Sicilia Bella
27 Triq Manoel De Vilhena,
Mġarr, Gozo
Tel: 7982 0898

Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 6/10
Value: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Whenever I travel, I tend to pick a destination based on the cuisine. There are obviously a plethora of other factors that make up the decision. What is the weather like? Is it within our budget? Is the country currently embroiled in a civil war in an attempt to overthrow their tyrannical dictatorship? That sort of thing. But food still takes precedence.

Wherever I’ve been, food always helps inform the narrative and the history of my travel destination. Australia’s classic “meat and three veg” is a throwback to their original British settlers. The imposing presence of baguettes in Vietnam a clear remnant of their French occupation.

Even here in Malta, our traditional dishes are a telltale sign of our heritage and long-standing history. Imqaret, our deep fried date pastries, are of north African descent as well as our pastizzi are most likely to be. Our orange trees were planted here by the Arabs 1,000 years ago. And most noticeable are the clear similarities we bear to the world-famous Italian cuisine.

And this, dear readers, is where I feel we as a nation are truly blessed.

Italian food is famous for a reason. It is the pinnacle of good home cooking, every dish reliant on fresh ingredients treated respectfully. French cuisine prides itself on technique, but Italian is all about simplicity and balance. Most pasta dishes use just a handful of ingredients, fish tends to be cooked with very little fuss and tomato-based sauces are the order of the day.

But people tend to take things for granted when they’re always there. I myself am guilty of overlooking Italian restaurants at times because they just don’t excite me in the way far-flung flavours might.

So when a close friend of mine, whose opinion I tend to hold with reverent respect, told me of a small Italian restaurant in Mġarr harbour (on our fair sister island of Gozo), my interest was instantly piqued. I made the reservation for four and took him and his partner along. If this was going to turn out to be a monumental catastrophe, I wanted to be able to look him directly in the eye as I shook my head in disappointment.

It was a beautifully sunny day as we made the drive north. Mood can affect your food, and the weather really put a skip in our step and set our hopes high from the get go. The ferry trip was the most pleasant it’s ever been and more pleasant was the fact that our restaurant was within a two-minute walk of disembarkation.

I have never, in my life, tasted limoncello this good

Sicilia Bella is a completely unassuming restaurant by the waterfront in Mġarr harbour. The words ‘tourist trap’ popped immediately into mind and I instantly shot a sceptical sideways glance at my informant. We were seated with our drinks order taken very brusquely. The immediate feeling I got from this place was that these people know what they’re doing and enjoy it. This is always a promising sign and my fears were alleviated somewhat. 

The menu is exactly what I was expecting it to be with one fine exception. There wasn’t a pizza in sight. This was a seafood and pasta kind of place and again the excitement in me started to build. We set about deciding what we wanted without any fuss or time wasted and as our waitress returned with our first bottle of wine, we placed our orders.

Bruschetta was brought out to accompany our vino treat and I have to say it was absolutely divine. Loaded with fresh juicy tomato and heaps of fatty olive oil, my appetite started racing. Unfortunately for me, I had some time to wait.

Three of our orders were brought out in no time. An antipasti platter for one, a cold wild boar salad and a deep fried Sicilian cheese hit our table and I insisted my guests tuck in as I waited for my Peppata di Cozze. Surely it would be out any second as they had placed the bowl for empty shells in front of me.

As I waited, I sampled the other dishes at the table. The cheese was wonderfully gooey and hits a comfort spot that only melty cheese can. The antipasti were a series of hits and misses. Smoked salmon and melon were an odd pairing and the arancina was unexciting, but the rest of the platter was beautiful with toothsome octopus, crusty bread topped with sardine and well-seasoned calamari. The wild boar salad was a real winner though. It had a refreshing citrus flavour running throughout and every bite made you want to go in for more.

My mussels, however, were brought out as my guests’ plates were being cleared. Profuse apologies accompanied a clearly flustered waitress who claimed the chef was not satisfied with the first dish he prepared for me and got to making a second post haste, but they forgot to inform me. Fortunately for them, one mussel in I was ready to be forgiving. So plump, so juicy, so delicious. I dunked husks of bread into the white wine sauce and made loud pleasing slurping sounds as I made quick work of the generous bowl.

Our mains hit the table just as our second bottle of wine did. Our first hiccup aside, service here is quick but not rushed, just the way it should be. We had a couple of seafood risottos that looked spectacular. The arborio rice itself was perfect, but more impressive was the abounding amount of seafood actually in there. This restaurant is nothing if not unselfish.

And speaking of bountiful plates was the spaghetti vongole that was placed in front of me. The amount of clams in there was unlike any I have ever experienced and it was perfect. Every forkful of pasta had a piece of shellfish that clung onto it and made it uniformly delicious throughout.

The final main was a Pesto di Pistacchio pasta that blew me out of the water. The pistacchio blended well with the flavours of a traditional pesto and the bite the nuts provided made each mouthful a joy to eat. I’d say the portion may have been slightly too big as pesto has a habit of becoming a little too one-note the further into the dish you progress, but as a collective we ensured the plate was sent back to the kitchen clean.

Desserts sadly were a torrid affair. The tiramisu was good but nothing extraordinary. The semi-freddo chocolate cake fell short of being memorable and was just mediocre. I have to make particular mention of the melon tiramisu that we ordered out of morbid curiosity. And if curiosity killed the cat, this certainly killed my palate. There is no other way to describe this other than abominable. Thinking I was making a big deal of it as I tend to be one who leans into hyperbole more often than not, my guests all had a taste and made a face like a bulldog eating a bag of nettles.

The saving grace, however, came in the form of Sicilia Bella’s in-house limoncello. I have never, in my life, tasted limoncello this good. It is thick and sweet and sour and leaves no unpleasant alcohol burn at the back of the throat. We had a fair few glasses and had to muster some willpower to leave the place without consuming their entire stock. This limoncello alone is a point in their favour when it comes to their food scoring and completely annihilated any misgivings we had about dessert. Forget dessert here. Just grab a bottle of this.

Overall, I loved my time at Sicilia Bella. It truly is a place to have a great homey meal done professionally and to be enjoyed in the best of company (although I recommend somewhat less smug friends than mine.) Will I be returning anytime soon? You can count on it. They better get that limoncello ready!