San Giovanni Caffe

Directly across the street from St John's Co-Cathedral In Valletta, Malta, you can find a decent meal and some shade. Prices looked a bit high but main courses come with a salad and fries, so it turns out to be a good value. Don’t let the people hawking the restaurants put you off, it seems to be the custom here, and with four or more restaurants in the same small square, a necessary evil employed by the restaurant owners to keep ahead of the competition.

                                 I couldn't resist trying the traditional Maltese dish of Beef Olive, what I had assumed was beef involtini stuffed with olives. Wrong, there were no olives to be seen or tasted but there was ground beef, ham, eggs and onions wrapped by sliced beef in a curiously round shape. Did they think it looked like an olive? It was braised in a tomato sauce with carrots and peas, all overcooked but tasty. I guess the overcooked peas are part of the British influence; you see quite a few steaks and mixed grills being offered in Maltese restaurants.

                           You also see quite a few pizze and hamburgers, but when tourism is so much a part of the economy, you see them, no matter where you are. It still surprises me that people want something familiar in a foreign country, when they could be trying local dishes and immersing themselves into the local culture. Isn’t that what travel is all about?

I cannot recall the exact name of this pasta dish, but the little purses, as they were described on the menu, were stuffed with Gorgonzola and covered in a Gorgonzola cream sauce. You could tell by this dish that Malta has been closely associated with Italy and Sicily.

                            For lunch the following day I tried their rabbit, since it appeared to be the national dish. It was braised in a wine sauce that included garlic and black pepper. Very nice and it came with the "chips" (French fries) and salad just as my other entree had.

                         The chocolate and walnut torte was decadent enough to finish the meal, but not sweet enough to spoil it.

San Giovanni Caffe St John Square Valletta, Malta

Cafe Caravaggio in Valletta Malta

Spending five nights in one city affords one the luxury of possibly finding an exceptional restaurant. Cafe Caravaggio may not be that restaurant, but I assure you the salads were excellent. Sitting across the piazza from St. John's Co-Cathedral gives this restaurant a chance for stiff competition and Cafe Caravaggio aims to please. Caffe Giovanni next door does not come close in terms of salad preparation.
 
When ordering the Insalate di Tonno I was prepared for a Nicoise type salad with all the ingredients piled high in the center. As you can see by the photo, it was divided into two sections, one of crisp greens and tomato, the other of tuna looking like tartar but fully cooked and mixed with green olives and capers. This was fresh and exciting after iceberg lettuce and tomatoes from other restaurants.
 
The Chicken Cesar ordered by my dining companion could compete favorably with any Irish Cesar Salad, none of which were the same nor similar in the slightest. No anchovies, no egg dressing, but a generous amount of prosciutto was added to the mix, just to make it Mediterranean we presumed. Regardless, it had shaved parmigiano and an interesting mix of vegetables and was so satisfying, my companion said he would have easily liked it as well even if it didn't come with chicken.

We asked to be seated in no man's land where the waiter forgot us more than a few times. The owner was very gracious and wanted to comp us a cup of coffee or dessert, but we were satisfied with what we had eaten. Make it a point to sit outside at a restaurant where most of the tables are not inside, or you may find yourselves with little if any service too. Still that was no deterrent, because we went back a second time on a very warm evening when a large salad would make a perfect dinner. We tried the “Cesar” salad without chicken and as suspected, the loss of chicken was no loss to the taste and success of the salad.

Even though the evening was warm, I didn’t want to miss my chance to try swordfish in Malta, so I ordered it and was very pleased to eat it. The dinner came with fries and a salad of no particular merit, but still easy enough to eat. The preparation of the swordfish itself was quite good as it had been cooked in a tomato sauce made from fresh, vine ripened and sweet tomatoes with savory green olives and capers. It was colorful, full of great eye appeal and had the plate decorated with a syrupy balsamic for good measure, with fresh parsley confetti.

9 St John Square, Valletta, Malta

(+356) 2123 6257

http://allmaltaonline.com/cafes/cafe-caravaggio/

Cocopazzo

  

Their slogan is "A small place for a big treat.", and that short marketing sentence is not false advertising. On our way the the National Art Museum on South St in Valletta, we passed this very small restaurant. I laughed at the slogan, thinking it was cute, but not taking it seriously.  Their dining room was so small it only held about twelve tables and the kitchen was relegated to the basement. The last photo above on the right is that of the dumbwaiter. It was fun to actually see one being used. As I sat waiting for lunch, I finally opened our travel guide and Cocopazzo just happened to be the second restaurant listed.  I was very pleased to have ordered the rabbit ravioli, one of the daily specials, when I read that they specialized in seafood and house made pasta dishes.

The plate looked beautiful as it was being served. The glaze on the ceramic bowl was a smoky taupe color and the ravioli were a pale tan, causing me to wonder if the pasta was made with buckwheat flour. As it turned out, the hand made pasta was made from ceci (the Italian word for garbanzo) flour. The texture was perfect with a nice al dente bite to it. The filling was also quite good with cooked rabbit meat, bread crumbs, garlic and perhaps a bit of dried parsley. I suggest that because dried parsley was also sprinkled over the top of a luscious mushroom cream sauce that dressed the ravioli. This was the best food I'd eaten in days. I especially liked the use of caramelized onions that were in the sauce, sliced not diced or minced.

My traveling companion was equally as smitten with his mussels and clams steamed in a white wine and garlic sauce. He sopped up the sauce with the garlic bread left on our table, gratis, no cover charge. It was the best of the trip, since we regularly order mussels when in the Mediterranean.

After lunch I decided to try the Cassata because I only had one in Sicily and was hoping to find more. It was not what I had expected in looks, but it was exactly what I had hoped for in flavor. Instead of being presented in a cake form, the sponge cake was sitting in the bottom of a small glass with candied fruits mixed in. The Marsala wine looked more red than I have ever seen used on a Cassata. The ricotta was also less sweet than I have been used to in Sicily, but it was so much better in this rendition, where it was topping the cake. But what about the marzipan? A small circle of it crowned this little gem of a dessert. Perfetto!

We liked our meal so well, we came back the next day but the kitchen had just closed after the lunch service. Not to be deterred, we decided to hold off on lunch and take an early dinner instead. I started off with their fish soup which consisted of one large prawn in fish broth. it was good but a bit cumbersome. To simplify the process and avoid a real mess, I only removed the shell after I had consumed all the broth. Then I ordered the special and mixed vegetables.  

The special was veal with a mushroom mustard sauce. It was fork tender and the mushrooms were a good companion to the mild mustard cream sauce, that benefited from their robust, earthy flavor. The sauce on my ravioli was excellent; the sauce on the veal was even better. The vegetables were simply prepared peas, carrots, and string beans that were bright in color, yet not undercooked. The boiled potatoes needed to be eaten with the sauce, if any pleasure at all was to be extracted from them, so onto the plate they went. The veal, plated on red, looked even better next to the green vegetables.

One look at the mixed seafood pasta and I almost regretted ordering the veal, almost. Thankfully I was offered a taste of the pasta and it was again, as good as any seafood pasta we have eaten in Italy or Sicily. It is so clear, in the cuisine of Malta, to see the Italian and Sicilian influences. The pasta itself was cooked al dente, as it should be, and the tomato sauce tasted "of the sea". Scampi, clams and mussels were responsible for the subtle flavoring. We were so delighted to have found this restaurant, and to have been able to dine there twice.

South St Between Old Bakery and Old Mint St Valletta Malta