The Golden fork, H’Attard, Malta – honey croissant, Pigeon on a stick and peach lollipop 😮

You know when you read up about a restaurant and you are like ‘yep, going to give this a go’ .. this is exactly how we felt about the golden fork. Plus, the executive chef Letizia interned with Heston Blumenthal at the Fat duck, so yeah, expectation was high and hanty did HER TING!!! I know I bang on about how a food experience is not just about the food alone, but the people and the place? well, the décor of the golden fork reaffirmed this. Spread over 2 floors, it was cosy, simple, clean lines with eye catching details like the light fixtures, the table setting which included hand sanitiser and logo napkin holder… details folks, it is always the details.  

The menu here is a la carte but we were definitely trying a few dishes.  Kicking off with a glass of bubbly and amuse bouche. The amuse bouche though? NOT READY!!!!! Like whoa! The norm is you get bread, butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, portion of olives depending on what country your in. Typical to Malta, you get bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar rarely get butter. However, chef Letizia decided to not serve bread but croissant? Yep! A freaking CROISSANT that literally has put to shame all croissants that I have ever had from chain to artisan bakeries. This croissant was … phew.. thinking about it now makes my mouth water! It was dipped in honey, a buttery, a-melt-in-your mouth joy on the palate, served with bone marrow butter and smoked salt.

Oh that was not all, cheese smoked cigar

which (when served reminded me of something similar we had at Launceston place. Oh that food adventure was sooo yummy!)  as well as a foie cream served on a block of Himalayan salt,

What an intro and a way to whet our appetite.. ugh! we could not wait to get to sampling!

Fava bean Gnocchi with foie cream, Nettle was next and boi! It didn’t look like any gnocchi I ever had. Foie gras and pesto like flakes on the top gave me matcha vibes and it tasted superb.

‘Qarabaghli mimli’ with tomato relish, Maltese sausage, crème fraiche was just out of this world. Aside from it being a pour over dish

it had layers! The sausage was wrapped in cucumber🤨? I never would have paired sausage and cucumber, not even in a sandwich! But this is why we love food adventures ha! Placed on the top of the Maltese sausage was a salted ‘digestive’ type wafer 😱?

Like I said, layers!.. it was goodt! Chef is not playing you see…… Still marvelling over the sausage course, we had the Pigeon on a stick with black garlic velouté. This dish right here, ohhh Chef was ruuude with it!

It had cream cheese and raspberry?, how dare she throw this combinations together? Like WTF? two portions of pigeons which were cooked differently, both so flavourful. Like DANG chef, I was DONE! However, chef was not quite done with us, not by a long mile! Ruby Octopus with beetroot, fennel and butter milk as well as a sweetcorn tagliatelle had me like 😱??? Again the combinations – octopus and beetroot😮?

The tagliatelle was a creamy delight, like there was no boundary between butter and pasta. The charred sweetcorn added the crunch that was quite literally the icing on the cake for this dish!

These were just the starters on this a la carte menu, come on chef! Thank heavens we decided to only sample one main course because lawwd knows our palate could not hack any more sensory overload 🤭. The main sampled was chicken and parsley with confit black yolk, salt baked potato and OMD! First off the potato looked like a layered potato dauphinoise

and the cut of the chicken? Perfect! I am not  keen on chicken breast because I find that it can be a bit dry but not this one, ohh it was succulent with the pour over sauce! Fantastic!

By this point, we thought the meal could not get any more creative, I mean Chef Letizia served dishes that had unimagined combinations! Right? Err wrong… like I said before, Chef was not DONE WITH US! You lot already know, we don’t miss out on pudding…. E V E R! Having said that, there is pudding and then, there is P U D D I N G! and the one in this here golden fork streets is the latter! One word, LOLLIPOP! OMG!!! I don’t have the words to accurately describe what this dessert was? All I know is, it was soooooo efffing yummy! It was a lollipop stick with a peach/ orange pudding inside.

I do love a dessert that comes with hidden surprises …. Like the coconut dessert in L’angle *sigh* The ice cream was delicately placed a top of a layered peach fruit which sat in a biscuit base similar to a cup cake.

It was so pretty to look at and equally scrumptious to devour! Chef Letizia SHOWED OUT like ALL the WAY OUT! And as a final thank you, if you like, we were given a chocolate praline type thingy magic which was almonds, hazelnut and ganache!

Yes, Golden Fork, you are indeed golden in every way! This one is defo one for the books!

Cheers

Ndidi