Nori at The Villa
Main Street,
Balluta Bay,
St Julian’s
Tel: 2311 2392

Food: 4/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 9/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

I often find myself struggling with perspective. I can’t draw to save my life, but that’s another kind of perspective. I am referring to the way in which I perceive what’s going on around me.

There seems to be much more anger and anxiety than I can ever remember. Most of it appears entirely misplaced from where I stand. I hear complaints about the sheer amount of road repairs, usually followed by an attempt to politicise the matter. Being devoid of a political affiliation I can stand back and ask whether whoever is complaining would rather the roads remain as they were.

If it’s not roadworks it’s the heat, the number of tower cranes visible from anywhere you happen to be standing, or the latest escapades of a public figure. Maybe I should get angry because my perspective is seen by others to be unrealistically matter-of-fact. Stuff happens, I argue, and unless I’m committed to changing it, I can’t see the point in aggravation.

I made this point while sitting on the terrace of Nori at The Villa in Balluta. Seated there, you could be forgiven for thinking that St Julian’s is really pretty. The umbrellas behind you obscure the horrendous hotel so all you can see is the beautiful Villa itself. With that behind you, you can gaze at the beauty of Balluta buildings, the low summerhouses adjacent to it, the church, and all the way to the building that houses Barracuda and the bay itself.

Of course, the horrors that are Sliema and St Julian’s remain. I just can’t see them from here. What we could see was the repairs that are happening all along the coastline and the mayhem that they cause to passing-by traffic. But repairs have to happen. After they’re done, we’re usually glad for them.

We had the terrace to ourselves. I was sat there with another hungry gourmand who is one of the best cooks I know. He was telling me all about what he’d eaten in Italy over the weekend and this was helping us work up quite an appetite. Like most other people I know, he’s upset at the general state of affairs and would like his children to be brought up in a country that’s civilised. Change the bits you have control over, I suggested.

There were three people taking care of the terrace while we were there and, by the time we’d left, we were the only two patrons during lunch service that day. When we sat we wondered why we were there alone. The location is pretty idyllic.

For as much as we hate this poor, little nation, we must appreciate that sitting in the shade, with a cool breeze to keep us comfortable, and a pretty view, is something you don’t get in many of the countries we look up to as more civilised. I said I’d been before and had been disappointed at the food but delighted by the service so that could be a reason.

The first time I visited was on a busy weekend night. The restaurant was packed to capacity. The young man who served us was exemplary. Hurried as he must have been, he never let this affect the attention he gave us. When he’d taken our orders, he explained that the restaurant had filled up completely within a very short time so the kitchen was handling all the orders practically simultaneously. He apologised in advance for a possible wait and helped us to order drinks.

Throughout the night, he was there for us and it reminded me of a slightly less formal version of the service we’d been treated to at Taro, the other restaurant in The Villa. The food was poor by most standards. Admittedly, the food is priced very keenly so, even if we hadn’t really enjoyed it, we overlooked the smaller issues because the location, service, and price were hard to fault.

I felt apologetic for having suggested the place

The steamed pork and lemongrass gyoza were decent but nothing to write home about. Confit tuna bao buns were the kind of food you bite into and immediately regret. I attempted to cleanse my palate with the Samurai cocktail I’d ordered and, wonderful as Nori’s cocktails are, it did little to remove the taste. Fish tempura is everything but tempura – the batter is thick and oily and there is no tempura sauce to dip in so it’s like biting into oily batter. We’d enjoyed being served well and the cool evening by the bay but figured that the busy kitchen couldn’t handle the volume and food had suffered as a result.

This time, I had higher hopes. We quite literally had the kitchen to ourselves and had time for a leisurely lunch so I was hoping for a meal we’d enjoy. We picked three items from the menu for us to share. The menu is a foray across Asian food that sounds interesting, if a little ambitious in terms of spread. There’s Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian, and combinations of all of these.

We picked beef skewers with hoisin, pulled pork chai siu bao buns, and lamb rogan josh. While we both wished for a bottle of wine, we had some actual adulting left to do in the afternoon and neither of us acts like an adult after we’ve started the slippery slope that the first bottle of wine inevitably points us at.

Once again, service was polite and helpful. And in the case of lunch, food was served quite quickly. We started with the skewers. There was no hoisin and the beef was tough and hardly worth the effort so there it stayed. We then moved to the curry. As curry goes, it is pretty standard fare. As my partner in crime said, it was like the stuff you pour out of a jar and he wasn’t quite amused. It’s served with rice, pitta (even if they call it naan on the menu) and poppadum.

The bao buns were served last and with them were three little bowls of sauce. One of them was hoisin and I guessed we could have dipped the beef skewers in them but there was little point. The other two were a lively coriander sauce and a chilli mayo.

The bao buns are baked in so much oil they might as well have been deep-fried. They could possibly have been but I can’t see anyone perform this abomination. They’re just about decent, particularly when dipped in enough of the coriander sauce or hoisin.

I felt apologetic for having suggested the place. I was so impressed by Taro that I somehow expected the same level of cooking, only at a keener price point and a significantly less formal setting. Nori has all the makings of the kind of restaurant I’d book well in advance, clearing the afternoon and enjoying myself on the terrace with lovely nibbles, their decadent cocktails, and impeccable service.

Alas, I can’t see this happening. I rarely say this about a restaurant but the menu or the kitchen need to be rethought. It is a matter of seeing the place for what it is – a restaurant terrace that has all the makings of what island living is all about. It can be the kind of place that causes us to forget all the anxiety that the chaos outside causes, offering temporary escape from the reality we love to hate. As things stand, I won’t be returning until I hear that there’s a really good reason to give it a third go.