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terrible service, I will never go there again!
Trattoria Cardini opens in Sliema
Joseph and Natalie Bondin have just opened Trattoria Cardini in Sliema, their second restaurant after the success of Don Berto at the Vittoriosa Waterfront.
The owners of Trattoria Cardini, Architect Joseph Bondin (fifth from left) and his wife Nathalie (third from left) with their sons Jean Karl (left) and Norbert (right) and their two top managers Jeffrey Grech (centre) and Maria Elsworth
Inspired by the creator of the Caesar Salad, Trattoria Cardini is named after Cesare Cardini. An Italian who emigrated from the Lago Maggiore area to the United States after World War I, Cardini Salad is a signature item on the Trattoria Cardini menu, along with several other items aimed primarily at the health-conscious, who work out and watch what they eat.
Situated on Tower Road, Sliema, opposite the Fortizza, Trattoria Cardini, which has just opened, seats 170 people, 40 on the outdoor terrace, in a 200m2 open plan layout that bears the design input of Pippa Toledo.
The owners, architect Joseph Bondin and his wife Nathalie, had been looking for a second outlet in the northern part of the island to complement their first restaurant, Don Berto, at the Vittoriosa Waterfront, for quite some time.
"We got the opportunity to acquire the former Marianna's Tex Mex last year and I immediately fell in love with the place, the location, and could already visualise it as a different place to what it was," Bondin said.
Both Don Berto and Trattoria Cardini are managed by Jeffrey Grech. He will be assisted at Trattoria Cardini by Maria Elsworth, with the previous sous chef of Don Berto, Jean-Paul Schembri, now promoted to Head Chef at Trattoria Cardini.
Trattoria Cardini has a full à la carte menu of Italian and Mediterranean cuisine that will be served at lunch and dinner seven days a week, as well as a snack menu that will be available at lunch and in the afternoon. There will be an emphasis on fresh local products, including fish, and apart from the signature items on the menu, specials will also be offered according to guests' preferences.
Similarly, the wine list has been carefully chosen by a qualified sommelier, with over 110 wines on offer, with the local wines supplied by Marsovin and the foreign wines supplied by Attard & Co., among others.
Trattoria Cardini is open from 10.30 am, with last orders taken at 11pm, except on Saturdays when last orders are taken at midnight. Guests will be offered free parking in the car park in High Street, Sliema, just 400 m away.
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Terrible service - went there twice, both times the starters took from 40 to 45 mins to arrive and the main took more than an hour! Minding the scarce number of people in the trattoria this level of service is intolerable and simply the worst I have had in Malta.
Second time I ordered a salmon pene, got a salmon fillet instead (after waiting for 1hr) and the fish was raw on the inside.
I would never go to this place again and will not recommend it to anyone - the management is absolutely ridiculous - it does not take a mediocre interior design only to run a restaurant but also a great timing, good food and impeccable service of which Cardini has none. - SIMPLY NOT WORTH GOING
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"Similarly, the wine list has been carefully chosen by a qualified sommelier, with over 110 wines on offer, with the local wines supplied by Marsovin and the foreign wines supplied by Attard & Co., among others."
As a wine enthusiast, when will restaurants, especially new ones, invest into offering a varied selection of wines. In most places wine lists are dominated by 2 to 3 agents and they are all very similar. It so nice to explore new wines and there is so much on the market, but these so called qualified sommeliers are very stereotype in creating their lists. Then to add insult to injury, the wine waiters/waitresses have no clue about the wines on the list. This was my experience from Trattoria Cardini - and hence will never go again as their wine list is just like many others - BORING.
