Leglinin

I always try to pick out a restaurant for the day when we arrive in a new country. This takes the pressure off trying to find a place to eat, on top of settling in. I had read great reviews about Legligin, located at 117/119 Santa Lucia Street. A bonus was that it was only a 4-minute walk from our hotel.

Legligin is a charming wine bar that serves food.

It's a small place with just a few tables--I recommend reserving ahead. After booking our hotel in Valletta, I messaged our hotel to make a reservation for us.

Every place setting is different--part of the charm.

They offer a tasting menu for €35, which includes 6-9 dishes of traditional Maltese and Mediterranean specialties. There is a set menu and it's the only thing they serve. Wine is extra.

We chose a bottle of Fenici White--€12. This was quite good and paired well with our dinner.

To start, we had fish soup with vegetables and rice. It was a very rich sea bream broth and so good.

Next, came a variety of appetizers: caponata, ricotta cheese with fig jam, pork sausage, aljoli (sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, olives, anchovies and caper mix) and black olives. This was a nice variety and all were tasty.

Pistachio lasagne with Bechamel sauce came next.

The next course was sea bream, cabbage slaw and fish cakes.

Mussels with garlic and white wine cream sauce--this was one of our favorites for the evening.

Aubergine and zucchini parmigiana.

Rabbit in wine sauce, served with potatoes & fennel. Rabbit is a typical Maltese dish. We tried it a variety of ways during our stay in Malta and the wine sauce at Leglinin was one of the best.

Dessert is extra. After we finished our meal, we didn't have room for dessert so we didn't order it. They did serve complimentary limoncello.

Overall, it was a great dinner. I highly recommend eating here when you're in Valletta.

Most people don't drink the tap water in Malta. It's safe to drink but it's high in chloride and sodium, giving it an off taste. A liter of bottled water was €3.50 (steep considering 2 liter of water in the grocery store is €0.30-0.50)

Tipping is not expected if service is included in the bill..

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