New York Best’s menu is oriented around hamburgers and other grills.

Ed eats

New York Best
Qui Si Sana
Sliema
Tel 2728 2899

Fatayer
2, Sir Patrick Stuart Street,
Gżira
Tel: 2721 3330

The economy is doing so well that, for this week only, you’re getting a two-for-one on the restaurant column. As you can imagine, a sale on restaurant reviews means twice the amount of food consumed by yours truly for the same amount of words, so in a sense you should feel cheated.

Worry not however; this page represents value. I happened to have eaten at two places which, for their own specific reason, do not warrant an entire review. So I’ve bundled them into one rather than let them go without sharing my wonderful experience with you.

I’ll start with Fatayer in Gżira, purely because I visited this place before the other and I’m respecting chronology. I have never reviewed a pastizzi place so far, mainly because the experience is pretty consistent, and pastizzi don’t quite make for a dining experience. It is a little too functional in most people’s opinion. If there is any demand for it, I might, one day, compile a little best-of.

Fatayer, however, is sufficiently different to warrant a mention. I compare it to pastizzi because the format is essentially the same.

There is no seating, the food items are comparable in size and method and the pricing is roughly the same, too. The service, however, is a little different.

The story starts on a dark and stormy night, when evil is afoot inside a car occupied by two starving gluttons. My sister and I were so hungry, we’d turned into violent psychopaths. We were so hungry that we couldn’t agree about what we were going to eat and snapped at each other like Rottweiler puppies on a drug binge. She wanted a takeout from Yoshi Sushi in Gżira. I was driving and took the wrong turning. You can imagine the scene.

Then we spotted Fatayer and our curiosity was piqued, so I stopped the car and we both rushed out towards this gently glowing, little place that closed at 9pm.

It was ten past and the two guys were leaving, so we had a look at the menu board outside and decided we’d revisit. The chef, a big, smiling man with a friendly twinkle in his eye, was apologetic. It was our fault for being late and yet he somehow felt contrite.

So he walked around the counter, picked up a bag and gave us a little spinach pie each. He told us that he prepares all his food daily and was taking the last remaining pies home to his family. And he shared them with us, two complete strangers. The act of kindness melted the anger in our hearts and the fabulous taste of this little packet of goodness went even further.

Two days later, we turned up for lunch and ordered as much food as we thought we could eat. The food is simple really. There are little pies, a bit smaller than a qassata, made with a very light pastry on the outside and small, round, pizza-like pastries. The pies are either in the slightly naughty pastizzi shape or in a triangular samosa lookalike.

Since my eating out is permanently varied, I like the comfort of going to New York Best and ordering a double bacon cheese hamburger

Fillings and toppings vary. We ordered ricotta, spinach, chicken, lamb, muhammara (hot spicy paste), mixed beef and lamb, and even a couple of sausage rolls.

Pricing is simple – everything costs €1. By the time we’d ordered 10 items, I asked if we’d have enough and he assured me we would be fine. He then asked whether we’d like to try something we hadn’t ordered – a little, pizza-shaped pie with a grey-green topping I couldn’t identify.

“Dak sagħtar,” (“That’s thyme”), he told us with a touch of pride and promptly split one in two and offered us half each because he was certain we’d like it. It is an unexpected flavour, mellow and with a little crunch of roast sesame. The thyme has an almost citrus-like acidity to it and I wondered why we don’t make better use of this ingredient.

Fatayer is strictly a take-out place, so we carried the box of goodies across the road to the Gżira seafront and ate there, too impatient to drive home. Every item is light, surprisingly not greasy on the outside and packed with a filling that depends on simplicity and freshness for flavour. By the end of it, I was full but not unpleasantly so. I considered that €5 well spent and vowed to be back.

This brings us to the next promise I fulfilled. I promised I’d be back to New York Best since I first tried it and shared the experience on these pages. I have been back many a time, trying many of their hamburgers and also their breakfast offering. Try the eggs Benedict, particularly after a night out, during which spirits were consumed, and you will be forever a convert.

Since my eating out is permanently varied, I like the comfort of going to New York Best and ordering a double bacon cheese hamburger. It never fails to satisfy the need for an excellent, juicy, decently sized, perfectly-grilled hamburger with a side-serving of chips that are what chips everywhere are meant to be.

Finally, New York Best has expanded to include another restaurant and this is a very strong point in its favour. The first iteration is right outside the University, so lunchtime means a competition with young gourmands for burgers that take a while to prepare. The subject of this review is the one they’ve recently opened in Qui-Si-Sana.

The format remains the same. They serve the same menu that is oriented around hamburgers and other grills for those serious enough about this type of food to never, ever apply the term fast food to it. ‘Good food takes time’, says the sign above the counter, and you should be prepared to wait around 15 minutes for your food to be served. For you to collect it, actually.

There is no waiter service at New York Best. You walk up to the counter, order your food and take a ticket with a number on it. A display counts down the people who have beaten you to a burger. The decor is similar to the one we know and love, so it is a blend of Spartan ceilings, bright walls, industrial materials and cheerful colours.

As is often the case on the weekends, my trip to lunch turned into an eight-strong entourage and we all ordered our favourites. All except myself, that is. I picked the mushroom and blue cheese burger, with a double patty and added bacon to it for good measure. It could very well become a new favourite from now on.

Now you know I’d never attempt to suggest how one is meant to eat any item of food. Etiquette should never get in the way of a good meal. But allow me to suggest a sequence for New York Best burgers. Always order the fries. Always start with the burger.

It will drip sauce and other juicy goodness while you bite into it. Keep the fries just beneath you, so you keep the table clean and add flavour to your fries. By the time you get to them, they’ve cooled to the right temperature and are laden with the flavours that have escaped your burger.

There’s one little snag to the fries. They are a side order and are priced at €1.80. My order for two burgers, fries and two soft drinks tipped the €20 mark. On the other hand, this is not fast food. It is the gourmet end of the burger spectrum and good things come to those who wait and who are prepared to pay a little extra for them.

You can send e-mails about this column to ed.eatson@gmail.com or follow @edeats on Twitter.