Our original flight out of Dublin was cancelled, so we had to go with an alternative flight out of Shannon that departed at 20:00 – not ideal, but it was our only option. To be fair, Shannon is a breeze to get through, while the choice of food and drink is limited, the ease of getting through security is a huge plus. That aside and despite the flight being delayed by about 45 minutes, we arrived into Valletta at 01:00 and thankfully we had the foresight to arranged a cab to take us to our hotel.
We are staying at the Embassy hotel, smack-bang in the middle of the old town of Valletta and less than a stone’s throw away from most of the main attractions. Check-in took no time at all and we were glad to finally hit the hay, after all, it was now almost 01:45. However, it was evident, that sleep was going to be in short supply, as the noise from the late night revellers, was pretty loud.
After a few hours of broken sleep, we got up, dressed and made our way to the breakfast restaurant, which just happens to be on the top floor of the hotel. Breakfast is served in their rooftop bar/restaurant, which is right beside the tiny but inviting pool. It also offers great views across most of Valletta.
Breakfast is the usual buffet affair, with a decent selection of fruits, salads, hot food selection and the likes. Hot drinks such as coffee and tea can be ordered with one of the staff and they will gladly grab anything else for you and bring it to your table.
Once fed and refreshed, we hit the streets to check out a few of the attractions. Despite it not being the main tourist season, it was quite busy, with people sitting outside enjoying the morning sun watching the world go by. Our first stop was St. John’s co-cathedral. This is probably the most visited site in Valletta and the floor is certainly interesting, as you can see from the photos. We also decided to book the bell tower tour, which is limited to 10 people at a time and the tours run several times a day.
As we had some time to pass before the tour of the bell tower, we popped into Café Cordina to grab a coffee and pastry. Once done, we headed back to the church just in time for our tour. The tour guide was very enthusiastic, despite, I’m sure having done this tour many times before. Nonetheless, it was an interesting short trip, plus you get a great overall view of the church. You also get to see how the bell tower clock works. All very interesting in its simplicity.
Once done, we wandered about a bit to get our bearings and after our walk, it was time for lunch. Despite a booking for a ‘fancy’ restaurant for dinner, we decided to try a place called ‘Grain Street’, which is actually one of three restaurants owned by the same chef, one, ‘The Grain’, has a Michelin star. However, we stuck with Grain Street for lunch, we figured, the standard should be pretty good.
We were seated outside under a cover, which was nice, as it blocked out the rays of the sun, but was still warm and pleasant. To kick things off, I ordered the ‘’ cocktail and C went with a mocktail. I’ll let the photos do the talking…..
After the enjoyable lunch, we hit the streets again and checked out the Upper Barrakka Gardens as well as some of the minor attractions. There are a lot of churches, ranging in size from very small to I guess what you would call a decent size place. There are also several small museums to visit, including the National Museum of Archaeology and the National Museum of Natural History, both we visited that afternoon.
After checking out a few of the aforementioned sights, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a bit before our meal that evening.
Malta, has only one, two Michelin star restaurant, called ION Harbour and that’s were we went for dinner. The restaurant is located on the second floor of the Iniala Harbour House hotel, right down near the main harbour. On arrival, we were escorted to our table which was outside on the veranda, with nice views across the harbour to what is known as the ‘Three Cities’. We wasted no time and ordered some champagne to kick things off. Our server proceeded to wheel out the champagne trolley and you got to pick what you would like. C ordered a ‘standard’ glass of champagne, however, I had to try the Dom Perignon, just to see if it lives up to the hype.
Just like so many Michelin star restaurants, ION Harbour offers a taster menu, well they actually offer two, the short menu, which has about 8 courses, or the menu prestige, which has about twelve, no prizes for which one we went for. I will let the photos do the talking.
So how was this two Michelin star meal? Overall, it was very good, while we did not enjoy some of our courses, the majority were tasty, the service was very polite and professional. Is it worthy of two stars? Yes, we felt it is, but certainly not the best two star meal we have had, however, we would certainly return, when next in Malta.
After dinner all that was left to do was head back to the hotel for a good night’s rest, however, for a lot of the revellers, the night was still young, it was going to be another broken sleep night.
The following morning, we grabbed breakfast and hit the streets. Our plan for the day was to visit nearby Mdina, which is about a 40 minute bus journey. The main bus station is about 15 minute walk from our hotel, from there, you can pretty much get a busl to anywhere on the island.
We arrived into Mdina at about 11:00 and it was already very busy. Mdina is not a huge place to visit, but it does have a lot of history attached to it. Despite the crowds, it was actually possible to find quieter areas of the town to visit. There are a few minor attractions, museums and exhibitions showcasing the history of Malta and it’s strategic importance at times of war and prosperity. For lunch, we opted for the Fontanella Tea Garden, there are not many options within the walls of the town and this seemed like one of the better options. We were not waiting long to get a table and once seated, we ordered some drinks. I had a concoction of raspberry, lemon and lime, C opted for some wine. For food, C went with the tuna sambo and I had a smoked salmon bagel, neither were anything special, but they sufficed.
Once done with Mdina, we hopped back on the bus back to Valletta. For the afternoon, we took the ferry across to visit the ‘Three Cities’. Given that it was now after lunch, we really only had time to visit one of the cities. Basically, each city has it’s own garrison, which was built to protect Malta in times of war. Once off the ferry, we walked along the harbour towards Fort St. Angelo, we actually spent most of the time admiring the multi-million dollar yachts that were moored in the harbour.
Fort St. Angelo was not busy at all and similar to Mdina earlier that day, it has a few minor exhibitions to check out with a few tiny, displays, rather than museums. There were also one or two places to grab a snack, ice cream, coffee etc. It was nice to sit outside in the sun, enjoying a cold drink. We managed to knock just over 3 hours out of our visit to the city of Birgu before hopping back on the ferry to bring us back to the mainland.
For dinner that evening, we had no plan, just to wing-it, there were after all, loads of places to grab a bite to eat and drink. We went with a place called Restaurant one80, which C had been eyeing up earlier that day. It was a bit away from the main tourist areas, but still only a few minute walk from out hotel. You can check out the details below.
After our enjoyable meal, we hit the streets to grab a drink before calling it a night. The following day, we had several
After the War Rooms, out next stop was to visit the Grandmaster’s Palace and the Royal Armory. Basically it’s a huge display of all manner of weapons and armour, along with some stuffed animals, large grand rooms which were used for hosting parties and dignitaries. Once done, we made our way back along the main shopping street to do some window shopping, before going back to the hotel to pick up our bags and make our way to the airport.
Overall, we really enjoyed our short trip to Malta, certainly a place we can see ourselves returning to at a later date. With more time, it would have allowed us to visit Gozo and perhaps some other parts of the island. The weather was great, plenty to see and the food was good.
Until next time,
Bye for now,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 