Smoke-free restaurants - more good news

We have received more letters worth sharing on this issue:

We read with interest your letter requesting information on restaurants that provide non-smoking areas. We can offer you a guide to locating these restaurants in The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants sponsored by Vodafone, whose third edition has just been published. The restaurant guide, which is survey-based, includes restaurants that have informed us that they provide non-smoking areas. We have listed these on page 300 in the index section which is just one of the 17 index sections that we include in the guide.

The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants is based on a survey of over 600 regular "eaters out" who chose over 650 restaurants to rate and comment on out of the 1,100-odd restaurants on the islands. The 600-plus ate out on average over twice a week or over 60,000 times in a year and rated restaurants for food, service and ambience.

Since the purpose of the guide is "to guide the lovers of good food to the restaurants dedicated to providing it", the guide includes the 150 restaurants that were rated good or better by a sufficiently large number of people. The top rated restaurants list is compiled in four different price categories as well as the most romantic, the best for business, good views, good wine lists and favourites.

The third edition of The Definitive(ly) Good Guide includes the Maltese Tourist Authority Calendar of Events for 2003, sections on entertainment, Maltese food and wine, where to buy good produce - meat, fish, vegetables, etc., and maps. There is a very comprehensive indexing system classifying restaurants into 17 listings. These include: area, cuisine, late places, outdoor dining, non-smoking areas, wheelchair access, children and views.

Each restaurant has a page which describes the restaurant details - address and telephone numbers, opening and closing times, seating, credit cards, cuisine, etc. The restaurant is then described, followed by typical examples from the menu and then comments from the survey.

Lastly their restaurant facilities and policies are described, e.g. air-conditioning, baby chairs, non-smoking areas, wheelchair access, vegetarian dishes, dress code, etc. I do hope that this information may enhance your readers' dining out experience! (Lisa Grech, managing director, The Definitive(ly) Good Guide Co.)

I thank Ms Grech for her informative letter and I compliment her on her initiative. I have a copy of the Good Guide and, without beating about the bush, I would recommend it. You can purchase the guide from leading newsagents and bookshops for just Lm3.95. The guide includes Lm4 worth of restaurant vouchers so you can get your money back as well as earn air-points with the Flypass Frequent Flyers programme.

Here follows another letter highlighting yet another restaurant offering a no smoking area:

Following your publication of Mr Tonio Privitelli's letter regarding restaurants offering smoke-free air, please note that, together with my friends, we have been enjoying smoke-free dining at the Stazzjon Restaurant in Mtarfa Road, Rabat, for quite a long time.

Since most of us are non-smokers, we suggested to the management to create a no-smoking area and they promptly agreed. The main restaurant now enjoys this feature. It is a pleasure to dine just smelling the food and not cigarette or cigar smoke.

Besides the smoke-free atmosphere, the place offers complete transparency regarding the kitchen as it is in full view. As a bonus, since it is situated between Mdina and Mtarfa, it is also traffic free, with clean, healthy atmosphere. There is no parking problem but it only opens at weekends. (A. Spiteri)

Indeed this is a family-owned and run restaurant. I have spoken with Mark Mifsud, one of the sons, and he confirmed the above. Although this restaurant is not totally smoke-free, the smoking and non-smoking areas are effectively separated by the mere fact that they are in separate rooms.

Thus our current list of no-smoking restaurants is as follows:

Stazzjon Restaurant, Mtarfa Road, Rabat, tel: 2145-1717; fax: 2145-6377.

The Copperfields at The Victoria Hotel, George Borg Olivier Street, Sliema, tel. 2133-4711; Website http://www.victoriahotel.com; e-mail victoria@victoriahotel.com.

The Chinese Story, Bay Street Complex, tel: 2372-2800; owner/ manager, Ms Ive.

The Oriental Canteen by Dynasty, Dar l-Emigrant, Castille Place, Valletta, tel. 2122-0176/2133-5800.

I invite restaurant owners and/or managers who supply a "smoke-free" environment and/or transparency whereby diners can see the kitchen from the dining area in their restaurants, to write to me with a view to sharing the information in our column.