Rebekah’s
Triq it-Tgħam
Mellieħa,
Tel: 7979 2369

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

We thrill at the first sighting of the menu.

In truth there’s been a build- up of excitement, so that by the time we’re seated at Rebekah’s ‒ only recently under new management, with a fabulous new chef to boot ‒ I’m practically bouncing off my chair.

The exquisite menu is re­fined and sensible; each plate well considered, every ingredient precisely calibrated.

Whatever combination of courses you opt for, the outcome is invariably a mellifluous flow of inviting, beautifully intentioned dishes. This is the secret to a flawless menu, and boy have they nailed it.

Milk-fed veal loin

We eagerly eat everything with our eyes. Making our selection for the night is an agonising task. The service is confident and sophisticated. You get the feeling that all will be well. And you’d be right.

We sit and wait impatiently; not because the service is at all sluggish but because we are so fervently keen to see what lies in store and so feverishly hungry. Hidden away among apartment blocks and houses in a residential corner of Mellieħa, Rebekah’s occupies a converted house of character.

It’s hard to get a sense of intimacy in the well-lit room we are seated in. The polished marble flooring decisively jars with the exposed stone walls. Direct your focus instead on the beautifully presented plates of food where nothing jarring is to be found.

To begin, we are served a striking cabbage soup, vibrant with a ripe berry vinegar. The vinegar hits the tongue like lightning. It is punchy with a contrasting crash of acid and sharpness set against the pungent earthiness of the cabbage. It is gaspingly good.

The braised duck leg croquette is crisp and greaseless; a bronzed beauty, all bite and depth and flavour. The golden crust shatters beneath the teeth giving way to the shredded soft innards.

It’s a hot blast of gamey saltiness, very savoury and very intense. Some duck breast prosciutto, thickly sliced and fanned out beautifully, comes flanking the fat cigar of croquette. It has been salt-cured with love, plenty of it. The salt-curing has darkened the flesh to the colour of dark ruby. It’s all supple salaciousness and richness of flavour. There’s a compelling nuttiness that leaves me sighing with happiness.

It takes every ounce of willpower not to ask for more of this caper sensation. It is miraculous

The pappardelle all’uovo is a multidimensional plate of pasta ‒ a symphony of pig and prawn that is a profound pleasure to eat. Each pappardelle tendril comes thickly slicked in a highly-seasoned, creamy prawn bisque sauce that is a concentration of everything crustacean.

The bisque is glossy and glorious, collecting in a pool at the bottom of the bowl. The pappardelle demand to be slurped. Without protest we dutifully dive in. It’s a veritable treasure hunt. Interwoven between the pasta ribbons is a scattering of local fresh prawns − soft and yielding with their pleasing meaty sweetness − and flecks of prosciutto di Norcia, crisped and pink with a gentle hit of salty spiciness. There’s the sprightly zestiness of lemon- infused oil to lift it all. The entire thing is luscious.

A hearty lamb dish is next, sustaining in every way. Robust of flavour and profoundly sa­voury, the braised lamb shoulder is absolutely divine, pulled away from the bone in shreds of moist, melting richness. It comes beguilingly supported by macerated raisins, a caper purée and a crumbling of snow-white feta.

The sweet bursts of raisin softness are broken up by the acid tartness of the strident caper purée. Resolutely herbaceous and aromatic, it takes every ounce of willpower not to ask for more of this caper sensation. It is miraculous. An outrageously good lamb jus finishes everything off. In the unfathomable depths of its savoury soul it holds everything together in one long meaty embrace. It is liquid gold. It’s a jaw dropper when, in the midst of all this excellence, we come across a blunder.

The kitchen doesn’t put a foot wrong until the pan-fried lamb fillet. It is overworked and just a little tough. It is the only characterless thing on the plate. And remains the only misfire of the entire night.

The milk-fed veal loin is a generous dish. Served in hunks that boast the rosy blush of a baby’s cheek, the meat is all butter-like tenderness and flavour. The billowing bed of creamed Savoy cabbage at the centre of the plate is all swoon.

It wilts languorously in the warm unconscionable amounts of butter and cream that bolster it up; rich and hearty and something to sink into with abandon.

The ripeness of the full-bodied red wine jus caresses the soul and is the perfect foil for the burly heftiness of the dish. There’s astonishingly enrich­ed earthiness from the coffee and salsify purée, the latter proving an unexpected revelation from a forgotten root ve­getable we need to start buying and serving more of.

Desserts are a parade of ex­quisite indulgence. They prove unmissable. The lemon tart is a fabulous thing to eat. A shell of sable biscuit is all delicate crunch and butteriness, encasing the classic lip-puckering filling. It is wickedly good.

Softening the citrus sharpness of the lemon curd is a basil ice cream, a fat quenelle of it, served at the perfect temperature. It’s a blast of herbaceous exuberance; as­tonishingly refreshing and dangerously moreish.

Tufts of meringue kisses are there for crunch and prettiness. And here comes the voluptuous pear poached in nothing but the finest of Douro Port wine. Blushing a deep garnet colour having been simmered and steeped in the port reduction, the pear is perfumed and dripping with sultry spicy sweetness. There’s a smooth yoghurt ice cream to cut through the fragrant decadence. And, half-buried, is the joy of a square of sage cake, all crumb and spongi­ness and impossibly moist.

We’re thanked for coming by the brilliant bevy of staff. It has been hugely satisfying to eat at Rebekah’s. It’s a spendy place, but the exceptional, vivid cooking presented here undoubtedly justifies its price. There’s the promise of swordfish carpaccio, grain-fed ribeye and a chocolate delice to come back for.