It's quite an interesting phenomenon how certain restaurant/wine bars expect to charge the client an absurd amount of money for a plate of food or even worse a higher price for wine at a wine bar.
My idea of a wine bar is: "A place were 2 or more people can gather round a table with a glass of wine and eat something fun". Needless to say that the Maltese (and foreign ? ) business man has found a way to exploit this at their profit. Couple of months ago a group of friends (hereby referred to as "us" ) went to "ta' Stringi", a wine bar highly recommended by several people for "great Wine, Food & Atmosphere". Har! Upon arrival we were moved into a war-time bomb shelter (I don't care if you call it a wine cellar) were we sat _squashed_ around a table waiting for the Germans to finish their attack...If this place's idea of atmosphere is sitting in someone's mouldy cellar breathing air that hasn't been changed for the last century or so then some people need to make so serious considerations about taste. The Forte` of the evening was however what I dubbed as "Coolade man!" A boisterous FAT woman who declared herself as our "wine list" when asked for one and offering a choice of the more expensive bottles of wine she could carry :/
The food was good though..
Fra Giuseppe!
Fra Giuseppe declared itself in a more homely manner than Ta' Stringi, being a strong and bare (again) war time building reminding a lot of the fortresses from the period of the knights of st. John. A wine list was duly provided on sitting down which is loads better than having Coolade man stare at you while you give a blank look as you try to guess what wines the "wine bar" has in stock. Upon choosing a wine of popular support, I moved to the food menu and was delighted in finding that several types of platters were offered for choice. Being hungry and in severe need of food, I chose the "Cold meat Platter".
Quoting Dictionary.com:
"2.a course of a meal, usually consisting of a variety of foods served on the same plate."
Aha! Keyword: Variety and this is what was so severely lacking in my "platter"
My cold meat platter consisted of: (using maltese for this part, cant be arsed to translate stuff in english)
1 Bicca ftira
2 Werqiet Hass
2 Half Slices of Parma Ham
2 Grissini
5+ Crackers
3 minute pieces of salami
3 slices of salami
End.
If that is a cold meat platter I'm a duck and should be used for crispy duck recipes in a chinese restaurant. ( no torture pls)
That's all..the plate was so empty I don't have anything to say about it anymore than "It's a bloody RIP-OFF!" Don't go to this place it seriously sucks for 2 reasons: 1) The above mentioned
2) Having found myself hungry after mass yesterday (Sunday) me and my better half went to a "pizza, pasta and grill" in paceville of which I'm sorry to say I forgot the name (Faccata ta Al' pacino). Scanning through their wine list, I found the same exact Rose` D'anjou we drank at me giuseppe's place for more than Lm1 less! So, what's the point of a wine bar ? If a wine bar doesn't have wine's which are cheaper than other places and the platters are not really platter but well disguised traps for the rats ?
P.S. Atleast no Coolade man was present at Fra Giuseppe, service was fast and pleasant... +1
M
