Pet's Plates

Rickshaw
Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa, De Paule Avenue, Attard.
+356 2144 0301

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

As a general dining out rule for Malta, I would not approach a local hotel restaurant and expect to be fed well. When it comes to eating out, hotel restaurants in Malta are never high on my list and hardly ever considered, unless I happen to have a strong desire for a bog standard buffet, serving miserable food, with a stuffy atmosphere to boot.

Rickshaw, at the Corinthia Palace Hotel in Attard, is one of the happy exceptions. Every time I’ve visited this restaurant the food has always been of a high standard and beautifully presented. It is also one of the few places in Malta where you can find Chinese food done properly. Dodgy, cheap Chinese food is rampant in Malta.

You always wonder what sort of meat (typically of the reconstituted sort) is hidden beneath the folds of sauce, dripping with oil or, worse still, the flavour enhancer, MSG. The effects of this food additive are so widespread that it has actually earned itself the coveted title of Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.

Situated up the road from the presidential palace and San Anton Gardens, the location for the Rickshaw restaurant is an attractive one. The century-old art nouveau villa on the hotel’s sprawling premises marks the central focus of the entire hotel and never ceases to delight with its timeless elegance. Lit up on a Friday night, it looked stunning.

Whereas the villa itself has been beautifully renovated and restored to its former glory, the area where Rickshaw is housed is, sadly, far less exciting. You make your way through the hotel lobby, pass through the slightly tired looking Caprice Lounge, walk down a flight of stairs and you have arrived at the Rickshaw.

The restaurant itself essentially consists of a dimly-lit, windowless room, decked out in dated decor with padded booths lining the perimeter. The atmosphere is, nonetheless, pleasant, warm and inviting and the staff play a major role in this. From the hostess to the servers, the courteous, attentive staff make you feel special, as if you eating there really matters and is important to them. And this is a constant, no matter how full the restaurant gets.

We descended as a little group that night, attracted by the prospect of tasting even more dishes this way, and made ourselves comfortable at a circular table at one of the booths.

Rickshaw has maintained its high standards and fine reputation

The extensive menu was presented to us almost immediately and explained by a knowledgeable member of staff. Rickshaw provides a culinary journey through the Far East, serving dishes from India, Thailand, China and Japan. It affords a coming together of food cultures, food styles and different cooking techniques at your table, in one sitting.

Perhaps, we were not feeling all that adventurous that night because most of our order seemed to consist solely of Chinese dishes. Rickshaw offers a wine list with a reasonably good selection of wines, predominantly from Italy, France and Malta, as well as an Asian-themed selection of cocktails. We decided to continue with the Chinese theme we had embarked on, and opted for some Chinese beer.

Our group had ordered a variety of appetisers to inaugurate the meal sharing for the night. The chicken soup, sweetened with sweet corn and crab flesh, opened up the meal nicely. I indulged in the Rickshaw Golden Platter and thus got to sample a variety of treats.

The grilled chicken and beef satay skewers, complete with the obligatory crunchy peanut sauce, were tender and flavourful. The baby ribs glazed in an Asian barbecue style sauce were succulent and moreish. The fresh seaweed was pleasantly crisp and seasoned with salt and sugar and the crunchy duck spring rolls were delicious, not greasy in the slightest, and with a sweet chilli sauce to dip into. I stole a bite of a duck and chestnut gyoza, lightly dipped in a sauce of soy and ginger. This type of fried and steamed dumpling originated in China, but is now eaten throughout Asia, notably in Japan.

The filling was slightly bland, although the dough of the dumplings had been fried to perfection. By this time our taste buds were well and truly activated and eager for the main dishes to come. The takeaway service seemed to be firing away at full throttle, with several people discreetly popping their heads in at the restaurant’s door and leaving with heavy boxes throughout the night.

Steaming plates approached our table. The Chinese classic of Beef in Black Bean made for a mouth-watering stir fry, with sizzling, tender beef strips in a thick, tasty black bean sauce that was heightened with the right balance of ginger, garlic and chilli.

Another Chinese delight consisted of the duck, fried to crispy perfection and accompanied by thin, steamed pancakes which we enthusiastically packed with cucumber and spring onions and smothered in Hoisin sauce.

The Thai Green Curry with chicken burnt intensely but pleasantly with an enjoyable pain. It was nice enough, but hardly left a lasting impression. The Mie Goering stir fried noodle dish with strips of chicken and prawns proved a very tasty accompaniment, along with the plain steamed Jasmine rice. All dishes were composed of fresh Oriental ingredients and exuded authentic flavour. Unfortunately none of us had any room for dessert.

Rickshaw is definitely not a cheap place to dine. It is expensive, and it’s a pity one still has to pay such prices in Malta in order to avail oneself of good Oriental cuisine. When taking into account the price you pay, the quality of the food and the impeccable service, the restaurant simply cries out for a better location. But, despite the rather unstimulating setting, Rickshaw had still provided a great dining experience.

Maintaining consistency seems to prove quite a challenge for many Maltese restaurants, with food being good one day and simply terrible the next. Such inconsistency can be infuriating to say the least. Sometimes, a dish that instantly seems to become a new favourite can be completely unrecognisable upon a second visit to the same restaurant and, this is where customer loyalty stalls.

In the restaurant business consistency is paramount. And it is consistency that fosters a relationship of trust with the paying customer. Many restaurants start strongly only for things to soon degenerate as regards ingredient quality, food preparation and/or overall attention to detail just months into having opened.

It was a pleasure to find that at Rickshaw they have maintained their high standards and their fine reputation.

You can send e-mails about this column to petsplates@gmail.com