Ed eats

Sale e Pepe
Portomaso Marina
St Julian’s
Tel: 2138 3345

Food: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

I’m often asked for advice about where to have lunch or dinner by those close to me.

The menus are a concoction of pretty standard dishes alongside a couple of more imaginative ones

Knowing what I’m up to, they presume I’ll guide them to the spot that most closely fits their requirements. This puts me in a bit of a fix. The downside to having a column to write every week is that I flit from place to place with precious little time to revisit the restaurants I’ve enjoyed.

The quandary is based on a general inconsistency of food quality and service that seems to run across Malta’s restaurants. In my defence, the possibility of visiting the same place three or four times before reviewing it would be unaffordable to a man of average means. It would also mean that I’d be eating out almost every day of the week and I happen to have the rest of my life to contend with.

In reality, however, a single shot at a restaurant should suffice. If a restaurant is open for business, then it should deliver its goods. A good day or a bad day should be transparent to its patrons. People walk in, with hard-earned money in their pockets, and are subjected to an experience that’s meant to be positive. If it isn’t, they won’t bother with a second chance – they’ll simply not bother visiting again, taking their money and their desire for a lovely meal elsewhere.

A cousin of mine was organising a family meal and she asked me whether Fratelli La Bufala would be appropriate. My experience there was of a couple of well-priced meals that were served quickly and in an informal setting so I was quick to agree.

We did visit en masse and, while the food was slow but of consistently good quality, the service varied from adequate to downright hostile. I don’t care if the character of Italian waiters from Naples is normally aggressive. All I expect is not to be impatiently snapped at for no good reason. So much for consistency.

Thankfully, the restaurant that is the subject of today’s review offered a very stark contrast to my lunchtime angst. A close friend of mine had recommended Sale e Pepe at Portomaso to me on many an occasion and, I must admit, I was a bit reluctant to give it a shot.

The name put me in the picture of a rather commercial pizza/pasta place and, while there’s nothing wrong with this kind of food, I wasn’t ready to visit yet another one of these restaurants in the area.

Parking inside the Portomaso car park is easy and the slot I found was just beneath a sign that read Sale e Pepe, so all I had to do was roll out of my embarrassingly dirty car and into the back entrance of the restaurant.

We walked through an almost empty dining area that is smart but unremarkable and headed straight onto the terrace.

On my way out I spied a trio of Italian men who were thoroughly enjoying what looked like a lovely fish and my expectations slowly swivelled North.

The terrace on a Sunday night is tranquil and the view over the little marina is pleasant. A gas heater made short work of the chilly evening and we picked a rather snug table beneath it.

Presently, a young lady turned up to welcome us. She was evidently not Maltese and just as evidently very adept at the task at hand. Never familiar, never formal, she kept a professional and polite demeanour as she took our order for water and brought food and wine menus. It’s hard to beat proper training and she’d made the most of hers.

The menus are a concoction of pretty standard dishes alongside a couple of more imaginative ones. I’m not one for melon and Parma ham for starters because I’d like my palate to last all the way through the main course, but I suppose this dish is requested far too often to leave it out. Then you stumble across a pasta dish with Robiola cheese and duck ragu and realise that the chef snuck in evidence of a more maverick streak than the rest of the menu lets on.

Another young lady turned up to serve three kinds of bread. Once again, she was exceedingly polite, friendly and knew exactly what she was doing. Whoever is running the front of house has put effort into making it work seamlessly and this made our evening all the more pleasant.

All the bread was very fresh, warm and each of the three kinds of rolls was concealing a little surprise. The focaccia with rosemary on top was warm and very lightly salted, a folded roll looked innocent enough and hid a garlic and butter core, while a very smooth little bun opened up to reveal a cachet of green olives.

And as if this were not enough to get our appetites rolling, bruschetta with fresh tomato on top and two little arancini with melted cheese inside were served alongside the bread basket. I chided myself for not visiting before and had a look at the wine menu.

Interestingly, this is split into fine wines and the more pedestrian ones. All are very well priced and we picked a Domaine de la Baume Chardonnay priced at a very modest €15. It is by no means a great wine but more than justified the price it commanded.

We were debating whether a starter would be a good idea, considering neither of us was very hungry and I asked one of the girls what the ‘House Antipasto’ consisted of. She mentioned practically every item on the list of starters (with no mention of melon and Parma ham), so we decided we’d order one portion and share it. Our prescience would turn out to be quite fortuitous.

The daily catch included a rockfish, and this fish, while not a contender for the top spot in the looks department, is one that I happen to love, so my choice of main course was quite easy. The calamari from the menu would make up the other main course.

When both girls turned up to clear up our table in preparation for the single starter, I felt we were in for a treat.

The dish occupied most of the table and this had vitello tonnato, a caprese salad, beef carpaccio with parmeggiano, salami, homemade porchetta, and prosciutto crudo laid out around a central bowl of calamari, courgette, aubergine and carrot tempura.

With the exception of the vitello tonnato, a dish I’ve never been personally fond of, every item was highly enjoyable. I expected to leave some of the starters to make sure we’d have room for the main course but this proved quite impossible.

Quite a while passed between the time we’d dispatched our starters to their rightful place in our bellies and the time our main course was served and this was just as well. The rockfish was placed on a trolley and filleted at table, a practice I’m very fond of. I hate to see a filleted fish turn up in my plate and know that the chef has kept the cheeks as a private little treat.

The fish was filleted with some difficulty but all the important bits made it to my plate and that’s what matters. The calamari was served grilled with fennel and courgettes, and vegetables for both went beyond the standard fare, including beetroot that happens to be one of my personal favourites.

The squid was tender, lightly seasoned and very hard to fault. And yet the star of the evening was on my plate. The rockfish was easily one of the best fresh fish I’ve tasted for quite a while. It takes a disciplined hand and expert timing to achieve this and had the chef turned up at table I’d have stood up and applauded.

Clams and mussels were served alongside the fish, cooked in the same al cartoccio foil wrap, and they languished there in the shadows of this wonderful inhabitant of the deep.

We paid a reasonable €70 for what turned out to be an immensely enjoyable experience. To be able to recommend this restaurant, I’d probably have to visit again just to make sure it’s consistent. And this is an endeavour I’ll be very happy to undertake without delay.

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