Guzé — Restaurant in Valletta

On the 31st of december we had the NYE menu in Guzé Bistro. We chose this restaurant because it had good reviews and the menu offered interesting vegetarian options (a rarity in Valletta). The pros: Very nice atmosphere, cosy, music at a good volume. Friendly and proactive waiters.

The cons: The portions were too small, especially the vegetarian dish. We were still a bit hungry afterwards. The expectations we had when reading the menu didn't entirely come true. The amuse looked nice, but only the tuna tasted great. The jellies (gin tonic, campari jus) tasted quite bad, but then again to make the eating of a lump of gelatine a nice experience is almost impossible. The main course with three kinds of pig was good, the one with the sirloin mediocre (not warm enough and nothing different from your usual steak), the vegeterian tarte tatin wasn't a tarte tatin (baked upside down) and too small for a main dish. In the desert with dark chocolate, blood orange and caramel we couldn't spot the dark chocolate (or maybe the Maltese dark chocolate is equivalent to our Dutch milk chocolate?) nor the blood orange. All in all the food wasn't really bad, but it wasn't very special either. Price/value ratio was far too high. The price of the menu was 70 euros a person. Add a bottle of wine and some water to that and you pay around 80 euros p.p. We couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed afterwards and got the impression that the price we paid was mostly for the opportunity to sit inside on NYE in a restaurant in Valletta (most restaurants only had outdoor seating), because in our opinion the menu was a clear example of form over substance.

Conclusion: Ambiance: + Service: + Food:...

Very good. I personally rate creative endeavours on a 3 star scale.

1 star means I would not recommend.

2 stars. I would recommend to a fan of the genre. No major issues, but in a vast and varied world, there is little reason to return to this. If you know that you like this kind of thing, you certainly won't be disappointed, but you won't be surprised.

3 stars. You ought to try this. Regardless of your personal taste, this is something I personally think you should try. I would be surprised if you regret it.

Guzé is the epitome of a three star restaurant. The food is excellent. Ingredients are local. Staff are impeccably attentive without being intrusive. The chef clearly enjoys creating a menu and balancing flavours - to the point that our table didn't have salt and pepper. I didn't want them - although a neighbouring table did and staff had them readily to hand within a second.

There is a unity of location, intent, ingredient and process here that is sadly all too uncommon.

We had initially set out from our hotel to go to another (online recommended) restaurant when we passed by the upper window in which we saw the menu and through which we saw the chefs working. We immediately thought that this looked good, but we walked on anyway.

Eventually we reached the other restaurant, looked thorough their window, and on instinct decided to turn back towards Guzé.

I'm feeling real smug about that right now.

In case it's not clear this is the best meal we had in Malta by quite a...

We visited Guze nearly a week ago today. While the food was very good, unfortunately a number of service setbacks marred the experience. I did not mention anything on the night as I did not want to upset the people I was with.

I had informed the restaurant that we would be celebrating my dad's birthday on the day a week before the occasion, so I was expecting the service to reflect this, but sadly, it did not: We were not asked if we had any allergies, which as far as I know, is standard practice Our table was sandwiched between the bar and the toilet, with staff members walking past us every few minutes, and whiffs of mould from the bathroom reaching our table. The menu claimed it's from Summer, despite it being January We asked for pepper and were informed that this was unavailable (!) My mother's main dish, the fish, was miniscule in size (but tasted good) Our table was not cleaned after we finished our main meal, before dessert, so we had scraps of food which had fallen off plates present till we left the restaurant. My father's dessert arrived without a sparkler, and the waiter simply informed us that the restaurant had run out. I was quite disappointed as this meant we did not create a memorable moment for my father.

All in all, it seems Guze is suitable for a casual meal for two but less so for larger groups of people celebrating a...