Bugibba in St Paul’s Bay is one of the main tourist areas of Malta, many people staying here regularly over the years. As we are here over two months, we are trying lots of different restaurants in the area, and there are certainly many different types of cuisine to choose from.
The House of Spice restaurant looks very small from the outside, but like many Maltese buildings it is narrow and goes back a long way. Serving Indian and Pakistani cuisine, the menu includes many of our favourites we would find in an Indian restaurant in the UK. I tend to try a standard dish such as chicken tikka masala in a new restaurant, but their menu here was so interesting we went for something different.
The manager was really helpful, explaining all the dishes and especially how we could choose how hot we wanted them. We both had a Balti – Les with a medium-hot madras chicken and me with a milder chicken Balti. Add one pilau rice and one garlic naan bread between us, and this was more than enough.
Presented differently from the Balti dishes in UK, which tend to be in an individual wok dish, we had lovely warm plates and the silver bowls of chicken in our chosen sauce, plus a bamboo basket to keep the naan bread warm. Certainly one of the most interesting, spicy but not too hot chicken Baltis for me and Leslie’s madras was one of the tastiest he has had. So, an excellent meal, plenty to eat and good value at around €37 including a beer and soft drink, in very pleasant surroundings. The owner took time to come and chat with us, explaining that he has owned this restaurant for many years. We will visit again before we leave for home.
