Pet’s Plates

Iċ-Ċima
St Simon Street,
Xlendi,
Gozo

Food: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

It’s about time I introduced you all to Rob. He eats with me most days, so it’s not uncommon to find him dining out with me and, on these occasions, I feel it’s only fair to mention him. He does sometimes have something rather clever to say.

Rob and I were once again in Gozo and eating at Iċ-Ċima. This family-run restaurant boasts a rooftop terrace (completely open in the warm months) commanding views of the stunning sheer drop of Xlendi’s limestone cliffs and the 17th-century watchtower at the mouth of Xlendi Bay. At the end of a long, hot day it is a wonderful place to find oneself.

I had eaten nothing all day and in order to catch the sunset we were there for an early dinner. The view from Iċ-Ċima terrace really is spectacular and we savoured it while sipping suspiciously at the strange-tasting, bright yellow Aperol Spritz we had been served.

Notwithstanding the incorrectly-mixed aperitifs, up there, away from all the bustle down in the bay, the mood could not have been more pleasant. But there was something nagging at me. I seemed to recall a sort of peculiarity about this place. I had dined there before and remembered loving the food but disliking the menu.

A few months before I had eaten some mouth-watering pasta that I was still drooling about – prawn ravioli in a sauce of the tenderest baby squid. It had been an exquisite dish and was followed by an equally-wonderful passion fruit sorbet.

Unfortunately, on closer inspection of the menu, I instantly remembered the reasons for my misgivings. The menu at Iċ-Ċima is over-complicated, almost in a bid to seem more upmarket. Unless you feel like a seafood risotto, there is only one other seafood pasta which consists of fresh local prawns, provided you are ready to accept these prawns doused in a heavy sauce of vodka and cream. What an abomination!

Another notable let-down is the potato gnocchi topped with, of all things, lard! Lard can almost be considered a health hazard in Malta’s hot weather that swells well into the transitional seasons! I wish to point out that these were not seasonal changes made to the menu, despite the website proudly claiming that the menu changes every week. I know for a fact that this is not the case. I was last there at the beginning of summer and the lard and the vodka cream were still there and the menu had not been changed a jot.

The menu tries far too hard to impress and is sadly too over-thought, especially as far as the first courses go. Seeing that the restaurant is situated in a quaint fishing village, it is a shame that there isn’t even one straightforward seafood pasta! As for the mains menu, things do improve slightly although there remains a distinct wintry feel to most of the dishes. The special local menu does add a nice touch and is filled with traditional delights from ġbejna ravioli to aljotta and fried rabbit.

The meal was unsatisfactory, to say the least

The superb prawn ravioli had been a special of the day and I was honestly scratching my head over what to order. With so few appealing choices and no specials available for starters or mains, I decided to order off the menu. Flashing my best smile, I asked the maitre d’ whether the chef would kindly make me a dish of pappardelle with prawns and cherry tomatoes.

The maitre d’ was initially surprised because, of course, a prawn pasta already existed! He pointed me to the creamy vodka choice and I had to pretend that I couldn’t take cream in order to stop his coaxing. In the end he was lovely about it and graciously conceded to my request.

Rob made it very clear that he was not amused by the lack of good options and, himself at a loss over what to choose, decided to have the same pasta. And we were delighted! The dish was superb in its simplicity, with absolute respect given to the quality and freshness of the ingredients.

For mains we disregarded the meat section of the menu. The fish menu offers farmed bream and sea bass, but the fresh fish of the day was local wild ċippullazz, big enough for only one person. Rob and I decided to share it along with some grilled squid.

We both like a nicely-filled plate. I already knew the chef could cook squid and it was lovely, but the ċippullazz was thoroughly overcooked and completely ruined – all flavour quite drained from it. We tried to revive it slightly by mixing a sort of makeshift salmoriglio of lemon juice and olive oil and drizzling it all over, but we were quite literally flogging a dead fish. The meal was unsatisfactory, to say the least.

We enjoyed our Gavi and that was the sole joy at our table during the second course. For dessert they tried to sell us another fussy, nonsense concoction – a ‘dome’ stuffed with toffee and drowned in white chocolate and another ‘dome’ filled with cookies and covered in chocolate. They were out of the homemade sorbets.

Craving a sweet taste, we shared a millefoglie which was stale, dry and stodgy. Needless to say, between the sad fish and the terrible dessert, we had hardly ended the meal on a good note. The restaurant name probably refers to the location of the place, situated at the summit looking down over the rest of Xlendi, but the standard of food seemed to be going decidedly downhill.

While other diners enjoyed complimentary digestivi, we were offered none because the doting maitre d’ couldn’t be everywhere at once and the remainder of the staff consisted of a glum woman and a bevy of young waiters who looked rather lost. And so nothing could cure the unpleasant aftertaste in our mouths.

We felt incredibly short-changed when the bill arrived. The price was rather steep with €24 per person for the overdone fish (along with the well-cooked squid) – when considering it was a fish for one, shared between the two of us. I was disappointed because I believe the chef can do better.

It is frustratingly dissatisfying when the best of expectations are built up by a well-executed first course, only to have everything lose momentum and come to a grinding halt with a poor main course and dessert. The view from Iċ-Ċima’s rooftop will probably draw me back, but I don’t think I’ll be ordering more than a pasta next time.