Pet’s Plates

Salt
Pioneer Road,
Bugibba
Tel: 2157 8004

Food: 9/10  
Location: 8/10
Service: 10/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

This fine dining restaurant is called Salt. And this is quite fitting, since it is absolutely impossible to imagine a kitchen without salt.

Salt is something that we have grown all too over-familiar with. Found in every kitchen, on every table, we reach for it, instinctively yet thoughtlessly, as we cook and when we eat... We fail to consider how remarkable it actually is. For salt really is a divine wonder. Nothing enhances food like it. Imparting sometimes subtle, sometimes profound flavour, depending on how it’s used, it is nature’s ultimate flavour enhancer – a sprinkling of it and tastes are intensified.

Foods are made more desirable, instantly coming alive, no longer insipid. Salt enhances a food’s flavour factor, from dark chocolate to the most prized cut of meat.

An indispensable mineral, salt is essential to life and health. It is vital for our survival. But I won’t bore you with biology. As an antibacterial agent, salt purifies and cleanses. It possesses restorative and healing powers and holds great significance for many cultures and religions. In addition, salt is an essential ingredient in many industrial processes.

Salt was, and remains, a very precious commodity. Until the 20th century, salting was mankind’s principal method of food preservation. Indeed, cured meat and fish, fermented vegetables, pickled food and cheese making all owe their existence to salt. And thus, up until this point in history, people the world over had desperately sought out sources of salt, trading and bartering with it.

Governments had taxed it to fund wars, paid wages with it and fought desperately over it. From the dawn of civilisation, salt has thus held an unrivalled position in human culture.

For millennia, salt has been mined or harvested by nations the world over.  Among these, Malta, where natural resources were exploited for salt production.

Salt works magic with food and so does this restaurant

This was, and is still today (sadly, to a lesser extent), carried out by means of salt pans – rock-hewn chequer boards of pools of trapped seawater, grouped at various spots along the Maltese and Gozitan coastline.

As terrible as it is to over-salt food, a lack of salt is instantly perceptible and, usually, unpleasant. Cooking thus requires the right salt, in the right quantity, for a perfectly seasoned dish. There is a dizzying range of salts to choose from, in a variety of textures, sizes and colours; each with a subtly different flavour. Among others you’ll find green salt, grey salt, red salt, fleur de sel and pink salt...

Organic, translucently pink salt is the kind you’ll find gracing the tables at Salt, the restaurant. The kitchen also does most of its cooking using this particular salt. This prized salt, hand-mined in the Himalayan foothills, is mineral-rich and pure. It possesses a gentle flavour and a crunchy texture and with its stunning, rosy colouration, it is possibly the prettiest of salts.

Deciding what to eat at Salt can be a tricky affair. The emphasis is on fresh local produce punctuated with specialised, choice ingredients brought over from abroad. It is a beautiful menu, but it is vast, and when you think you’ve reached the end, there are the lava grill dishes to contend with.The correct cooking of fish and shellfish is a sensitive art based on good seasoning, cooking method and timing. You are, after all, dealing with delicate flesh and flavour.

My spaghetti with fresh Scottish lobster and a silky lobster fumet, was the most exquisite lobster pasta I’ve eaten in a while! Tossed with generous portions of mildly sweet, tender lobster and baby tomatoes, this pasta dish was quite excellent.

The prawn risotto topped with a chiffonade of fresh herbs and greens was equally divine. The generous portion of deep fried fresh calamari had a gorgeous colour and were just lovely, served with a spicy chilli-mustard and caper mayo.

For mains, we waved off the mere mention of any farmed fish. Two of us opted for some freshly caught sargu (sea bream) and skorfna (rockfish).

The sargu was grilled and the skorfna had been cooked al cartoccio. Both fish had great flavour.

The Argentinian Black Angus grain fed ribeye had been beautifully seared on the lava grill. Cooked to medium-rare, it was wonderfully succulent and served with a classic thyme and port wine jus. This gorgeous cut of delicately marbled meat was accompanied by a chestnut mushroom and tarragon puree and roast fennel potatoes which complemented the meat and all worked to create an extremely hearty meal.

All dishes were perfectly-seasoned, and so didn’t require even the slightest grinding of the fine pink salt before us.

And what of dessert? The ricotta-filled cannoli served with chocolate caramel ice-cream were heavenly, while the warm apple and blackberry crumble was good but hardly stupefying.

The dark chocolate parfait with praline biscuit and orange chocolate ganache was devilishly delectable; a play on smooth, luscious and crunchy textures.

The head chef and his team evidently possess a great artistic sensibility. Food presentation had not been overlooked in the slightest at any stage of the meal. At Salt you will find impeccable attention to detail, from the quality of the ingredients used, to the outstanding service provided by the staff.

It is unfortunate that Salt flanks the Buġibba cinema. That being said, once you enter, it is another world. The doors open onto an ultra-modern space, with an elegant, neutral colour palette and high end finishing and design.

This polished interior is composed of a smart dining area on two floors, a private VIP dining area and an enormous wine room and bar, offering an impressive selection of wines. Salt quite simply makes food taste better. It bring drama to dishes. Salt works magic with food and so does this restaurant.

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