Ed eats
Loop Bar
68, Strait Street
Valletta
Tel: 9933 9931
Food: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
Sometimes I wonder whether we have collectively run out of ideas. Hollywood keeps chucking remakes, sequels, reboots and old stories in our direction.
I haven’t watched a movie based on an entirely new premise for a long time. This probably explains why the wave of nostalgia that struck during the latter half of last decade has hung around for long. It is easier to recycle old styles than it is to come up with something new.
Not all is bad though. The decade before that had swept too much of our heritage away in its attempt to put a glossy coat of paint over everything. Nostalgia has helped more of us to perceive value in ‘old’ stuff that should be, at a bare minimum, preserved. Despise the hipster movement as much as you may – at least it served to save many babies that we’d have allowed to escape with the bathwater.
Had we not been in the throes of this nostalgic era, we’d have completely destroyed Strait Street. It was so ugly that not even the 1990s knew what to do with it.
Here we are today, doing all we can to restore it to its former state, even if we’ve done so without the fun bits.
We’ve settled, instead, for restoring old bars minus the live music, the rowdy sailors, and women of negotiable affection. I guess we can’t have it all, because the moral yardstick has yet to dial nostalgia up a couple of notches before we do.
I remember dreading Strait Street when I worked in Valletta. It wasn’t unsafe at all because there was no one there. It just smelled of a damp toilet and no amount of nostalgia would get me to appreciate that reek. Most of that has changed. Old stalwarts that shut their doors when there was no more navy to rip off are now buzzing with activity that is designed to look similar to what it did back then, only in a decidedly more wholesome and family-friendly way.
One of the recent additions to the fray is Loop Bar. Naturally, the first time I heard about it, it was reported as ‘Loops’. Trust us to bastardise the name of a bar. Depending on your age you might recall places like ‘The Alley’. Everyone insisted on calling it ‘Alleys’. I haven’t figured this one out. Why take the name of a bar, pluralise it, and drop the article? It does nothing except add confusion.
In any case, Loop Bar was called Loop Bar back in the 1950s and even had a red neon sign above the door to show what kind of activity one was to expect inside.
Much has been done to retain the original decor and I think it looks quite splendid. Which reminds me of Splendid bar and Splendid Lounge, just a few doors away, that are yet to undergo this treatment.
The lounge is purportedly haunted. What bar does not retain the smell of departed spirits after countless bar fights that involved broken whisky bottles?
Let’s loop back to the bar in question though. It is more than a bar, as all the recently reopened places are. Food is served, and it is designed to compete with a pretty decent standard that’s been established in the area.
The first time I visited was a quick in-and-out, pausing only to devour a pot of shellfish that was served in a delicious broth and that caused much happiness.
It was one of those rapid meals over a hurried conversation so I didn’t feel I had enough to judge the place by. The food was great though, and the service a little bumbling. There was nothing wrong with the service. It was just that the place had opened its doors a few days before my visit and the team hadn’t been well enough acquainted with the menu. This was another reason for me to revisit.
The second time was a more proper meal. We were in no hurry, there were seven of us, and we actually called in advance to make sure a table was available. A couple of tables had been put together for us and this turned out to be quite important.
Perhaps the kitchen should invest a little more time with the front of house before service starts, making sure they know (and have tasted) all of the daily specialities
Tables belonging to the adjacent Tico Tico sandwich the tables at Loop Bar, so if you sit at the ‘wrong’ table, you could end up with a different menu altogether.
Menus were brought out by a young man who seemed to be as unacquainted with the place as we were.
We asked about the pasta of the day, the terrine of the day, and the tajine of the day.
Every time he had to dash inside and ask, apologising that it was one of his first days on the job. He was very helpful throughout the evening, and ably assisted by two other members of the team who were evidently more experienced, so everything ran quite smoothly.
We were not an easy table. We asked about everything. We changed our minds. We swapped orders. We chatted away instead of placing our orders. And our young man was patient and friendly throughout. Perhaps the kitchen should invest a little more time with the front of house before service starts, making sure they know (and have tasted) all of the daily specialities.
We decided we’d only have one course each. We’d only add a couple of platters of dips to fill in the gap. And the rabbit terrine would be a pity to miss out on. So we wound up sharing all of this as an appetiser before moving on to the real deal.
This course was served quite quickly – a very generous spread of galletti, toasted bread, pickles, olives, garlic dip, sun-dried tomatoes dip, hummus and bigilla – along with portions of terrine served inside little glass jars.
The presentation was lovely and the quality perfectly acceptable. The rabbit terrine even had a couple of little rabbit bones to prove an authentic provenance. The toasted bread was a little too hard but the fresh rolls more than made up for it.
Our main courses took a little longer, giving us time to sip our wine and enjoy the ambience of the more mature Strait Street that is rising from the ashes of its legendary ancestor.
Four of us had ordered the shellfish platter. These were served as two-foot-long dishes to share, occupying most of the tables. The portions are huge and include clams, razor clams, mussels, prawns and scallops.
Unfortunately, these cooled down very quickly and the quality of the ingredients was not as consistent as my original pot of shellfish. I suppose it doesn’t get better than this when paying €15 for such a giant mound of sea-dwellers. The little broth that remained in the dish was just as lovely as my first time though.
I’d ordered the tajine. It turned out to be a lamb tajine this time and my first reaction was of disappointment. I touch the lid first and if it is cold, it means my clay pot is merely being used as an ornamental piece of tableware.
The second disappointment was the discovery of little spiced lamb meatballs as the ‘lamb’ in the tajine.
A layer of couscous at the bottom soaked up the sauce, and the meatballs shared the top layer with potatoes and veg and raisins. It was just about fine but I didn’t make any effort to eat more than half of it.
The other two members of the party who’d ordered the same dish were equally unimpressed. Once again, at €13, one cannot expect miracles.
The bill did not come as a surprise. We paid just over €20 each for a significant amount of food that was pretty well presented. I was a little disappointed because my first visit was vastly superior, and this was confirmed by three people at table who had also been there before and who had been very favourably impressed.
I’d like to chalk down the slips to a bad night in the kitchen, because Loop Bar had shown us that it could easily perform well above what we’d just experienced.
And it is the nostalgia of my first visit that will cause me to return.
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