Storie & Sapori - Gzira - Malta — Restaurant in Gżira

At first: Go to Storie e Sapori (Sliema); open the Menu, go to pasta page… you will find “linguine ai Furti di mare” then… go on AI and ask for translation! It is not a mistake…it is exactly this. Why am I telling this to you? Here’s what happened… We sit outside, we are ready to order and the waiter tells us there’s the chance to eat linguine pasta with crab… Ok, nice! Why not?! Price for the pasta out of Menu? 26€! So let’s take two octopus starters (two too xtrasmall octopus starters) to share in 3 meanwhile we wait for the pasta. Then, we eat linguine with crab (I had been in Malta twelve times, even in this restaurant the past years, crabs in Malta are like Ice in the Alps, it’s not a rare specialty, you can step on crabs wherever and whenever you go swimming), Plus we drink this very classic and “highly recommendend” Falanghina white wine (8€ at the market… WOW… excellent vintage). Then, let’s pay! We go for the bill at the desk and they give us 44€ bill for another table… let’s inform them there’s a mistake… our order was for crab, the wine and the octopus (It’s our first day of holiday, so we suppose to be kind and happy people). “Yes, sorry guys… Your bill is this!” (See the pictures please) Probably the “fresh local Crab” was “not fished, but came to the restaurant with the flight” from Sardinia… the only one explicable reason why we had to pay a different price of €37,50 p.p. The unexpected charge of price had a big “effect” On us… and Certainly even on the waiters, sooo professional! We were totally disappointed for what happened, we were cheated by these guys in the island we considered the best in the Mediterranean sea for long time… We were so terrorized that everyday after this dinner we went out for lunch/dinner around checking and comparing and took pictures at prices of the menu and extras every place we went! The answer of the owner? It was just… “C’mon guys… it’s not our fault, I will offer you Limoncello and you can drink from the bottle”…please man, put that bottle you know where! ….“In the dark cellar!”

Wait wait wait… It’s not finished!

A few days later, with a nice pair of sunglasses and a hat, our friend decided to go there again and order a pasta out of Menu with fresh fish! But, this time, he decided to record the waiter at the moment he said “The price of this pasta is 26€!” Guess what? When he went to the desk for the bill… the value pasta with fish “increased” (like precious metals) and the fish “get some weight more” during the preparation of the dish for a total of 38€. My friend played the recording in front of them and said “You didn’t even recognize me… this sounds like a habit for you guys… but not this time… take this 26€ and bye!”

If there had been 0 stars, it would have been my choice!

Bye bye Storie&Sapori, wish you to be a...

Please read. Disappointed. Visited this restaurant many times before the refurbishment and really gave it so much credit for its authenticity and how good the food was. I wanted to show my friend this place for their pasta. Obviously being aware of how authentic it is their is a language barrier with that but overall never had much issue with communication.

I do understand a few Italian words, but I can not speak it back. However, you did not need to speak the same language to understand the hostility of the restaurants staff at the presence of myself who is not Italian, their menu may be similar but my gnocchi was prepared differently, the carbonara which my friend ordered found to be too salty for her taste, weather it’s meant to be like that or not the dish was overbearing to say the least and hardly should be classed as consumable by any standard.

The overall attitude of the staff during this intervention was almost careless and very hostile, the front of house waiter literally had an almost a tantrum after my friend expressed politely she didn’t want the dish remade honestly, almost confrontational with his wording and kept repeating himself in a mimicking way. And actually cursed at her In Italian. All in all ruined my experience and my friends last night visit, as A compromise they removed a percentage off the bill but I can say that was the only good...

Today January 9th was at least my fourth time here. What a disappointment it was! Two of us ordered the mixed fish and seafood platter to share. It was less than half of what we had had previously. No octopus or squid. We had a prawn each, and it was in two pieces to look more on the plate. The swordfish was bone with a morsel of meat on it. As to the accompaniments, the salad consisted of just the garnish on the platter. The fries were obviously yesterday's leftovers, refrigerated and reheated under a warming lamp; they were lukewarm and soggy. When the waitress asked us if everything was fine and we mentioned it was not as good as last time, she merely answered 'Yes?'. Later, when we paid the bill, we were asked again if everything had been to our liking. The man taking our card replied that he had nothing do with the kitchen. At €55 this platter was not exactly dirt cheap. Last time we could hardly finish the food, but today we ran home for something more to eat. The place is conveniently near, and I am sorry to have to take it off...