Bugibba, Malta: A Big "Sorpresa", This Little Place Was Quite The Find

La Sorpresa

Triq it-Turisti, San Pawl il-Baħar

Bugibba, Malta

Prices: $$$$

There are three restaurants on Turisti Street in Bugibba just a stone's throw from the other - La Sorpresa, La Stalla and Ta Pawla - all with reasonably priced, three-course Set Menus, inexpensive wines, great service and excellent food.

A great find, the food at La Sorpresa was delicious, the portions hearty, and the prices very reasonable. My wife and I had multi-course dinners with wine and mineral water for about €40.

The place is charmingly simple snd the service impeccable. Our server Gabriele was there when needed, but otherwise not hovering.

I thought I needed a starter and the Cheesy Bruschetta (€3.50) sounded good, so I went for it. There were four slices of fresh, soft Maltese bread with sesame seeds topped with fresh tomatoes, herbs, olive oil, and mozzarella cheese, then broiled to a toasty consistency. It was delicious and far more food than I expected or needed. 

For my entree, I had the Bragioli (€13), a Maltese dish very similar to my family's recipe but in a brown wine sauce instead of marinara, coming with wonderful roasted potatoes and salad. The two large bragioli consisted of thinly sliced beef rolled around homemade Maltese sausage and topped with the delcious sauce.

My wife's steak (€14 - Fixed Price) was also tasty, but obviously an inexpensive cut (likely hanger steak) and a tad too chewy. It came with mushroom gravy, with nary a mushroom, a starter (a delicious potato celery soup - spaghetti Bolognese also an option) as well as roasted potatoes (or fries), veggies (or salad), and choice of dessert. Even though the steak was disappointing, at just €14 how can you possibly complain. She should have ordered the Chicken Cordon Bleu.

I doubt you will find a better value in Bugibba or anywhere else on Malta for that matter. Other than the steak, I cannot find a single flaw with this family run restaurant. We left stuffed to the gills and happy as the larks we saw at the Malta Bird Park the following day.

CombatCritic Gives La Sorpressa 9 Bombs Out Of 10 With The Sole Deduction For The Slightly Tough Steak ... More Bombs Are Better!

Nine Bombs Equates To:

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Title: Buggabi, MaltaL A Big "Sorpresa", This Little Place Was Quite The Find

Key Words: Ristorante Pizzeria La Sorpresa, ristorante, pizzeria, La Sorpesa, la sorpresa, Bugibba, Malta, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, Triq, Turisti, San Pawl, il-Baħar, review, Yelp, Zomato

Translation for Civilians: OOH-RAH = "U.S. Marine Response To A Verbal Greeting Or As An Expression Of Enthusiasm"

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Oregon City: Mamma Mi Famiglia - Decent Wood-Fired Pizza, Good Service

Mi Famiglia

701 Main Street

Oregon City, OR 97045

Phone number (503) 594-0601

Website: mi-famiglia.com

Prices: $$$$

Another Neapolitan pizza wannabe that just cannot seem to get it quite right. Give up. Unless you are in Napoli, it just will not be the same. However, trying is a good thing and Mi Famiglia did an OK job of pulling it off.

The draft beers (IPA) were cold and reasonably priced ($5) and the individual, wood-fired pizzas decent, although a tad on the small side. True Neapolitan pizza is close to 13" in diameter and served on a big plate. These, although advertized at 12" (before baking maybe), were closer to 10" to 11" on the plate.

We started with a $5 bread plate with four toasted pieces of bread accompanied by some alfredo and marinara sauce. Not bad, but not a great value. My wife had the Four Cheese ($11 - aka Quattro Formaggio) and I a two-topping cheese pizza with salami and fresh basil ($13.25).

The bread plate was overpriced and the pizzas (pizze) not bad for an American attempt at pizza Napolitana. The place is quaint in a surprisingly cute downtown Oregon City with a large, wood-fired pizza oven and freindly, efficient service.

CombatCritic Gives Mi Famiglia 6 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Six Bombs Equates To:

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Read Chris S.'s review of Mi Famiglia on Yelp

Title: Oregon City: Mamma Mi Famiglia - Decent Wood-Fired Pizza, Good Service

Key Words: Mi Famiglia, mi, famiglia, pizza, pizzeria, wood, oven, fired, Oregon City, Oregon, Portland, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, review, Yelp, Zomato

Translation for Civilians: G2G = "Good To Go"

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Salerno, Italy: "The Duke" Of Italian Cuisine And Value In Beautiful Salerno

Il Duca

Via Giovanni Da Procida 27
84121 Salerno, Italy
Phone number: +39 089 221435
Prices: €€€€

I was very impressed by Salerno and its Mercatini di Natale and that is not an easy thing to do, but I may have been even more impressed by our dinner at Il Duca ("The Duke").

I lived a 40-minute drive from Salerno for three years and have through it on many occasion, but I recently visited the city for the first time. We took the train from Napoli Centrale to meet one of my wife's friends and visit Salerno's renowned Mercatini di Natale (Christmas Market) ... and, boy, am I glad we did!

Salerno is a city of 130,000 people on the sea with fabulous views of the Amalfi Coast. The lungomare, a path along the sea next to the main road in town, is gorgeous and the buildings lining the street opposite the sea old and majestic. During the holidays , lungomare is the residence of numerous vendors displaying their wares, including ceramics, local delicacies and liqueurs, sweets of every variety, puppet shows, clothing, candles, and many other enticing things ... aka Mercatini Di Salerno.

Across the main street lining the lungomare is the oldest part of town (centro storico) with its narrow, winding streets, alleys, and piazzas lined with marvelous centuries old buildings on all sides. We stopped for dinner at Il Duca, a small restaurant and pizzeria that had an enticing tourist menu posted outside, enjoying a delightful and inexpensive dinner of pizzas, pasta, meat, bread and local wine.

The restaurant was cute and inviting from the outside, being in a historic building with small tables with tablecloths and a pizza oven blazing in the back. We had a good feeling about the place when seeing the menu posted outside: €8 for pasta (primo), a meat dish (secondo), fries or salad (contorno), and mineral water and just €6 for pizza and a drink? That is unheard of these days in Italy, so we had to inquire and entered.

They had five choices of pizza, including Margherita, Salame, and a couple others, normally at a price of at least €6 to €7 without a drink anywhere else. When I asked, I found that the Menu Turistica di Terra (tourist menu without fish - meat instead - €8) consisted of a local pasta in a cheese and tomato sauce with bacon ... sounded good to me ... and the meat dish had steak, cream, rucola and parmigiano ... SOLD!

We ordered a litre of local red wine (€8) for the three of us, a bottle of mineral water (€2), two pizzas off the tourist menu, one Margherita and one with ham (no tomato sauce) for my tomato-hating wife, and the Menu Turistica di Terra for me.

The wine was good, as is the case most everywhere in Italy, being a deep red, slightly chilled and robust. The pizzas quickly followed. Normally, I would not be happy with entrees arriving so far apart, but I know from experience that Neapolitan-style pizza takes less than two minutes to make - 30 seconds to manufacture and 90 seconds to bake. So when the pizzas quickly arrived, I had to wait at least 10 more minutes for my first course. I will just say that I was not disappointed by the wait.

The oval dish was packed with a local pasta, reminding me of cicatielli, a pasta made in the region of my grandparents near Ariano, Irpino, about 60 miles inland. The sauce was to die for ... a yellow cheese sauce made with bacon, tasted like the creamiest, most decadent macaroni and cheese I have ever had ... it was scrump-diddly-umptious. If that were not enough, the meat dish shortly followed, a decent sized portion of sliced beef in a creamy sauce infused with fresh ruccola that was absolutely delicious.

Unfortunately, it was time to catch our train back to Naples, so we left, continuing toward the station on streets filled with Christmas lights and throngs of people shopping or out for a Friday night stroll in the chilly late December air. The buildings became newer and newer as we walked southbound along Corso Vittorio Emanuele toward the station, but the charm of the town remained even as we reentered the 21st Century.

We will be back to Salerno and even contemplated making a home there, either permanently or temporarily, as we ease into retirement. At the very least, I will ritorno a salerno (return to Salerno) with my wife in the not too distant future to enjoy this lovely, historic seaside town as well as Il Duca.

CombatCritic Gives Il Duca 9 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Nine Bombs Equates To:

"U.S. Marine Response To A Verbal Greeting Or As An Expression Of Enthusiasm"

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Yelp - Elite '14/'15/'16/'17

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Read Chris S.'s review of Il Duca on Yelp

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Read Chris S.'s review of Il Duca on Yelp

Title: Salerno, Italy: "The Duke" Of Italian Cuisine And Value In Beautiful Salerno

Key Words: Il Duca, il, duca, duke, Salerno, Italy, Mercatini di Salerno, mercatini, market, Christmas, pizzeria, Pompeii, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, review, Yelp