This popular bistro and bar has been firmly established as a prime meeting place for many years now. Very conveniently and centrally located on the Gzira seafront, close to the Manoel Island bridge, it has a large and loyal following of drinkers, lunchers and diners and also generally serves as a meeting place throughout the day and evening. Its setting, style, easy but varied menu and continuous service throughout the day, ticks all the boxes for a large crown of people, who have long made it their favourite haunt.
One of its many appealing features are the private and intimate booths at the back, which seat four people and are ideal to combine a quiet chat with a quick bite and a drink. This was our intention when friends and partners in crime Romina Balzan Sultana, Jeremy Lanfranco as well as Maria Bonello Permina and myself, met there to discuss world peace and other such trivial matters, in the relative privacy away from any possible spies, journalists and assorted paparazzis who might have otherwise regonised anyone of our eminent party.
The service was thankfully excellent and the perfect balance of efficiency, friendliness, attention and care. This had been our only gripe with this establishment in the past. However if this last lunch is now typical of the way customers are treated, they have truly registered a massive improvement.
Jeremy and myself both had the Jubilee Special pasta, which is a very rich and creamy mix of mushrooms, pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes with loads of cream and was lovely, if you are after such a hearty, creamy dish. Maria had a grilled calamari salad with rucola and kidney beans which she also enjoyed. And as Romina decided to play healthy and trendy, she had a quinoa salad served with cherry tomatoes, beans and cucumber, which she too found most satisfactory and whose only passing comment was that visually it lacked a bit of colour. However frankly that could have been said about any one of us there.
As Jeremy is an extremely disciplined fellow and exceedingly restrained in all matters alcoholic, he claimed only to drink on special occasions, which this clearly was not. So he simply stuck to water. On the other hand the girls easily downed a couple of bottles of Ernesto Picollo Gavi di Gavi, admittedly with no small help from myself. The wine proved to be very acceptable and a good choice to accompany an informal meal and a fun discussion, especially by the end of the second bottle, by when I was certain that all my opinions were right.
A couple of coffees and a reasonable bill later, we all parted, happy with our choice, which was in fact Jeremy’s. Cafe Jubilee is indeed a useful and easy choice for so many occasions, even if not deemed special enough to drink wine with you friends.