Fat Louie’s
Paceville Road
St Julian’s
Tel: 2745 4582

Food: 9/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 7/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

There’s a snack bar about 50 metres away from my office. I never, ever eat there. Colleagues have asked why I go through the trouble of venturing further afield for lunch and my reply doesn’t change. The people who run the bar like money more than they like food.

Of course, anyone selling food is in it to make a profit. Just in the same way as anyone who is selling anything is. There ought to be pride though. If one really, really loves what they’re doing and they do it well, profits will flow in their direction because, although intangible, passion is perceptible.

I won’t moan about how annoying a lack of love and passion for food is because it takes me on a lengthy and annoying rant and you haven’t bought a newspaper to be annoyed by all of it. You have the local news section for that. This bit’s an escape.

So onwards and upwards to tales of jollity and mirth, of stiff drinks and good food, and of a restaurant run by people who really, really love what they’re cooking.

Unless you were really drunk, you surely remember your first time. Mine was in the company of three others and I have vivid recollections of the entire session. I’d suffered for long as Fat Louie’s teased and teased, hinting at what was in store for a year before I could sink my teeth into their meat. And the longer you have to wait for it, the more brutal the anticipation.

When they were finally serving mortals who didn’t have the common sense to try the previews, I dashed over with a small gaggle of meat lovers and tried the brisket. I also tried everyone else’s food, sides and all. I’m worse than an Instagram wife – I don’t take pictures of your food, I actually eat some of it. If you’re offended by this, just don’t eat out with me.

Weirdly, I don’t remember a highlight because three out of four dishes were nigh on perfect. The fourth, the bone marrow burger, was almost perfect. I’ve eaten a burger with thick discs of bone marrow on top and this one takes things down a notch by employing the assistance of bone marrow butter instead. It is an almighty burger in every sense. I’d just approached it with a very particular set of expectations.

Then I returned for lunch with a friend who, after living almost half his useful life, has decided to take an interest in food. He bravely ordered rabbit offal and I went with the bone marrow. Not only did the food verge on sensational, my friend snuck in and paid the bill, so it was a pretty perfect lunch.

The third time is the most recent so I’ll describe it in a little more detail, giving my ailing memory the benefit of recency. This time I was in the company of three people who can be considered gourmands, omnivores, cooks, and in general, great people to dine out with. They don’t stab my hand when I nick food from their plate, and this is what really recommends them.

By the time I’d parked, they were already digging into the bone marrow. They looked up and briefly explained that they’d ordered a pre-starter to get our appetites going and that they were too hungry to wait. This is served as an entire bone that’s sawed in half and roasted, served with toasted Maltese bread, pickled cabbage, and pickled onion.

Three out of four dishes were nigh on perfect

I consider bone marrow to be one of nature’s pranks. It is possibly the tastiest part of the animal and it is so damn hard to get to. It’s a bit like the coconut. A perfect meal, drink included, is protected inside a conveniently fibrous shell. And nature saw fit to place it up at the very top of a tall tree with no branches.

Well, a bandsaw can thwart nature’s best efforts and this was roasted to perfection so it was still almost runny inside and packed with flavour. And those pickled onions are exceptional. They’re not the ones you buy from anywhere – they’re done in a lovely, mild vinegar and haven’t lost their crunch.

We followed this with two kinds of chicken wings. The Buffalo wings are served with a  slightly spicy and sticky sauce and an additional blue cheese-based sauce on the side. The buttermilk fried wings are done inside a seasoned batter, and I could possibly order these for all three courses.

To begin with, both sets of wings are made with real chicken. The kind of chicken that my mum cooked when I was a kid, back when the smell of roast chicken could fill the house with a wonderful scent.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or are too young to have tasted real chicken, take the effort to buy a chicken from someone who has reared them and fed them properly. Then go back to the stuff on polystyrene trays at your favourite supermarket and look at the shapeless, tasteless, grey meat with justifiable contempt. And never, ever, buy that stuff again.

While we waited for our main course we ordered yet another round of cocktails and embarked into a conversation about the importance of provenance and how the guys behind Fat Louie’s have got it right. Sure, you can follow a recipe and hide behind overpowering sauces, but nothing quite beats ingredients that have been properly sourced.

Conversations are a little strained because the music volume is quite high. I didn’t quite mind because I liked the playlist but I can see it become quite tiring on those who don’t.

Just above me there was a bookshelf, and this tells tales about a chef. Having a bookshelf is already a good start. Having this selection of books goes a step further.

Once you’ve read stalwarts like Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson, there’s no going back. I’d embarked on a journey to eat every single part of the pig after that book and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I’d love to go on about the bookshelf but I do have a word limit. In any case, a chef with this collection has got to be obsessed.

For mains I’d picked the tongue burger. Fat Louie’s has probably figured that if I want chicken breast or salmon I have plenty of options. If I’m after the tastier parts of the animal that not everyone’s prepared to cook, then I finally have a place to get my hands and mouth on them.

The tongue needs a bit of preparation and a long, slow cook. This was the real deal, tender, textured and packed with flavour. The sauce gribiche was swapped for a tartar sauce and it worked just as well. The burger is rich, jam-packed with flavour and packed with crunch from the fresh veg.

I then tried the brisket, just in case anything had changed. Somehow, unless my memory fails me, this time it was even juicier than the first time I’d tried it. It is hugely smoky, hardly surprising seeing it’s been smoked for 16 hours. It is a perfect match for the wonderful pomme purée, especially if you drop the gooey potato into the brisket gravy.

Perhaps we went overboard with the sides. We had the mac and cheese, a sinful and cheesy treat from the wrong side of the Atlantic, the triple-cooked fries that cocoon a fluffy interior within a crunchy shell, and a poutine. This Canadian dish mixes all that is delicious in a single, indulgent concoction of fries, gravy, and bits of brisket for those who really want it all.

Back to the main courses, I dipped into the pork belly rib. It is more belly than rib round this side of the pig, and it is juicy and tender, with the mild palate of pork allowing a lightly salted exterior to do most of the heavy lifting. This is quite a contrast with the beef rib, where the richer beef flavour makes up for a slightly less fatty cut. This one’s the one that really packs a smoky punch and it falls apart without the need for a knife so it is possible to get through the massive hunk of meat using only half of your cutlery.

Throughout the meal we soaked up a couple of cocktails each, topped these up with beer, and paid €30 each. We could easily have eaten the most pricey item on the menu and added a more modest drink, with our bill sliding under the €20 mark.

Considering the sheer quality of the food and the availability of delicacies that are really hard to come by, this is value that’s hard to beat. If they keep the streak of joyful inventiveness and the sheer obsession with doing things properly, they’re going to be seriously hard to beat.

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