Restaurant reviews: Gozo, Malta

If you’re heading to Gozo, a small island that’s part of Malta, then hopefully these restaurant reviews will come in useful!

We stayed at the Bella Vista Farmhouses in the summer, which I have already reviewed.

We were mainly self catering during our stay (despite the very poor barbecue and oven we could barely work) but did eat out sometimes, mainly in the village of Xaghra where we were staying.

D Venue

Also sometimes written as Dvenue

Located on the village square in Xaghra, the restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating.

Service was very slow – we were at our table for 15 minutes before anyone came to take our order, then half an hour to get our drinks, then another half an hour for our food to arrive. I had a local traditional ravioli dish filed with cheese which was nice. My husband enjoyed his fillet steak (22 euros) which he said was really good. I wasn’t so impressed by the drinks though – my ice tea came to the table in a can which had been kept at room temperature. At least my husband’s coke was cold.

 

While eating we were treated to some entertainment – a sort of pageant and mixture of dance and narrative, telling the story of Xahgra’s history – we assumed this must be a special occasion and during the summer we were told most towns and villages have their own fiestas – we often saw fireworks in the distance from our balcony!

Latini Restaurant

Another restaurant on the other side of the village square with a good view of the church, where this time we had an early lunch. My husband enjoyed the cooked breakfast which was served until noon. I had pasta with chicken in a gorgonzola sauce – not having realised until a few days later that I was actually a couple of weeks pregnant!

Luckily the blue cheese didn’t seem to do me any harm. The dish was nice but the chicken strips seemed a bit processed – the texture reminded me of when you buy strips in Iceland that are ready frozen. Either way that’s just my opinion, and it was a nice enough place otherwise.

 

Il Logga

 

 

Il Logga is a boutique hotel as well as a restaurant which is beautiful inside, but the outside is a bit of a shame – it’s on a corner between two roads, and while there isn’t a lot of traffic, the small outdoor seating area means you are in close proximity to cars going past. So we decided to sit indoors and were surprised to see the lovely huge chandelier, wine racks and more – this is a really elegant restaurant, with good service.

We received a complimentary bruschetta with tomato and a bread basket to start. My husband had steak which he said was very good, and I ate tuna with some sort of salsa verde which was delicious and the piece of tuna was huge. It came with  vegetables that looked like a sort of ratatouille that neither of us liked, plus some roasted potatoes – the whole meal was very nice, and it was actually a celebration of finding out that day we were going to be parents – though looking back I think we were in shock it had happened so quickly as well and this would be our last holiday as a duo!

 

 I can't remember what we had for dessert, but it was lovely!

 

Ta Karolina restaurant, Xlendi

For our last meal on Gozo we decided to go a bit further afield - though nothing is very far as it's such a small island! Speaking to our local taxi driver about restaurants, he recommended we check out Xlendi so I had a look at restaurants on Trip Advisor and chose Ta Karolina, partly because of the name, but also because it had good reviews and a waterfront location. It only took about 15 minutes to get to Xlendi and our taxi driver promised to return if we phoned when we had finished our meal, and he was there soon after

I think I definitely chose well with the restaurant - there were several restaurants not far from the water but where you wouldn't have had any view, then a handful in a line along the actual waterfront. Each of them had a row of about 4 or maybe 5 tables along the edge of what was basically a harbour leading out to the sea, but Karolina was on the corner, with half a dozen tables along one edge (with rows of other tables behind them) then a single file row of tables for two leading up the side of the harbour. We were lucky enough to get one of these tables, so were right next to the water - literally, if I'd moved my chair leg a couple of inches I would have fallen in - and didn't have rows and rows of other diners around us. It was actually quite romantic, and fun to watch the fish in the clear water right next to us.

My table leg and the proximity of the water: see pic



I ate salmon with prawns and a sauce that I think might have been white wine based but it doesn't look that colour from the picture! Needless to say it was really fresh and tasty.

 

It was a beautiful evening and wonderful to finish off our dinner and holiday as the sun was setting.

 

 

Costa Coffee, Malta Airport

Actually, our last meal in Malta was technically at the airport - at Costa Coffee! Malta was under British rule until the 1960s (at least I think that's correct) and there are a lot of British influences still evident (including lots of ex-pats) - though definitely somewhere that also has its own identity. It's not the best holiday we've ever had - we were a bit disappointed by the accommodation, and nothing could live up to our trip to the Galapagos Islands for our honeymoon the year before but for somewhere short haul, not too expensive and relaxing, I definitely recommend Gozo.