Odyssey Restaurant Marsalforn — Restaurant in Żebbuġ

A very disappointing experience at Odyssey Restaurant, Marsalforn – not worth the price or the wait

My partner and I visited Odyssey Restaurant Marsalforn to celebrate our 5-year anniversary and were truly looking forward to a special evening. Unfortunately, the entire experience — from the service to the food — was extremely disappointing and left us feeling let down.

We arrived at the restaurant at 19:45. It wasn’t busy at the time, with only around five tables occupied, so we expected relatively smooth service. However, after placing our drinks order, it took a full 20 minutes for them to arrive.

We placed our order for starters and mains at 20:05 — when the drinks finally arrived — but shockingly, our starters did not arrive until 20:45. Waiting 40 minutes for starters in a quiet restaurant is simply unacceptable. We were on the verge of leaving due to how hungry and frustrated we were when the food eventually appeared.

For starters, we ordered bruschetta and lobster ravioli. I frequently order tomato and mozzarella bruschetta and usually enjoy it — but this was by far the worst I’ve ever been served. It came as a toasted piece of garlic bread topped with a few chopped tomatoes. There was no sign of fresh mozzarella, and the flavour was flat and unappetising. It looked and tasted like something hastily thrown together. (I will upload photos on TripAdvisor and Google for reference.)

The lobster ravioli starter was no better. In fact, we genuinely questioned whether there was any lobster in it at all — the filling tasted like generic fish, with no distinct flavour or texture of lobster. After waiting 40 minutes, we were extremely disappointed with both dishes but hoped the mains might redeem the meal.

Unfortunately, they didn’t.

For the main course, I ordered the sea bass from the specials menu, and my partner chose the duck breast with plum sauce. The mains arrived roughly 20 minutes after we finished our starters, which was more reasonable, but the food quality again fell short.

My sea bass arrived whole, with the head on — which I expected — but it hadn’t been properly prepared. The side fins and top fins were still attached, making it awkward to remove the fish from the bone. The skin was burned and the fish slightly overcooked, though the flavour itself was passable.

My partner’s duck breast, on the other hand, was shockingly bad. The menu stated the duck would be served medium unless requested otherwise, which suited her preference. However, the duck arrived extremely overcooked — dry, chewy, and burned on the bottom. The skin was rubbery and inedible, and the meat was so tough it gave her jaw ache trying to eat it. To make things worse, the plum sauce smothered over the top was overwhelmingly sweet, tasting more like a dessert marmalade than a complementary sauce for duck.

Not once during the meal did any member of staff come to check on our food or ask how we were finding it, which further added to our dissatisfaction.

For a meal costing nearly €70, this was far from the quality or experience we expected. It’s especially disheartening that such a special evening for us — our anniversary — was marred by such poor service and food.

We dine out regularly and are very fair in our expectations, but this experience simply cannot be recommended. There are many other restaurants in Marsalforn offering better food, better service, and better value. I would strongly suggest visitors...

Sometimes you come across a nice restaurant unexpectedly.

Well this was the complete opposite...

The people were nice, but untrained and unprofessional.

We were given a complimentary bruschetta, which is nice. The only problem is that these were delivered just after the starter, just as we started eating. AFAIK these should have been delivered before, way before, as we had been waiting for food for quite a while. And the restaurant wasnt even half full, they werent that busy.

Food was not good, edible, but far from special. The lasagna felt like it had been reheated several times, the pasta felt way too soft. The chicken burger seemed like a big chicken nugget in a bun and thats all there were some fries on the side with some fine chopped vegtables. Not exactly a good burger.

My main course, which was meat was medium with a mushroom sauce. Which once more felt it was reheated. And they were going to serve me a different meat than the one I ordered, accidentally we noticed this just before they served us the starters when they brought us cuttlery.

Even the maltesers cake felt dry, like it had been sitting there for days if not weeks. It had even crusted a little bit at the edges from being too dry.

The only plus side is that it was cheap. @32€ for 2 persons.

Overall - unless you dont mind the quality of the food, and you are on a tight budget, I would suggest not to go there. As the overall eating experiance was not satisfactory, at...

Don't really understand how anyone could rate this restaurant over 2 stars in the past. It seems that the quality has been better in the past,so don't trust the overwhelmingly positive feedbacks. We went there for lunch as a group of four and or took 20 minutes until a waiter brought menus. The drinks took another 30 min but the disaster began with the food. After one hour of waiting we tried to leave, not no one was able to bring the bill or cancel the food order... Sadly we only were lectured, that fish takes time to cook properly. After 90 mins of persistent bothering our food finally arrived. No waiter cared about empty cups and glasses so we started eating. All plates were decorated with finely arranged drops of Ketchup. The overall food impression was blend, the sauces tasted also ketchup based or not very Hand crafted. The fresh fish of the day was dry and we got the impression it was frozen. Overall it was not worth the waiting time or the price. At the end we had more items on the bill as ordered, but that was a mistake, that could be resolved quickly. For us, it really flipped over our sightseeing Trip to gozo. Maybe the restaurant works better in season, but for now I really can not...