Le Vrai Winston - Part 2

Winston Chesterfield takes a critical look at the Valletta dining experience:

Don't get me wrong, most of the restaurants we went to were lovely; Giannini, Malata (with live jazz), Il Horza etc had decent food and plenty of charm. But only one of them had anything like a view (Giannini's view is fantastic), and they felt half done. For a World Heritage Site, a stop off point for have-yacht supremos like Roman Abramovich, a place of beauty and of fame (the harbour has been used in countless blockbuster films), there is precious little in the way of evening dining.

Granted, the winters might be busier but in the summertime there is more opportunity to make money; my hotel was recommending that we go to St Julian's or Sliema once we had exhausted the decent rack of restaurants in the capital. We came to Valletta, I said, to be away from the tack and the glitz of piles like that and yet, should it have come to it we might have had to go.

Valletta is grand and important enough to tempt all around to make a diversion, a special trip for a restaurant...British, French, American and Italian tourists are vain and expect to get value for money - a great view, atmosphere or particular elegance means they will easily compromise on price. It's a shame to use a dull movie quote, particularly from something so prosaic and Hollywood like Field of Dreams but it is so, so relevant: IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME.