointed. angelica is a super cute place which could easily be in london or amsterdam too.. like it from the outside, from the inside and loved all the little details in the location. freshly baked bread, fresh veggies, seductive looking sweets and a wide range of fine teas and wine make it definitely a ‘wanna come regularly’ 🙂 very well done!
fumia, valletta
some places just have a reputation. this is one of them, and what i heard about it so far was very promising indeed. so it was the perfect excuse that we had to find a nice place to take out p’s brother for his bday. fish at fumia it shall be!
fumia is a real winter place. in one of valletta’s steep streets you have to go down to the basement to find the italian restaurant with it’s beautiful arches and cosy atmosphere (be careful though not to sit close to the AC). fumia is famous for fish and out of this reason we decided to share the chef’s antipasti, fresh mussels alla fumia and two fresh fish from the wide selection. all of it was just delicious. the antipasti are a bit pricy but great to share and get an impression of the chef’s cooking, the mussels were very tasty and the fish very well done, especially the one steamed in foil. also the sides were worth to mention, e.g. the sicilian speciality of orange salad with onions. all in all a great place, bit pricy but perfect for a special occasion!
fresco’s, sliema
a lovely location, directly at the sea, next to the promenade could mean that people don’t really care about offering good service and cooking. this is what i thought about that place when i went to fresco’s for the first time last year. crappy pasta, unfriendly staff and ME never seen there again, despite some coffe cause as i said it’s really nice to sit there after work… earlier this week we went to one of our favourites, chez philippe in gzira, and heard that the former chef who used to cook there is now cooking with another guy at fresco’s. what a nice surprise! time to give them a second chance…
when we went there today for a late lunch, expectations where high and the welcome was very warm. charles, the very nice restaurant manager started a little chat with me when i came back from the bathroom and check out the desserts in the display. he promised a lot, but unfortunately one of our starters, the octopus, was quite disappointing as it was hard and chewy. however, his reaction when we gave it back was great and after a good explanation and excuse (he also tried it himself and took it of the menu afterwards) he recommended us the deep fried goat cheese instead and it was divine. so were the mains too. the mussles marinière and the lampuki was just gorgeous, and the sides as well. once again you could see that it’s not always the food only, but also the reaction and the people behind it. definitely will come again to spend a lovely time directly next to the sea, some nice and affordable food and have a chat with the nice charles (waitresses have some potential for improvement though…)
p.s. stay tuned for my next post about the perfect place for dessert or just a little treat on a cold rainy winter day…. 😉
Nadisunshine 