When Malta’s restaurant lobby complained about stuttering sales, it most likely braced itself for some gusts of public blowback.

Instead, they sparked a veritable hurricane of criticism.

A Times of Malta article about restaurateurs being worried by a poor start to the holiday season prompted widespread anger among the public at large, with hundreds of comments accusing caterers of having sown the seeds of their own demise.

“It’s their own greed, most of them are digging their own graves,” one commenter wrote. “They increased their prices and lowered their standards.”

High prices

The observation reflected much of the criticism directed restaurants’ way.

“You cannot expect people to pay between €15 and €18 for a pasta dish,” one woman noted. Another said she could “feed a family of four with the same quality of ribeye steak for what restaurateurs charge for one person (minus the traffic)”.

Similar comments abounded, with restaurants’ pasta prices seeming to have struck a particular nerve.

“Can someone enlighten me how an aglio, olio and peperoncino pasta dish is served at €17 for a 125/150grams portion,” one reader asked. “That's greed not inflation.”

Another concurred. “A bottle of wine which costs €6.50 is sold at €18.50. Meat which costs €34 per kilo is sold at €34 per 250 grams. Have a reasonable profit and sales will return.”

Restaurant prices have risen so much that it is now cheaper to eat out in major European cities, many argued, as others drew unfavourable comparisons to neighbouring Sicily.

“I can go up to Sicily for one night in a B&B, have a great meal and still have spare change,” when compared to the price of a local meal, one claimed.

The anger was encapsulated in one commenter’s sarcastic suggestion to Malta’s worried restaurateurs: “you should keep raising prices to attract more customers”.

Poor service

While many pressed home their concerns about exorbitant restaurant prices, others made it clear that a major gripe was with declining restaurant standards.

“The problem with Maltese restaurants is that they all think they’re Michelin star,” one man wrote, echoing veiled criticism made by Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo.

“Asked the foreign waiter what was the item he was serving. His answer: I don’t know sir. Very professional from a five-star hotel,” another complained.

“The service they offer is crap,” one diner wrote of local restaurants. “Most of the time staff are not properly trained. Sorry but the restaurants have to get their act together, and hire proper staff.”

Rising rental costs

Some got their point across without directly attacking restaurants or their owners – though they were in a distinct minority.

“If you want to travel (or save up for something else) , the first thing you have to cut down on is eating out . People are prioritising how to spend their money. Can you blame them?” asked one.

“This is happening in a lot of places,” another wrote of the drop in restaurant spending. “We actually had a conversation with a restaurant owner yesterday - close to Milan. The tables are still booked but people are more weary [sic] of how much they are spending.”

A handful of others argued that skyrocketing rental prices were the root cause of menu price inflation: restaurant owners were signing their own death warrants by entering into leasing agreements they could not hope to cover without blowing up their prices, they said.

A measure of sympathy

And buried within the literally hundreds of comments that came down on restaurant owners like a ton of bricks were a couple that expressed sympathy for the ACE’s calls for government help.

“Everywhere in Europe, VAT on food is 7% or less. Here it is 18%! Remove that, regularise prices and things will get better for both sides,” one man argued.

“The poor restaurant owner has to pay higher rent, employees, tax, VAT, fixed costs and put up with the chef. Then he or she needs to make a profit when competing with ‘take away’ low-priced local food which is just as good,” another wrote, calling for government help for owners.

And for one reader, the restaurant lobby’s claims of a dire holiday season did not add up.

“Yesterday I called around 10 restaurants in Valletta to book a table for NYE. All fully booked and all with an average set menu of €70 per person and some having two seatings,” he wrote.