Kaiseki — Restaurant in Valletta

A small, cellar-like space with archways and a cosy bar greeting you at the entrance. The restaurant has about 14 tables for two, creating an intimate, tucked-away atmosphere.

There’s also some outdoor seating, though it’s set on a slope, which didn’t feel ideal.

The menu features a creative blend of Asian flavours with Mediterranean influences — an interesting concept that mostly delivers on flavour, though not everything hits the mark.

Drinks Both cocktails we tried were underwhelming. • Kaiseki Sour (Akashi Whiskey, red wine, simple syrup): decent balance, but nothing memorable. • Sasuma: pink gin based with pomegranate was far too sweet — I actually had to dilute it with water to tone it down.

Starters • Pork Gyoza (€14.50) BBQ pork mince with teriyaki, spicy mayo, crispy onion, and spring onion. The gyoza were nicely cooked with good-quality meat and a rich sauce. Four pieces per serving. • Shrimp Dumplings (€15.50) Served with wakame, soy, and sesame dressing. Essentially a twist on har gow — slightly torched exterior adding depth of flavour. Nicely done. • Mushroom Tartlet (€16) Shiitake soy filling with grana and puffed buckwheat. Beautifully presented; flaky pastry and rich mushroom filling made this one of the highlights.

Overall, the starters were the standout dishes, though quite pricey for portion size.

Mains • Rabbit Ravioli Homemade ravioli with rabbit cream jus and aged Maltese pecorino. Five pieces in total — rich, almost caramel-like sauce with lovely crispy pecorino. A well-executed local twist. • Prawn & ’Nduja Mezze Maniche Prawn bisque finished with ’nduja and herb butter. Unfortunately, overly salty despite the prawns being perfectly cooked. With better seasoning, this could’ve been excellent.

The pastas were interesting but unfortunately wasn’t at the same taste mark as the starters and the same price point.

The main: • Iberico Pork Glazed pork with Japanese fried rice, char siu, and fried egg. A very heavy dish — rich, fatty, and slightly dry pork. Even shared between two, it felt overly rich.

Overall Service was attentive and friendly throughout. Ambience is intimate but a bit cramped — you can easily overhear conversations from nearby tables.

Kaiseki has some creative ideas and strong execution on presentation, especially in the starters, but a few dishes (and cocktails) could use refinement to match the concept and...

This was a higly recommended restaurant and to be fair, the seabass was quite good, as well as the complementary bread /focaccia ( butter was average). However, seeing as Malta is an island, we expect the fish to be good and fresh, this is the bare minimum.

What truly shocked us was the entree - a rabbit liver parfait that was obviously off - I'm talking a sour, acidic, fermentation-like taste, alongside a tinge of grey in the parfait. This parfait...smelled. And it tasted even worse than it smelled. Given that this is a health hazard, we were appaled when the waitress tried to suggest that our horror was because we were somehow... inexperienced and had no knowledge of rabbit liver parfait or paté in general -" too strong taste, yes?". No, not a strong taste, but a rotten one. She sheepishly took the plate away from the table when she realised we weren't even touching it anymore and had pushed it to a corner of our table. No one came to apologize, but indeed they took the liver parfair off our bill. This is the bare minimum given that we could have gotten food poisoning from badly handled and spoiled liver! I expect that no restaurant would knowingly serve rotten or dangerous food to its customers ( not to mention the price!), but for a restaurant recommended by the Michelin guide, this occurence is especially shameful. Seeing that it was very apparent from the very first bite that this liver parfait was spoiled and should have never left their kitchen, the fact that the grilled seabass was good is of no consequence. I for one do not like to gamble with my food, and who knows what other dishes could have possibly been spoiled. If at a restaurant you have to guess which food could endanger your health and ruin your holiday, no amount of other "good" options can compensate for that. Something is very wrong when a high-end, Michelin guide sponsored restaurant knowingly serves rotten food. Only gave two stars because they were courteous enough not to charge us for the rotten...

My partner wanted to celebrate his birthday in a Michelin-starred Asian restaurant, and fortunately, we found Kaiseki. When we arrived, the staff seemed a bit tired, which is why they didn’t welcome us warmly. However, as we enjoyed our food, the staff became more pleasant and incredibly accommodating.

We decided to order the tasting menu, which we thought was the best choice for a full course meal. For starters, we had pork gyoza, beef tartare, mushroom ragu, and shrimp dumplings. The mushroom ragu was fantastic – it was the best starter of the four.

For pasta, we chose the mussel risotto. At first, we thought the food was a bit blunt, but it grew on us over time. For mains, we tried the short rib, which was perfect. It was an explosion of flavours, with the sweetness prevailing.

For dessert, we had the coconut tart, which was really good. They even sang happy birthday to my partner, which was a sweet touch.

Overall, the experience was great. One thing I would recommend is their choice of dinnerware. The plates they used were a bit consistent, and I noticed it as I was expecting a more consistent look when the...