Pet’s plates

La Cucina del Sole
Tigné Point, Sliema.
Tel: 2060 3434

Food: 6/10
Location: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

What is panzanella? It certainly was not the sad dish sitting sullenly before me. This was my starter at La Cucina del Sole, a restaurant found within the Tigné Point Complex.

Why do restaurants offer to ‘cook’ a certain dish only to serve up something entirely different, either due to utter incompetence or complete carelessness? And I use the word ‘cook’ with great difficulty here because a mere four year old could whip up a delicious panzanella in no time at all, such is the inessentiality of skill required!

Panzanella is essentially a bread and tomato salad that represents Italian cuisine at its most rustic. Hailing from Tuscany, this ridiculously simple dish is the perfect way to use up stale bread. It tastes like summer on a plate and is certainly one of those dishes that is perfect to savour in hot weather.

You simply mix hunks of bread with some good olive oil and tomato juices and add chopped onion and fresh basil if you so desire. The slightly stale bread remains firm but juicy, having soaked up all the goodness of the tomatoes and oil. With this recipe, old bread need never go to waste again.

At Cucina del Sole, this simple salad had not been executed well. The predominant flavour was sadly solely of sweet-sharp balsamic vinegar and there was an incongruous juxtaposition between the delicate, raw red prawns that topped the salad and the intense acidity of the vinegar.

In an attempt to save the prawns, I hastily put them aside, but they had sadly already been contaminated with the sharpness of the vinegar. This goes to show that even in the case of the simplest of dishes, food has to be cooked with care.

Cucina del Sole hopes to be a celebration of all things Mediterranean, with a heavy emphasis on all things Italian. And from the onset, it definitely showed promise. The restaurant itself is sunlit and spacious with a fresh and lively atmosphere.

The mostly Italian staff were lovely. The location is outstanding, and if Malta is considered to be at the heart of the Mediterranean, then this restaurant is certainly at its epicentre, with exceptional views that look onto the entire west flank of Valletta from Marsamxett Harbour to Fort St Elmo. It is a sight that is really and truly breathtaking but which many of us now practically take for granted, mainly as a result of over-familiarity.

After being served what was essentially croutons drowned in balsamic vinegar as a first course, I wondered whether it had been worth navigating the traffic-riddled maze around Tigné and exposing ourselves to the hideous construction frenzy that Tigné Point has been reduced to, in order to get to this restaurant and eat before such a vista...

Having picked at my hopeless starter, I stared out at Valletta, enjoying the breeze and the optimal heat, and remained hopeful that the rest of the meal would improve. I tried to forget the mindless, oppressive over-development and exploitation happening at Tigné and push it to the back of my mind. I contemplated the beauty before me and the soulless, greed-driven beast overshadowing us.

It had been too hot to sit outside on the restaurant terrace but inside felt airy with tall glass windowpanes that let in the light and still allowed full enjoyment of the view. I loved the fact that the table was cushioned underneath and cupped my knees whenever I crossed my legs.

The menu at Cucina del Sole offers a pleasant and varied selection of antipasti, pastas, salads, meat and fish. The restaurant also serves a wide variety of pizzas, all fired up in a large wood burning oven that is the focus of the inner restaurant. I suppose it is a menu to please just about anybody.

Apart from my panzanella, the other starter sampled that day was the polipo marinato with black olives and chopped sundried tomatoes. The marinated octopus was over-cooked and the boiled potatoes were grossly under-seasoned. This salad was mediocre at best but, overall, was still much nicer than my starter.

For mains we had chosen the tuna steak and the squid and selected a light-bodied local white to accompany the meal.

Rob had asked for his tuna to be cooked to medium-rare but it arrived very rare indeed. Although comprising a generous portion, the tuna steak was, unfortunately, rather underwhelming. The customary strong, rich flavour was sorely lacking because the chef had failed to sear the steak properly.

Thankfully, I had ordered the squid and this meant that I would not be disappointed a second time. The pan-fried baby calamari tubes were extremely tender and flavoursome. They had been cooked in a thick, unctuous sauce of white wine, garlic and herbs that begged to be mopped up with crusty bread. It made for a deeply satisfying meal. The accompanying chips and boiled vegetables were not good at all.

My delicious main course had given me the courage I needed to try a dessert. We decided to share the seduzione al cioccolato – inaptly named because it was hardly a vessel for pure, unadulterated pleasure. This artificial tasting dessert consisted of a chocolate mousse dome filled with chocolate cream that was just ghastly!

Owing to the poor quality of this inedible sweet, I found it nearly impossible to believe the menu which had specifically made mention of the use of fine, premium Valrhona chocolate.

It had been a dining experience composed of few hits and many misses. Some knowledge and skill was positively absent from the restaurant kitchen.

Taking all this into consideration, the bill did seem slightly steep. The magnificent location at Cucina del Sole is undoubtedly the restaurant’s primary selling point and this is definitely factored into the pricing of the food!

Thanks to my excellent main course, I would in all probability venture here again, but I would desperately hope and look forward to an experience that rises above the mediocre.

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

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