Going to Valletta in the middle of Summer is one of the things I hate most. So a little trick I have learned to cheer myself up when I really have to go, is to combine any pressing errands with a nice lunch. And as we all know the dining options in Valletta are now truly endless, so we are truly spoilt for choice.

The Harbour Club is one restaurant we have been wanting to try out for a while now and as we were not too keen to select a relatively cooped up indoor establishment, right in the middle of town, this proved to be the right location, being right down across the road from the waters of the Grand Harbour.

The views are absolutely stunning, with an open vista of the harbour and the fortifications and towns just across the water. Being lunch time however, we did find it a bit too busy and hectic from a traffic point of view, as never ending vehicles were constantly buzzing around us at close range and on both sides of us, the restaurant terrace being wedged right between the main waterfront road and the street leading down from Victoria Gate.

There was also a fairly large table right next to us with one screeching girl there who just wouldn’t shut up and insisted on shrieking out every word at top volume throughout the meal. I did everything to wish on her a quick silencing death by asphyxiation, hoping that every morsel of food she managed to swallow in mid sentence would permanently lodge itself in her nasty windpipe and choke her to sweet death. But alas my voodoo was not potent enough. But then again this is naturally no fault of the establishment.

I must also congratulate the restaurant’s efficient handling of our booking, which I ended up changing three times that same morning, out of pure disorganisation, carelessness and poor planning, entirely on my side. Upon each successive amendment I never failed to receive back unequivocal ‘no problem’s’ and ‘you’re most welcome’s’, a sign of excellent customer care.

We went straight onto the wine and as we’ve already drunk enough sauvignon blanc this Summer to open a small factory, I decided it was high time to vary a bit. The wine list had an adequate choice of labels, so we went for an Australian McGuigan Signature chardonnay, which was soft, round and smooth and perfectly fine. I couldn’t help thinking to myself how we are all led by fashion even in our choice of wine. Until a few years back it was all about chardonnay, while today everyone has switched to sauvignon blanc, although the chardonnay hasn’t gotten any worse really, and is still perfectly enjoyable,

They have a relatively restricted, but very attractive and well drawn out menu, which in spite of its conciseness still offers sufficient choice. I must have subconsciously been in a beefy mood which is very rare, as I instinctively went for the Angus beef tartar followed by a ribeye, while Maria went for mozzarella with aubergines followed by a brown meagre (gurbell).

I simply adore a good beef tartar and also enjoy mixing myself the various accompanying ingredients, usually consisting of shallots, capers, gherkins, raw egg and often several others, adding them to my exact taste. So when it arrived as a premixed slab I must admit I was a bit disappointed. But I am very happy to say that every single ounce or should I say milligram of disappointment instantly vanished the moment I tasted this absolutely divine rendition of a beef tartar. It was truly excellent in every respect and for those who are not over familiar with tartars believe it or not it is not an easy task to prepare a perfect one, as they undoubtedly managed here.

It was prepared with delicious black Angus and was perfectly seasoned with very finely chopped shallots and capers giving it a momentous flavour. And probably the most important factor of all in any tartar is the way the raw meat is actually chopped by hand, definitely never minced, and this was chopped to perfection. It was also served with a smearing of parmesan cream on the side, which deliciously continued adding even more strong flavours to an already glorious dish.

Maria’s mozzarella di bufala with grilled aubergines, smoked aubergine puree and basil dressing also proved to be excellent in every respect. The mozzarella was truly scrumptious and of exceedingly good quality and the entire dish was made up exclusively of very tasty items and was very well composed.

After such impressive starters I often tend to become a bit wary and somehow seem to expect a bit of a letdown with the mains. I find that in so many restaurants the starters are so much tastier and more interesting that I occasionally order another, or sometimes even two, starters instead of a main course.

Luckily this was not the case at The Harbour Club. My Irish ribeye was nothing short of excellent. As may be seen by my choice of starter, I love my meat raw and in the case of several cuts such as fillet I always have it blue. But with cuts having more marbling it usually makes more sense to slightly increase the cooking time, so as to dissolve the fat. So I normally ask for a ribeye to be served rare. This was cooked exactly the way I expect a rare steak to be, perfectly pink throughout and although not rawish as in blue, just about barely cooked at all inside. It was also very tasty and exquisitely seasoned on the outside and topped with a lovely herb butter.

Maria’s brown meagre was first pan sealed, then oven baked. It was topped with almonds and lemon and served on a bed of potato puree. Well astoundingly enough this dish too was simply superb. It was produced to a lovely smooth and velvety texture with fine, delicate wholesome flavours which didn’t fail to impress. An overall lovely fish dish indeed.

More often than not we tend to skip desserts these days. However when having such excellent food then we are naturally tempted to continue the meal for as long as it can possibly last. In this case we compromised and had just one to share, which was a blueberry sorbet, which yet again was delicious. It was dark and intense and creamy and smooth and simply a delight to eat.

So what can I say… top marks for the food. Every single dish we had without exception was excellent and irreproachable.

So I suppose that just leaves the service. And the service wasn’t bad as such, it was just a bit shabby and needs to be smartened up a notch or two. There were three members of staff who served us in all and they were all perfectly friendly and pleasant, even to the extent of being perhaps ever so slightly over friendly, but not efficient enough. I think that they need to decide on the desired feel and slant of the place. Do they want to portray this as a top eatery? Because they certainly have the quality of food to do so. Or more of an informal unceremonious and unpretentious laid back attitude, which was largely practiced by the staff during our meal?

We couldn’t help noticing that one server addressed us and all other clients as ‘guys’, as in ‘hi guys’, ‘ready to order guys’, etc. which to be perfectly honest doesn’t even shock me these days and has become virtually the norm in casual diners. But the only pity is that this place could be so much more. Similarly the movements and the actions and the basics were all there, in the form of nicely designed crockery and cutlery and tableware, elegant ice buckets and glasses, but then surprising enough all of this was sustained with barely bistro style service.

Our wine was never served except for he first glass, and although pouring our own wine is really something I actually enjoy, it is obviously something one would expect at a certain level of establishment. Clearing was slow, as was most of the service throughout. I somehow managed to drop two pieces of cutlery during the meal and nobody bothered to move. It was really a question of a lot of friendless with absolutely no attentiveness, we were served and then left entirely to our own resources. Nobody asked whether we were enjoying our meal either. So this is about as great a divergence between food and service as you could imagine within an establishment.

My last small somewhat amusing observation concerns the toilet. So as to enter and exit this facility you have to walk over an underfoot grill out of which gushes out the hottest and strongest jet of air I have ever encountered. So ladies do not go to Harbour Club wearing a skirt!