While planning our time in Malta, I thought a side trip to the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. The village of 3500 is well known for their Sunday Market, so I thought instead of heading here for a day excursion, why not spend two nights in a sleepy fishing village? It seemed like a nice way to break up our stay on the island. So we took our time; had a morning espresso and spent most of the morning walking around Valletta.
At about 10 we caught our bus right outside the gates of Valletta. 40 minutes later we were getting off our bus in Marsaxlokk. It was overcast and rainy on this morning and walking along the waterfront, we had no idea where our hotel was......
So we stopped at one of the cafes and asked. As is the norm with places like this; the folks were really nice and the gentleman actually walked us to the hotel, which was tucked away on a side street near the end of the harbor close to the transition to an industrial area.
Our room was ready and waiting for us so we got an early check in, freshened up, then headed off to lunch. It was drizzling off and on, so I decided on just going to one of the most well known seafood restaurants in the village; Ir Rizzu.
As it was noon, the place had just opened.
The dining area is quite large....the service fine, mostly young kids, so it was kind of well, like a place where young kids are serving you......kind of uneven, though they did try.
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Things started off with a gratis appetizer. I recognized the "bigilla", basically mashed beans....doesn't it look like something you'd get at a Mexican Restaurant? I did like the "ful-bit-tewm", the white beans with garlic.
There's something about the bread on Malta that I really like. This wasn't as yeasty, nor did it have the wonderful texture of what we had the night before at Il Horza, but we still enjoyed it.
We also went with a bottle of a local white from Pjazza Regina winery. A combination of three grapes, it was nice, light, refreshing, and went relatively well with the seafood.
As is the norm for us; we went with a meal of appetizers; starting with the classic Maltese Fish Soup; Aljotta.
This was like a very fishy bouillabaisse and not my favorite thing in the world. Salty and not enough acid to take the edge off for me.
The Octopus was a workman-like effort.
A bit tougher than I prefer, but the flavors were nice....great salt-herbs.
The mussels were quite large, though still moist. They hadn't cooked it to death.
Simple was probably the prudent thing to do with this. Not bad.
The best item were the "Mediterranean King Prawns". Again, nice and simple, cooked to perfection.
Wonderful flavor, nice and sweet, the Missus loved those heads!
Overall, this was a decent meal. Nothing fancy by any means, but simple, and a nice way to start our stay in Marsaxlokk.
Ir-Rizzu Restaurant
Marsaxlokk, Malta
It was time to start exploring......
nice start to another adventure:)
Posted by: kat | Sunday, 26 April 2015 at 12:48 AM
It was Kat. Very interesting place....
Posted by: Kirk | Sunday, 26 April 2015 at 05:04 PM
That's quite some color on those prawns.
Posted by: janfrederick | Monday, 27 April 2015 at 09:46 AM
It's quite striking Jan. I'll have photos of the prawns at the market coming up.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 27 April 2015 at 10:16 AM