Tag: restaurants

La Mere Valletta

Eating Indian Curry in Malta at La Mère (Valletta, Malta)

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La Mère restaurant (“The Mother”) in Valletta, Malta was recommended to me by a friend whose brother lives in Malta after I asked my Facebook friends whether they had any suggestions on where to eat lunch on the island.  We checked out the website and ended up adding a lunch here as a registry item on our Honeyfund. Our friends ended up purchasing it for us as a wedding gift and it was fantastic!

This eclectic food haven is a bit difficult to find and is located in the middle of the walled city a few blocks tucked away from the more crowded, touristy areas. Admittedly, it took us a bit of wandering, iPhone map usage and some bickering to find this place.  We showed up right before they opened  for lunch, which was lucky because we were STARVING, hot, and ready to eat some spicy food.

La Mere Valletta Malta

A welcoming entrée…

We stepped inside into an adorable little restaurant adorned with jewel-toned glass lamps and lanterns with wooden tables and bright colored accents throughout. Continue reading →

Alla Vecchia Bettola (Florence, Italy)

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Our Florence hotel concierge  (Cosimo at Villa Tolomei) recommended Alla Vecchia Bettola for dinner one chilly, late October night during our honeymoon and it was just what we were looking for.  The name itself means “The Old Tavern”, and it definitely has an old, rustic feel to it.

It’s not romantic by any means, with its communal tables, frantic energy and bright lights, but the food here was excellent and the unlimited red table wine was a fantastic deal (4 euros per person?). This is truly a place where locals eat, but there are travelers here, too.

Be prepared to exercise your Italian food vocabulary muscles or to ask a lot of questions of the waitstaff when trying to figure out what you want to eat. Some are very familiar, and some are extremely foreign (even to me, who grew up eating Italian food and going to Italian restaurants since before I could even speak).  We asked for a few explanations of some of the dishes, and the waiters, while somewhat rushing through responses, were as helpful as they could be in helping us craft an Florentine dinner of epic proportions. Continue reading →

Ora D’Aria – Michelin star dining in Florence

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My husband and I went to Ora D’Aria on our honeymoon in October and we were really looking forward to our meal there based on reading about the chef and the place in general. However, we were a little disappointed with our meal and I think that, for the money, we had better meals elsewhere at a better price.

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THE FOOD

We did the Tuscan autumn tasting menu and each course was good, but not great.

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I think the amuse bouche was actually tastier than the actual courses, which was really unfortunate because I think it set us up for disappointment.  It consisted of a pint-sized portion of steak tartare with caviar and truffle oil, tempura fresh cherry tomato and prosciutto “sandwich”. Continue reading →

Salumeria Verdi aka Pino’s Sandwiches (Florence, Italy)

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I was really wary of Salumeria Verdi, aka Pino’s Sandwiches in Florence, Italy, based on all of the great reviews on TripAdvisor. “Oh, it’s going to be a bunch of American students and full of tourists,” I thought. “There’s going to be a line out the door and we’ll need to wait forever.”

Well, maybe that’s not all WRONG (the place quickly filled up with American students living abroad and their visiting families), but with one of these sandwiches in front of you and a cold glass of beer in your hand, those thoughts float into the salami-scented vapor and you are in food heaven. It’s no wonder this place has been around since 1900. Yes, 115 years. Pino’s been in charge for more than 20 of those.

Side rant: In Italian, the word for a singular sandwich is “panino”. Plural, it is “panini”. Don’t use the term “paninis.” Ever.

Pino himself greeted us as we came in and we hit it at JUST the right time, so there was no line out the door and there were plenty of tables to sit at. It must have been early in the scheme of lunch things because I was practically salivating all day, thinking about going here. Continue reading →

Brunch at Brother Hubbard (Dublin, Ireland)

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American hipsters, eat your heart out. Brother Hubbard in Dublin, Ireland has your foodie brunches beat with its local, homemade and quirky Mediterranean-influenced food that will make even the grumpiest, most ironic tourist or Dubliner cheer up and shut up about that band that you’ve probably never heard of.

While I’m lucky to call Dublin a second home, and have friends and family there to show me around and make sure I’m not committing any Dublin faux pas (even though I willingly do, from time to time – I am a tourist, after all), the funny thing about this place is that half the Dubliners I know that I mention it to have never heard of it.  That’s like hipster GOLD!

Anyway, my good friend Eoin and his lovely friend Claire took me and Luke here during our New Year’s Week jaunt to the Emerald Isle after I requested something delicious for brunch. My prayers were answered. Situated Continue reading →

La Maltija

La Maltija (Paceville/St. Julian’s, Malta)

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My husband and I heard about La Maltija in Paceville/St. Julians, Malta, from our hotel concierge at the Hilton Malta, who recommended it to us when we asked for a traditional Maltese restaurant. We had expected something maybe a bit more provincial, and were pleasantly surprised by this rustic, but refined, yet cozy space only a few blocks down the road.

By the way, Paceville is pronounced more like “pacha-veal” than “pace ville”. Just in case you were wondering.

There is a good deal of outdoor dining space, but the weather being as beautiful as it was, we found that we could only eat without waiting for a table if we sat at an inside table.

It was sweltering hot for the first half of our meal, in the back room of the restaurant where we were seated, because this Russian/Eastern European family had complained before we arrived that they were cold so the air conditioning was turned off. However, as soon as they left, our server turned the air on and it became paradise. While it could be considered a minus, I admired the staff’s dedication to pleasing their customers (even if it meant we were not as comfortable at first…)
La Maltija

Awesome tablecloths.

Temperature concerns aside, our server (I don’t recall her name but she was blonde, on the tall side, and spoke several languages) was excellent and helped us decide on our entrees and even made a few suggestions to help us create our perfect meal. Continue reading →