Sights, Bites, Maltese Delights. Malta Oct 21. Day 8. Yes Please Dining Japanese
 

Wednesday 6 October

We were up late today and greeted with an empty breakfast area



After straying from the hot buffet yesterday, I was back on familiar ground today.



I had also now added cake each morning , usually having it a bit later while out reading my book :D

Andy’s breakfast looked completely unappealing but he assured me it was nice



Is it me - does it not look very brown and overcooked ?

It was windy today .. the pool area was very quiet



That water was like an ice bath :omg:

Onto a new book :thumbs-up



The purple flag was out today - indicating risk of water pests .. I decide to see what these might be ..



Hmmm bearded fireworms :erm: Further proof for me that venturing beyond ankle depth in open water is too fraught with risks :pgig::nonono:

It continued to be very quiet



I used the poolside app to order a Sex on the Beach as Andy flat out refused to go and ask for it :pgig::pgig:



It got a bit chilly so we headed up to our room and watched a bit of Ridiculous on MTV. Think uncensored You’ve Been Framed :erm:. ...

We decided to head back to Valletta for dinner, having snagged a booking at AKI, a Japanese place that looked very nice.

On the way there, I was fascinated by this wild trailing cacti



Look at those clouds ..

The Phoenicia hotel at the city gate looks fab. Not sure on the location tho ..



We browsed some stores and had a wander round

They were very strict here on numbers in the store and mask wearing.



Never far from Disney ..



I hadn’t realised the other day these were all different styles of lampshades



We had time to look more closely at some of the old buildings



I loved the old balconies





I think this looks like some sort of catalogue shot :pgig:



We did a loop of the two main streets - lots more outdoor dining had been set out for the evening



I couldn’t quite see the detail on the church at the end of this street



We stopped here for drink. I had a Cotswold’s wildflower gin



Very disappointed again that this place, despite looking open, wasn’t. Appaz they wouldn’t open until 6.30 on the dot and we were too early



And this one :cry:



Both carefully researched but the advertised opening hours not quite matching reality

Disappointed, we pitched up early at AKI.

Well, first impressions here certainly did not disappoint!



What a fab place. You ordered as you went along and the food arrived at various times from different stations. We were seated by the sushi station and it was fascinating watching the preparation.



But first .. cocktails :D



I went for the kawaii bubble



Arrives like this



Then



Then



It was gorgeous :tongue:


First up, spicy beef bao buns



Nice.. maybe a tad stodgy

Then shredded pork mini tacos



Very nice

Followed by Chicken skewers and spicy anticucho sauce - this was delicious



Then prawn gyozas



And finally a beef and prawn sushi roll



The wasabi sauce was eye watering :erm:

Wow. It had been amazing. So many different flavours and textures. Fantastic. We were completely impressed.

Dessert menu was slightly odd though



I fancied the creme brûlée



It did look disturbingly like frog spawn vomit but was in fact very nice :pgig:

The bill was very good value - all that food and still cheaper than that steak place ..



Bellies very full and very happy we wandered through the streets - all beautifully lit up



I must have 50 snaps of this walkway with each change of colour :nonono::pgig:



We found the local taxi rank and discovered it was 5 euros cheaper than the hotel car. You paid at the little booth and handed a voucher to the driver. All very good and we were soon back. It had certainly been an unexpectedly excellent day :d:

Your cocktail looked amazing!

Omg yes to all of that Japanese restaurant, food looks delicious, that cocktail is immense (and the whole menu looks very reasonably priced!) Lovely food day

Love the look of that cocktail! :D

Andy's breakfast definitely looks overcooked apart from his sausages that look a bit pale, surely should be the other way around :pgig:

That info of the sea critters is a bit :omg:. I'm not sure I would step foot in the sea again if they had that next to the beach :confused2

I love that lampshade alley, what a creative idea!

I'm so pleased you had a fantastic meal, it looked delicious and still cheaper! Let's pretend that was the birthday meal :D
10 out of 10 on that cocktail too, although what is yuzu?

The narrow streets with the lampshades are pretty cool aren't they? I really liked that photo you took. Dinner looked so tasty and the cocktail was a real treat.

It was :tongue::D

Such a super meal. We loved it :tongue:

It was pretty fab ;)

I remain unconvinced by buffet breakfasts. He loved them though.
Quite a few people did brave the sea on the green flag days. It must have been freezing though
Valletta was so pretty by night and that meal was fabulous. We had such a lovely time.

Yuzu is appaz a lemony citrus fruit .

It was so pretty .. all the side streets looked so lovely at night but that one was my fave.

It seems I missed the last few days of this trippie so am catching up now.

Not sure I like the sound of the bearded fireworms either. 😬 Who knew there were such things? :confused2

Sounds like you had a lovely day. I love the lampshade street. Also love the look of that cocktail you had!