Il-Kartell Restaurant — Restaurant in Żebbuġ

Solo diners avoid!

I made a reservation for dinner for one, as the place had been recommended by friends, and asked for a table by the shore front on the terrace. When I arrived, the terrace by the shore was mainly empty. Paul (I asked other waiting staff for his name for reasons explained below), the manager / maitre d, gave me the option of either the table exactly by the entrance to the terrace, or on the other side of the street even further away from the shore (where no one was sitting) despite my clear displeasure at this. Frustratingly couples & even other solo diners who came in as walk-ins after me without a reservation (I know they didn't have a reservation because I was close enough to the entrance to hear all of the walk-in requests!) were given a better table; less in the way & closer to the shore.

Looking back at previous reviews, it seems that other diners have had similar unpleasant experiences with seating arrangements, where they have also been made to feel unwelcome. The reply by the establishment for these reviews was to book in advance. In my case, I had done exactly that and was still made to feel unwelcome. The only reason I persisted rather than leave at that point was because the place had been recommended by friends.

I ordered a bottle of water, a glass of wine, and the main course portion of the linguine kartell. I did not order a starter or anything else as I was still unconvinced as to the hospitality of the place after my earlier encounter. Paul took the order.

Regrettably, the service experience did not get better, and the wine was not served despite the straightforward order. When the linguine came, I asked for an update on the wine. They brought out a different wine to the one I ordered. Clearly, the manager was not on top of his game and had not even registered the wine order.

Other staff asked about my experience after the linguine was served & I made amply clear my displeasure in view of the above wine issue. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, at no point did Paul approach me to attempt to explain or apologise about the situation. The experience put me off ordering any further items; I would generally also have had dessert and a coffee.

The rest of the waiting staff were very nice and accommodating. The linguine dish itself was of good quality and had a good amount of seafood.

That said, the surrounding restaurants offer an equal level of cuisine, and my service experience when I visited these other establishments had been far superior.

My advice; solo travellers definitely avoid, and for the rest, be prepared to have a service experience depending on the whims of the manager. My advice to the restaurant owner: change manager / maitre d or re-train him in basic hospitality and etiquette, as he is letting down your establishment.

In reply to Diane below:

Are you suggesting that solo guests should be arguing with your maitre d to get a better table, or else be relegated to the worst table possible, with even walk-ins getting a better table?! It definitely does not make for a relaxing dining experience.

Interestingly in your reply Diane you did not address the wine issue. In high standard establishment, when there is a genuine concern, the manager comes to apologise about it. This did not happen, and there was not even a hint of an apology from your end. Instead you conveniently ignored the comment and told me off despite the heartfelt and fair review.

Regretfully my service experience ruined my evening and the food and atmosphere could not be enjoyed. If you cannot comprehend this, it seems there are bigger issues here.

Thank you Diane. Your imperious reply, labelling a genuine and fair review 'void and time wasting', confirms how you feel about your guests. We will let the readers decide...

Atmosphere: Ill Kartell Restaurant has a beautiful terrasse where you can sit right in front of the bay. You can see the view in one of the pictures. The table decoration was clean and modern with a Mediterranean flair.

Food: As a small appetizer, you get bread and butter which is standard for a restaurant on Gozo. As a special, you also get some fresh tomato paste which was great! As a starter, we had fresh mussels and bruschetta. Both dishes were excellent. The bread of the bruschetta was a little too much toasted, but that is a personal impression. As the main course, we had a filet of beef (around 300-350g) and grilled calamaris. The meat was medium to well done; I ordered a medium one. The filet came with a delicious pepper sauce and some fresh fries. The Calamari had were grilled with a lot of garlic and fresh herbs. We also had some side dishes like the fries, broccoli and a selection of fresh vegetables. We skipped the dessert.

Drinks: We only had some soft drinks, so nothing special to mention here, except one thing. The first round of coke we had, tasted a little bit stale. I assume that the coke was opened the day before and was finished the next day. The next rounds of soft drinks were fine.

Service: The Service was perfect, no need critic here at all. Everybody was friendly and attentively.

Conclusion: Ill Kartell was one of the best restaurants we visited on Gozo. The service is top; the view is beautiful and romantic, the food and the atmosphere were also great. We just had minor issues with the drinks, but in summary, there is no need to rate anything under 5 Stars for this...

If I could give it negative starts I would!

We started off with the Rose' wine, normally Rose needs to be same year or at least 1 year old, the one we got was fromm 2022.

We ordered fried calamari, spaghetti with seafood and a fresh fish from there display. We asked for all the food to be served together and for not tomatoes ina ny of the dishes as I am allergic.

Fried calamari came and tomatoes where at the side so I said nothing. A while after the pasta came. At this point we where already a little upset that our request was not met for all food to come together. We started eating the pasta and a few bites in my partner had a bad clam, we informed the waiter. A few minutes after same thing happened to me. Again we informed the waiter to remove to pasta from table and to get the fish. When the fish came you could not tell where its head or its tail was! The waiter filleted it for us and it looked like some one chewed it and spat it in the plate. Not to mention it still had a lot of bones inside the plate. A few bites in I notice that there are pieces of tomatoes and seeds with the fish. Also side salad came with tomatoes and the vegetables and potatoes where not fresh. We kindly asked for the cheque and informed the waiter about the fish. His respons was its not tomatoes it bisque!

We where utterly shock. My partner is a chef and he told him that bisque is made of tomatoes and that when some one tells you no tomatoes it means nothing containing tomatoes are to touch the table of the guest.

Overall we paid 155euro and had to stop on our way home...