Aalto Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Qrendi

After visiting this restaurant for the first time yesterday, I have to say I'm extremely pleased.

With this restaurant being quite new, they managed to get virtually everything right.

The service is really good, not perfect although I tend to be quite meticulous about everything, but to a point that if one waiter misses something there's a second that will correct anything within seconds, which I find great in any regard.

The food is amazing. They also have a bites section in case you don't want to order a normal starter which I find great since I myself don't like to have a bigger dish before my main as I don't eat large portions.

Their cured fish is amazing as a bite entry, as well as the Fish and Crab muffins which I personally tried. Those at my table also loved the Wild board cheese puffs as well as the lemon arancini.

For the mains I personally had the braised pork neck loin and although I'm quite picky, I can't complain about anything. The portion was well sized and the taste was extremely good.

We also had two people share a Black Bream, which was cooked "al sale" and turned out amazing, again I was super happy with the portion size. Whereas some restaurants normally give you a specific portion when they do fish, I could tell that the whole fish was scraped clean off the bone and served in this case.

The last person on my table had a Black Spot Bream which was also perfectly cooked and melts in your mouth.

We also all had a selection of sides we got to choose which were also perfectly paired with our dishes.

Overall, I'd say as a restaurant I'd definitely recommend someone to try it out. It's definitely on the pricier side and a little bit short of fine dining service. However, the food definitely doesn't disappoint and I'd...

The best thing about Aalto is the decor but everything else was hugely disappointing. The service is erratic and slow. An indication of what to expect was when we ordered three gin and tonics, they took forever and then only two arrived. The rather over enthusiastic waiter told us everything, including the bread, was homemade so we had great expectations. Once we had ordered it was about an hour before some bread arrived. Our starters were badly explained. Swordfish capaccio was actually swordfish tartar. It was ordinary, it wasn't even accompanied by a slice of lemon. We ordered one big baked fish baked for the six of us. Eventually the over enthusiastic waiter showed us our fish and said he would portion it for us. He disappeared for about 40 minutes, when the fish returned it had grill marks on it like it had been undercooked so they cooked it in a grill.pan. According to the menu, all main courses are accompanied by potatoes. We were given one small bowl of chips to share between the six of us (roughly two chips per person). We asked for more. Two more bowls eventually arrived. The desserts were uninspired and did not match the description on the menu. The bill was exorbitant. The fish for six was €210 and they actually charged us for the extra chips. I will not be back and will not recommend...

This is hands down the best restaurant in the South region, in one of the best locations on the island! Very nice and welcoming experience while dining at Aalto.

It was not easy to pick just 1 starter and 1 main course off this menu. Everything seemed divine but in the end, I went with the arancini bites to start, followed by wild boar gnocchi and I was not disappointed. For the main course I opted for the beef ribs from their ‘Specials’ menu, paired with a bottle of Schola Sarmenti ‘Critera’ Primitivo. The food was cooked to perfection, and plated so beautifully. Though I had to steal a taste of the sirloin!

Although I was so full by the end, I couldn’t pass on the dessert. Sure enough, the lemon fondant was the perfect ending to a perfect evening!

Overall, wonderful experience. Very well served by Kurt and his team.

Definitely returning to try the rest of this flavorful, mouthwatering menu.

MASSIVE SHOUTOUT TO THE BAKERY, the bread was just perfect, along with the in-house tomato and dates paste, olive paste and...