Illusions Birzebbuga — Restaurant in Birzebbugia

Ladies, be aware! Food was okay but the experience was terrible. This will be a long explanation. I was there as a solo female at 6 pm today and asked for a table. The water (I'll call him "A") said I can sit wherever I like. I turned around and started to look for a table and then A called me very beautiful. I thanked him politely and sat down. He was right there as I pulled back the chair as if he was behind me very closely. He gave me the menu and I was looking for something in my backpack. He didn't move as if he was waiting for something from me. I had my headphones in as I didn't want to have a conversation and just enjoy a nice meal by myself. After a while he left and came back when I was ready to order. During that he started asking for personal information like where I live and where I'm from. To ask these he constantly interruped me while I tried to tell him what food and beverage I wanted and basically ignored my order to keep talking to me. As he brought my can of pepsi and a glass I was again looking for my glasses in my backpack, he put both of it on the table and waited for whatever. As I didn't pay much attention to him he lifted up the glass and put it right in front of me. He did the same with the can but put it even closer. He proceeded to open it in a very slow manner and with a strange movement of his fingers in a very inappropriate way and grinned at me. While I waited for my food he came up to me again to ask some more questions, as I wasn't interested I kept my answers very short and didn't look at him but he didn't pick up on it or purposely ignored it. During all of our interactions he asked me several times if he can do anything else for me even after i politely declined. He also kept straing at me. At one point I very obviously put my phone done which has my fiancé as a background and mid-sentence he looked at it, paused for a second and then continued so he definitly noticed. Same with my engagement ring, I even put it from my left hand to my right so he would for sure see it as he alsways stood on my right side (which also faced the restaurant). After he noticed the ring he didn't stop on that side anymore and walked behind me to my left side very closely with no respect for personal space. As is was very uncomfortable, I waved at a different waiter B to get the bill. B then checked with A in Hindi/Urdu if it was okay to help me or if A insisted on serving me. They said it in a joking way but it made clear that waiter A definitely wanted something and I wasn't imagining it or reading too much into it. I asked for a box for my leftovers and the bill which he brought seperately. Between those two he came back two more times to first take my glass and the second time to take away the small plate on which the cutlery is brought. It felt like he was dragging out the payment process. I was extremely uncomfortable and intimidated the whole time which felt like it was visible but ignored. All interactions disrespectful of me and my space. I wasn't disresepctful (out of fear to be honest) but it was quite clear that I didn't want to talk.

Like I said the food was okay but I can't review it properly because of the extremely inappropriate actions of the waiter.

To the owner/manager: please have a talk with your employees about appropriate behaviour towards customers, especially towards women, about respecting personal spaces/boundaries and reading...

Good afternoon. I am writing this review in utter discuss. My parents came to Malta for a holiday visiting myself and my wife, most evenings we would adventure around the island going to many different restaurants. We currently live in the south and decided we would visit pretty Bay for an afternoon dinner. We found illusions. This restaurant unfortunately hits an all new level for me. We ordered a Maltese platter for my mum and myself to share, my dad had a beef burger which was under cooked. presentation looked good unfortunately it took 45 minutes to arrive at our table at this point we still had not received our drinks. We enquired as to where our drinks were and the waiter just walked away, The owners of the bar restaurant were all sitting round a table, smoking marijuana and shouting at one another. The kitchen staff appeared to be have some form of fight. My mum and I started to enjoy our Maltese platter, but unfortunately about halfway through we found maggots crawling underneath the lettuce so we asked the waiter to return to our Table. This took approximately 15 minutes all the maggots crawling all over our food and we were wondering how sick we were going to become. When the waiter came, we showed him the maggots. They took the Maltese platter away and asked if we would like something else to which clearly we said no thank you as the maggots crawling all over our food had turned our stomachs. We decided to drink our drinks which finally arrived. We then called the waiter over to discuss what they were going to do about our meal. The waiter had no idea went over to Table where the owners were sitting showed them again our meal, Then returned to the Table And told us that the owners said as we had eaten half of the Maltese platter, we would have to pay half of the cost. As you can imagine, I was not happy so I went to the owners Table and explained to them how disgusted I was with the service the food and the general atmosphere. I explained to them that I felt I should not pay for the food. They then swore in Maltese thinking that I did not understand them unfortunately for them I did. I told them I was going back to my Table and I expect for them to rectify the meal, some 30 minutes later, the waiter returned with my bill which showed only our drinks. We reluctantly paid and left. Later that evening my mum was extremely ill (70 year old lady with man medical conditions) she could not eat for approximately 2 days after and was exhausted and very dehydrated due to illness. Needless to say we shall never return to this so call restaurant. I hope everyone will read my review and take all of this in to consideration before going to...

Not the nicest dining experience. The food took long to arrive even though the restaurant was not even half full of people.

Then pizza marinara came. It was as white as snow. The king prawn was raw so I didn't eat it. Moreover, we had to ask for our daughter's plate as it was completely forgotten

Then a fight started in the kitchen between what I think was the owner and one of the kitchen member.

My husband wanted to order penne instead of spaghetti and it was refused even though there was a table being served penne pasta. The reason given was that the kitchen was too busy.

The waitress spoke unpolitely to people. One time she shushed a client to say what she thought was right.

Well in one word it was a simple big mistake going there. I hope you will be lucky enough to read the bad reviews before hopping in yourself and going through a very disappointing...