The Golden Fork Tasting Experience

We always make our way to The Golden Fork on foot – Rabat is our hometown and when Chef Letizia Vella opened the doors to her brainchild in 2022, we were ecstatic. The crisp air of the North East, urging us to pick up the pace through the back roads of Rabat’s square, the aroma of the 24/7 bakery filling the air, the steeple lights of St Paul’s Basilica adding to the Autumn glow and finally we open the restaurant doors, a festive wreath welcoming guests jovially. 

We’re guided to our table by Ashuma, a familiar face in a restaurant that feels like home to us. “Tasting Menu, right?” I love how it’s become that simple. Our order was sent, a glass of still water poured, while Ashuma placed the Wine List on our table. I browsed through the many pages and selected the Wild Yeast for the night; a Chardonnay with tropical fruits of pineapple – which in hindsight worked excellently throughout the Tasting Menu. 

Today we will focus slightly on the wine, because it’s important. The 2021 Springfield Estate wine is fermented with its natural yeast, which means it’s a more natural approach to winemaking that allows the slow process its time. The process is risky from the underground storage of the barrels, to the technique of vinification they adopt and furthermore the restaurants choice to stock it, store it and serve it. This kind of wine can age up to 4 years so we enjoyed it at the cusp of its prime – and personally, I think it was a big win; showing proper attention to wine storage, which is often overlooked, even in higher end restaurants. 

One of the things we look out for on a bajtra experience is growth. We’ve been following Chef Letizia since opening year 2019, so obviously we’ve seen a worthy amount of development in dishes, concept, menu and accolades to boot; but a good 8 months later, did it continue?

Chef Letizia is adventurous in her cooking, what goes on in that brain I will never exactly know, but the representations on her menu are always cohesively presented. With creative ingredient pairings and manipulations to keep diners intrigued, we watched earlier guests fawn over their meal, as we eagerly awaited the coveted start to a Golden Fork experience. But it never arrived. 

Instead, we were presented with a new experience. First an elevated pani puri that grew in size since the first time I’d met it; with the challenge to eat it in one bite. Challenge accepted (and achieved). Delicious. The pani was filled with a sweet and sour caponata and topped with a fish tartare and pickled, foraged caper leaf. L-ikta tajba? Well on its way. We thought we knew what was next…

A cascade of goose inspired dishes… yes. The iconic foie gras macaron with candied nuts and maybe an ingredient I might have missed before… some sort of blue cheese? An additional foie dish; a sandwich featuring mandarin gel laid on a crisp polenta cake and topped with an ultra thin potato tuile. Fun and exciting in both flavour and texture. But where’s the cigar? Where’s the croissant? From what I can gather, they’re now contenders for the à la carte menu; which is fabulous. Not going to lie, I was slightly jealous, but the pumpkin seed and tallow milk bread was there to lap up my tears. 

Jokes aside, we saw growth, we saw fun, we got a bit messy with the foie sandwich and it’s so, so welcome. Let’s have fun again, come on Chefs! You’re always going to have fun at The Golden Fork with dishes that simply make you smile, even before you taste them. These are the things that make diners come back. That. And flavour of course. 

The octopus course followed and delivered. I was transported to Barcelona. This version saw a coconut milk base that reminded me of a fusion between a romesco and a red thai curry; it was sweet and light, delicate and worked easily with the slow-cooked and charred octopus tentacle. The octopus had a firm bite and inherent octopus character, gamey, nutty, briney and so distinctively a Mediterranean octopus. The char on the outside was smokey and earthy which complimented the entire dish, verbena leaves included. The potato crunch on top, perfect… just don’t let it get wet in the sauce. 

Next up, the seasonal hero… pumpkin. Playfully transformed into a moi moi, seasoned with warm aromatics and topped with an intricately prepped pumpkin tartare that had a slight pickle to it for the well needed acidity. The smooth texture of the moi moi, the bite of the tartare and the freshness of the fig all played together harmoniously. This vegetarian dish is, as I already said, playful… but I think you can take this one a bit further Chef. 

My always favourite course of any meal… the prawn. Malta has the best prawn ever. I will patriotically say this and always believe that, and I hope it never stops delivering on its sweetness, its butteriness. Perfection. And when it’s elevated, and left raw… my heart skips a beat. 

Since the cigar and croissant were missing, I wondered… will it come? As the kitchen bell gently dinged, I watched the overly-large tray bop down the stairs, a pink cloud floating. I smiled and wiggled my toes. “Prawn and scallop tartare with a celeriac ice-cream and finished with a fish soup, served with our… prawn… cracker… made… from… prawn… heads”, life slows down when you’re in utopia. Thank you Chef. 

This was my tax-xewk moment in the tax-xewk experience. This is where I felt the heat of the wasabi and the salt of the soy in the soup, the bitterness of the leaves and petals used for garnish, the buttery sweetness of the prawn and scallop and the umami and texture of the prawn cracker. My tastebuds gently swayed to the tune of Chef Vella’s delicate palate — presented with a touch of fun, once again. 

Next to follow was a fish dish, local and wild golden meagre (gurbel) that offered a crispy yet chewy skin and a moist, fleshy interior. The skin was profoundly full of flavour, a rich oil that wasn’t overly fishy but rather proudly and boldly sea-flavoured. The flesh was lush, tender and delicious. I might even think this fish was prepared sous-vide and then treated right, skin-side down. Whatever you did Chef, this was excellent. 

This fish was served with a white chocolate sauce. Yes… white chocolate. I didn’t get heaps of white chocolate flavour, there were notes of a root vegetable too, perhaps parsnip or celeriac. The pairing was good, but it needed salinity which came from the supplement of caviar. The ideal finish to this creatively put together dish. 

The last savoury segment of the night, lamb. Another new pairing for me, lamb and hazelnut. And by golly was it good. Hold on a moment while I refer to my notes… yeah, the verdict is out… the notes say; and I quote… ‘wow’. This is another reason I like to take it slow on the wine while critiquing, the notes aren't quite as thorough if I’m not vigilant. But ‘wow’ indeed. As the rich and viscous hazelnut cream melted into the perfectly medium lamb loin, I scanned my plate. 

Asymmetrically placed on the plate with contrasting colours making very close friends, a sweet beetroot purée and earthy parsley purée worked their way up plate with a wee potato puff dusted with spinach dividing the plate, followed by a tart onion relish and fire-charred corno di torro; all married together with the umami lamb jus. 

The final note, a sweet one where The Golden Fork’s signature caramelized brioche came out of its cast-iron-shell and took the form of a tal-festa doughnut. It’s not a doughnut, it’s a brioche and it’s served with an espresso ice cream that’s so rich in coffee and a cloud of salted caramel, all intended to be lapped up like a Sicilian sorbet but with a Parisian twist. 

It’s nice watching Chef Letizia grow into the superstar Chef that she already is. Having visited the majority of Malta’s artist-led restaurants, my palate is refining, and it’s nice to see that Chef Letizia’s flavours still give me a challenge, trying to understand hidden flavours, cuisines I’m not so familiar with all the while delivering on consistencies while levelling out with better and new.