Cafe Cordina, Valletta: step back to traditional cake and coffee

3rd January
It's one of our rituals to spend a bit more than average, and have morning or afternoon coffee and cake at least once during each stay. Cordina is from a past era, but still looks fresh enough. I don't know enough about the history except to know that Republic street was flattened during world war 2, but according to the blurb on the web site http://www.caffecordina.com/EN.About_Caffe_Cordina.aspx  the current owners only went there in 1944 despite a sign on the door saying 1837

The building has seen grander times, but the interior decor is to be seen to be believed.

It's cafe food, but the quality of the cakes is excellent, and we have taken them home for tea from time to time.It's not cheap, but you are buying the dream. Cakes cost between 3 to 3.50 Euros

They don't make them like this any more, so if you have time in Valetta, definitely stop here because you will not forget the experience and you'll get to mix with Maltese cafe society.

Momo, Tigne, Fortina: Two steps backwards, one forwards.

29th Dec 2012 and 3rd January 2013
This restauratnt used to be known as the Tigne Brasserie for many years and was a flagship Mediterranean popular eating place both with the hotel guests and the locals. Since our visit last year, it has had a refit, new staff, and a new ethos, and has become another Italian Restaurant. In fact there are now three Italian restaurants in the Fortina complex (one over the swimming pool seems to be independent of the hotel, but seem to shelter with it). This means that the variety of cooking has contracted. There is a web entry which views the restaurant from the opposite viewpoint I had, and there is a menu which appears at the time of writing to relate to the prior existence: http://www.fortinasparesort.com/momos?l=1 It is difficult to work out what the name of the establishment is trying to tell us, as it is a common name for restaurants of different persuasions  just try  googling it.
We had been warned about the standard of service, and were not disappointed. Whilst the food is good, they do not seem to have their act together, and service is very slapdash and slow. For example it is a matter of chance or persistence whether the breadbasket comes your way. Our friends had indicated that the staff seemed to be dipping in and out of the restaurant with supplies as if they were swapping food with one of the other restaurants and borrowing when the orders overwhelmed them.
It is more attractive than its predecessor but all  the decoration is focused on the place settings. The wall are bare, and unlike the previous somewhat overloaded overstatement of decor. One thing they have not fixed is the front door, which is a poor fit, and my advice to anyone is that the seat next to the door should always be declined because there is a perpetual draft and people tend to leave it open when they come and go.

For starter, I had a Penne with the chef's signature swordfish carbonarra.

This was quite a large serving of something I was not quite expecting. I had thought it would be like the usual versions of carbonarra sauce, but on checking, the technical definition of carbonarra is cooked with egg and parmesan, which it was. It was fine but a bit bland and was hot enough.

I then had a steak with mushrooms, and this was excellent, although the vegetable accompaniment was a bit miserable.

This was a huge hunk of meat of excellent quality and temperature. In fact the steaks were better quality than we get here in London. I asked where the meat came from, and the hotel's meat was said to come from Scotland.

In the previous incarnation, dessert had been a high spot, but they seem not interested here and offer fruit, cake or ice cream. I had the Tiramasu, which seem to have only had a short holiday from the freezer. Mod satis, but no credit to the chef.

On my second visit, I had Gnocchi with prawns and courgette

followed by another steak this time impregnated with truffle oil

Both of these were fresh, and the steak was excellent. The disappointment of the evening was the desert, and this time, from the very limited list I had the fresh fruit salad, which turned out to be a mix of pineapple and apple. It looked like leftovers and tasted that way.

Looking at other reviews of MoMo's it looks like a marmite event, and you can be lucky on some nights. The food is good, but the organisation has a lot to be desired.

Post Script March 2013

I have received an email from the Fortina indicating that MOMO's will be no more, but has been rechristened the Tigne Restaurant, and it looks as if an external operator has been brought in. Any comments or experiences would be welcome.

Can Thai: an oriental pleasure at the Fortina

31st December 2012 and 1st Jan 2013
So good, we went there two days running.
Having had a superlative experience last new year's eve at this restaurant, with a feast that was of such a high standard, we booked a return visit as soon as we arrived at the Fortina. The web site is fairly informative and there is a menu that tells you that eating here could be an expensive experience. However, unlike last year, it was clear that there was no special meal this year, and the place was laid out for large parties of local Maltese cash customers, some of whom were also drinking at the hotel.
http://www.fortinasparesort.com/can-thai
The restaurant is very attractive. I personally would not eat in the conservatory on a winter night, as it can be a little chilly, and prefer the inside at night. For the festive period, there was a manger crib scene (very typical of Malta) made of biscuit.

Unlike the previous experience, the staff here were extremely obliging to the all inclusive guests, and made it clear we could have anything we liked. The menu is extensive with significant Chinese and Thai contributions. We chose to focus on the Thai, which is of good standard, and some of the dishes seem sufficiently authentic, you could think you were there.All meals start with prawn crackers and dip.(there is going to be a lot of food here!)

This is served fresh and hot with sauce that is just out of picture. Next the soup, but I want to show you before and after.

This was a chicken Tom Yam soup, as good as I have had in Thailand, but without the killer chillie content that sometimes come with it. So by the end of starter and soup, the edge is taken off our hunger.

We chose of variety of dishes including beef red curry and stir fried duck with capsicum and basil sauce, prawn phad Thai noodles and chicken fried rice. Fantastic

Strangely enough the deserts are untypical with a choice of fruit, cake or ice cream. To be healthy, I chose the fruit which was an attractive combination of tropical fruits, but there is not enough space on this episode. All food was sufficiently hot and scored mostly 8's.

View of Sliema creek from our Room.

Just to let you know, the one way I was assured of a 10/10 hot food was the sizzling dishes and on another occasion had this sizzling chicken. No doubt there, and I think the Can Thai was probably one of our better venues for variety, hotness and helpfulness of staff.

Sa Re Me Ga : Fortina continued; Indian food for beginners

30th December 2012, Sliema, Malta
The Sa Re Me Ga, which appears to be the name of an Indian music company and the first four notes of a seven note octave in Indian music has been a fixture in the dine around at the Fortina for many years, and serves a middle of the road upmarket Indian food for people who may not be accustomed to Vindaloo, or even Madras.
It has been fairly reliable over the years. This year, as a five * all inclusive guest, it left a little to desire as an operation, although the food is fine.
Firstly, we were offered only a very late sitting on booking (you have to book) and when we arrived, it was almost empty. Some friends, who had been earlier in the evening, said it had not been any more full all evening, so I am not sure what the point was here: they don't have much in the way of staff, so may be they cannot cope with more than two or three tables at a time.
The menu is short: in fact it is the shortest menu for an Indian Restaurant I have ever seen. There is no information on the web site, but for the meals on offer, there is only about a choice of 6 main dishes. In the past for an inclusive guest's meal there had been poppadoms, pickle, raita and dhal included, but that had all gone. Perhaps you had to ask for it as extra. Actually we were made to feel that as an all inclusive guest (who are not permitted on a Saturday night) they were doing us a favour in serving us, and we did not go there a second time although the food was good.
I started with a classic shami kebab which is what I would have had back in the UK

You can't tell from this picture, except the slice of cucumber as a standard, just how big this is: it is not big, and is far smaller than the portion I might expect to receive in London. It was about a 7 on the CHOF scale, and I shared my wife's chicken tikkah.

For main we shared a chicken and a lamb dish. Cannot remember exactly what the name was, but the quality  was excellent, but it could have been a little warmer. No raita, no dhal, but I think there was a garlic naan, which would have been called a paratha elsewhere.

I judge this place by the standards I am used to, and whilst the food was fine, the choice was indifferent, and this was spice flavour rather than spice hot.

The deserts offered were a bit of a joke: two scoops of icecream or rice pudding.

Clearly they were interested in cash customers and resented our all inclusive presence. If that is the case, they should simply opt out of the arrangement.

If you go as a paying customer, I gather it is quite pricey by London standards, and I understand you pay 38 Euros for the set menu, which is probably twice what I would expect to pay here.

Hibiki, an unexpected Japanese pleasure: Fortina continued

Hibiki

This is the Japanese restaurant, although it serves food more for a western palate. In previous years when we have been at the hotel, this restaurant has been immensely popular, but this year, at lunch we were the only diners on a couple of occasions, and it did not get full at dinner. For the new year dinner, which we did not attend, it was pretty deserted, and the Tepanayaki section was hardly used at all. This cannot be because of the quality of the food which we found excellent, as was the service, and can only assume it is a combination of price and suspicion by winter visitors (mainly mature) of Japanese food.

http://www.fortinasparesort.com/hibiki?l=1 for more detail but at the time of writing, no menu.

We ate there a few times for lunch, and once for dinner (identical menus).On my first visit for lunch I had the prawn tepan starter

This was followed by the Beef Gyozo Dumplings which were delicious

This was followed by a desert of rolls, rather like sweet spring rolls with a cinnamon and chocolate filling (does not sound very Japanese).

The menu is somewhat repetitive, and portion sizes are not huge, but one did not leave hungry. Overall, I would give the hot food a 7-8.

Fortina Spa Resort Hotel, Sliema, Malta: Review of Restaurants including Taste, Sa Re Ga Ma, Can Thai, MoMo

28th December to 4th January
I have just returned from a weeks holiday in Malta, a regular jaunt for my wife and I and I thought I would review the various eating options that exist in the hotel, and a couple of out of hotel experiences. Malta is not known for its culinary excellence, although there are traditional foods which are a cross between Mediterranean and North African. Over the past few years, especially since Malta joined the EU, there has been an increasing Italian influence (not surprising as Sicily is only a hop away), and we have noted that most of the new restaurants are Italian style (including many Pizza and Pasta, for the budget conscious) and others have converted to Italian.
Fortina Spa resort started out as an all inclusive 4* hotel with a small Thalassotherapy spa to a major league spa resort offering pretty much everything including fish therapy and colonic irrigation. There are a number of excellent restaurants (aimed both at tourists and the better end of the local trade) which guests have access to.This blog will review the ones we used.
Taste
For the guest in the 5*, the restaurant called Taste is the key destination. It is where breakfast is served every day, and where you can have lunch and or dinner on most days. http://www.fortinasparesort.com/taste
Described as Mediterranean and Vienamese, the emphasis on Meditteranean. The cooking is novel (see menu) and covers a wide variety of tastes at lunch and dinner. Breakfast is another matter. For a five star hotel, the breakfast is nearer 3.9*. It is in fact identical to the breakfast served in the 4* bit of the hotel.

The buffet breakfast is a mixture of hot and cold. If anything raises the star rating, the litmus test is whether there is smoked salmon and champagne, and in this case there is both. There is also a bottle of vodka and tomato juice, if that is your morning starter.As usual the hot buffet falls down in the hotness and quality of scrambled eggs in that both are inadequately hot (only scoring a bare 7 on the scalee, and with solid scrambled egg - I did not even bother. There is also an omelette bar, but there is an element of luck here as to who cooks it: a request for easy over fried resulted in solid eggs, and my first omelette was overcooked. There is a selection of fresh bread and rolls, and the bread is very crusty but there is a lack of variety: white or brownish. A selection of fresh fruit and yoghourt is provided, changing on a daily basis, and the usual cereals are there. So the breakfast could be better, and relies too much on below average hot food. Cold food is better, but there is a poor choice (see above).

Lunch at Taste is a different matter, and just check out the menu on the web link.Over the week, we had lunch there a couple of times. It is pointless going there for a quick lunch, and you should allow between 90 minutes to two hours.

Here are a couple of examples of lunch

How pretty these look and almost a shame to cut up and eat. The starter at the top has pranws and something else I cannot remember, and below is their escalope of veal. Both scored an 8 on the CHOF scale, but as everything happens very slowly, it is difficult to assume that hot food is their concern.

Dinner in this restaurant is very popular, with it often being booked up well in advance. One night I had Spaghetti with a venison bolognese sauce, followed by Guinea Fowl tornados with kohl rabi (which I failed to find) Lighting is very subdued, so pictures are not the greatest.

I made a note at the time that both of these scored a 9 on the CHOF scale, and were excellent. I followed this by an exotic fruit salad, and I am still not sure what the things that look maniac dice with lots of spots are.

In summary, Taste for lunch and dinner is a good choice serving a variety of food that can be hot but takes time to come. Atmosphere is excellent. If you look at the menu, if you are an outside visitor, it can be quite expensive.

Post Script Jan 2025. The Fortina has now closed and has been replace (eventually) by a new chain hotel running on more conventional lines. It was good while it lasted, but was dying on its feet for many years.

airline food: the highest a chicken has flown

28th December 2012
En Route to Malta.
Most years, I like to get away for a week, and despite the marmite type feelings people have for Malta, I love it like an old friend. Having had problems with flights out of Gatwick at this time of year, I make a positive choice for the Heathrow Air Malta flight, mainly because it is the one that is most likely to go.
The flight is about three hours, which puts it at the limits of no catering for many airlines, but Air Malta still seem pleased to feed people, but you have to pay for alcoholic beverages in tourist class. This is what we got for lunch on the morning flight:

A slightly better than average airline meal. The desert was a Maltese Mince pie. The thing with airline meals is to forget the conventions of eating, but go for the hot stuff first, as you never know how long it has been out of the oven, or how hot it was in the first place. In this case it was pretty hot, and scored an 8 on the scale. It was a pretty dry piece of chicken with mashed potatoes and diced carrots and peas. By airline standards, pretty good. Portions on airlines tend to be small. On the return leg we were served at about 5 pm with a pretty solid sort of burger with duchess potatoes and green beans. Again, not bad and fairly hot, but I had my phone switched off, so no picture. If you want decent airline food go long haul and business class. If you don't like airline food, which is understandable, go for a no frills airline, and eat before.