The Pulled Meat Company
29, Msida Road,
Gżira

Food: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Overall: 7/10

There is no right way to assess a restaurant’s ability to feed and delight. The one-shot approach, where one enters a restaurant and forms an opinion based solely on that singular experience, is one that places plenty of value on consistency. The best restaurants are, after all, consistent in their delivery of food, service and experience.

Then there’s the assessment based on multiple visits. This path is a more even and forgiving one but it can uncover significantly more of the good, the bad and the ugly. Seeing there is no right way to do things, I do both. I’d rather be guilty of two sins than not to sin at all. Life’s too humdrum for that.

I gave The Pulled Meat Company plenty of tries before getting down to writing about it. The short version is that they have proven to know what it takes to slow-cook meats and to turn the meat into delicious concoctions. But there’s more.

My introduction to their wares was via their first iteration in Valletta. Excellently located on South Street, the tiny restaurant has seating upstairs and on the street and serves their now-staple pulled pork, braised beef and smoked chicken sandwiches. I loved what they did with the place, all the way to cheerful art on the walls by an artist who has poked fun at our country on other pages of this newspaper.

All was well for a while. I tried to keep up with their slightly erratic opening hours, never quite figuring out when they were open in the evenings and when they’d decide to close. I even tried eating one of their braised beef ftiras one time at a music event, attracted by the familiar sight of their sign that looks like a pig had been cross-bred with a dachshund.

Packaging your dining experience into a mobile one isn’t quite as easy as some would think. The ftira had been taken to the oven prepared and frozen and whoever was responsible for heating them up didn’t quite get things right so there was a lovely warm bit around the edges that surrounded a solid core of ice. I put this down to inexperience and sought sustenance elsewhere that weekend.

Then I realised that this method applied to more than just the outdoor experience. Their restaurant outside the University is essentially equipped with a freezer and an oven and that’s as much kitchen as you get. A frozen ftira goes into the oven and, 15 minutes later, a warm and toasty one emerges. Add some fresh greens and that’s the way it’s served. Just as disappointing are the baked fries.

I’ve tried four ways to The Pulled Meat Company and it’s the one in Gżira that has me returning for more

I understand that they might not have room for a fryer but dousing frozen chips in vegetable oil and baking them does not make for a good baked chip. The bacon salt on top is lovely and the harissa mayonnaise they serve as an optional sauce is even more tasty, but this means the chips are no more than a barely edible vehicle for a tasty sauce.

Admittedly, this method of reheating a ftira doesn’t ruin the experience completely but it is an almost inadmissibly lazy way of going about things. I once ordered a panino with lampredotto from a hole-in-the-wall in Florence. The tripe, specifically the fourth stomach of the cow, was gently bubbling in a stew pot and the bread was freshly baked.

I returned half a dozen times and at one point asked the man serving me how theymaintained the consistency. He acted affronted and a little offended. It was, he explained, an 800-year-old recipe so he’d have to be a fool to mess it up.

If these Florentines who occupy a three-square metre dugout can manage to serve slow-cooked offal and fresh bread without resorting to freezing anything, then practically anyone can.

In a civilised country, I’d bemoan the way we’re feeding the next generation of our country’s leaders but if they possessed an ounce of leadership material they’d take action themselves so they’re getting what they deserve. If you disagree, I invite you to recall the last time that University students got together and actually stood for something that’s vaguely rebellious and did something meaningful about it.

The latest instalment by The Pulled Meat Company is their restaurant in Gżira. More than the addition of a new location, the Gżira restaurant adds a number of new food items that were very quick to gain my attention. On my first visit, in the excellent company of two shameless gourmands, we tried the rabbit belly burger and I’ve returned for it a number of times just to be sure it’s consistent. It is.

But I’m ahead of myself. The restaurant itself is done up simply and tastefully, using metal pipework for interesting light fittings, wooden tables, and bent ply chairs similar to the ones we associate with church halls but that have been purpose built. The components come together quite attractively and they lend a pleasantly informal feeling to the space.

The menu is another display of the way The Pulled Meat Company is growing up. There are new burgers, salads, wraps, their take on arancini and a new set of sides. The arancini with pulled meat and grana are just lovely, with a crisp exterior and a juicy and intensely savoury filling, making for the perfect starter.

The salads are planned and executed well enough to attract and satisfy two rather picky eaters I joined for lunch one day. With pulled rabbit on top of a well-dressed salad, you’re getting all the health benefits of a very lean meat and a salad without sacrificing any of the pleasure. You’re practically banking guilt points for the rest of the week’s transgressions.

The rabbit belly burger is the rising star for me. For a moment, I wondered what they do with the rest of the rabbit but then I realised I don’t quite care as long as the belly, the best part of the rabbit short of its offal, is in my burger.

It’s stewed in a sauce that’s a pleasant take on the traditional way to rabbit, so there’s a hint of curry in there. Then there’s plenty of baby rucola and a fried egg within a glazed burger bun. The sauce on the side seems to have evolved from an overpowering blue cheese one to a significantly milder ġbejna fonduta. It does help to have it served on the side because you can tune it up and down to your liking.

Do give the rabbit sauce a chance before dousing it in molten ġbejna though because it really deserves it. Not that you need to be taught how to eat a burger but if you order fries, tip half of them into the wooden plate that the burger is served on. The burger will drip its delicious liquids and your fries will soak these up. Thank me later.

Sides are generous in portion and are given equal importance in the kitchen so there’s none of that baked mess that the university has to put up with. The fries are skinny and crisp, the sweet potato fries are, well, sweet on the inside and salted on the outside for the best of both worlds and the peanut slaw is zesty and refreshing and tasty all at once. I’m not quite sure it’s worth paying €3.50 for but I have to say I enjoyed it.

I realise I’ve tried four ways to The Pulled Meat Company and it’s the one in Gżira that has me returning for more. I’ve seen their good side (and their great sides), the disappointing efforts and the divine rabbit belly and the good easily outweighs the niggles.

I’ve heard heaps of praise for the dinner menu in Gżira so it looks like I’ll be back for even more. Now that the formula is rocking, I can only presume that it will be applied throughout their restaurants. Watch out rabbits, I’ve got you in my sights.