The Little Bastion — Restaurant in Senglea

Three of us visited Hammet's Macina on a Monday evening. It wasn't very busy at the time with just one other (large) table of diners.

The first thing you may notice when entering is an amazing 'chandelier' made of shining brass trumpets!

The atmosphere was good - it's a well heated space (worth noting during a wet, Maltese winter) playing easy going, popular jazz c. 1920's - 1940's which isn't too loud or intrusive and I personally found it highly enjoyable.

The staff were human, friendly, well versed in the menu and extremely helpful in explaining the menu and portion sizes. I would say that our waitress, Marion, is an asset to the operation, for in some establishments of this ilk, one could be forgiven for believing the staff have rods inserted where the sun doesn't shine, preventing them from either ability or inclination to take an interest in their diners.

If you are seeking a meal with plates piled high, this isn't for you. It's more refined with smaller dishes to which you can add accompaniments such as French beans.

The other two diners had three dishes each, whereas I had two dishes. This overlap was handled well; we all received our final dish together.

Firstly I had braised pork belly - executed very well, it was tasty, not too fatty and the skin had been cooked to perfection. It came with some small cheffy garnish which enhanced the dish.

This was followed by grass fed fillet of beef. Requested medium/rare but arrived closer to medium. This didn't spoil it for me, the meat was insanely tasty and well worth taking time to enjoy. I would say the mashed potato that came with it was small and cold, not even warm - as it wasn't the star of the plate, it wasn't an issue for me. That said, it was incredibly tasty.

The toilets are clean and daft as it sounds, well worth visiting.

If you're a foodie - I'd highly recommend this restaurant. It gives a wonderful experience and is in a lovely setting, with the restaurant facing moored yachts.

For me, two courses was enough. I was sated and very happy.

The two other people in my party also enjoyed it very much.

I do hope this restaurant survives the curse of good restaurants which fail in Malta. It was a memorable meal and a lovely experience.

Thank you to the front of house and...

We've had our first trip abroad for a while and also our first trip to Malta has meant we've been lucky enough to stay in the Cugo Gran Macina hotel which has the Hammett's Macina restaurant attached. We stayed in Valletta for our first night which was a slight disappointment in that the food offerings seem to be either high-end and not available if you haven't booked in advance or plastic menu/ happy hour outlets with nothing to recommend them. Our next three nights have been spent at the Macina and the restaurant has proved to be so good that after eating there the first night we immediately booked the following two evenings.... The staff are excellent- friendly and informative- but allowing us plenty of time to decide what we wanted to eat. As pescatarian eaters the menu was perfect for us with the emphasis on vegetable dishes which are both fantastic taste-wise but also, and particularly in the context of the quality of the adjacent hotel and Malta in general, incredibly well priced. Our average spend has been about €90 for two people with drinks with a main dish being €10-15. The idea is you share dishes so a selection of various starters and mains together with seasonal sides are brought to the table ( in an order to suit your pace of eating) and the desserts follow when you're ready. The roasted cauliflower is a thing of beauty- I would defy even the most dedicated carnivore to deny it's appeal and the cuttlefish tagliatelle- where the the fish us itself the 'tagliatelle ' is simply amazing. I can only hope that Mr. Hammett and his team decide they need to open a restaurant in the UK fairly soon and that somewhere in Cheshire would be a good place to...

This is apparently a fine dining restaurant and we booked lunch here for our anniversary, but had an awful experience here.

The restaurant is not COVID safe. They had a big birthday party next to our table without social distancing. This breaks the Covid rule in the first place of no group over 6 to dine-in. The group were running around without masks, making big noises, moving other tables around to take pictures etc. for the entire time. The staff did nothing about it knowing they were clearly disturbing every other table. The waitress even helped the group moving furniture around us so they can pose around the restaurant for photos. We had to move to another table half way during our meal. Nobody came and apologised for our disturbed anniversary meal.

When several guests including ourselves expressed concerns, the staff did nothing still. One female waitress’s attitude was especially disappointing and basically said to us the party group is more important. This is a ridiculous response given how other guests’ experience have been disrupted. What they did suggested one table of guests is more important than everyone other guest and can have special treatment, just because they are a big group and spent more?!

Food was very average and overpriced for what it is.

The bottom line is: if you can’t run a responsible business sticking to covid prevention procedures, respect all guests and treat everyone equally, you should not be open...