XUFI (Olympic) Cafe' and Bistro

XUFI Café & Bistro (or as we now fondly call it, “the Olympic feast”) was our very first stop on the Maltese food tour. As soon as we walked in, we were warmly welcomed by a waiter and promptly shown to our table—always a good start when you're starving and mildly sunburnt. We spent a few minutes sizing up the menu before the waiter popped back over to rattle off the specials. Feeling adventurous, we went for the snail stew and chicken wings to kick things off. Now, the chicken wings were absolutely massive—think pterodactyl, not pigeon. They were tasty and great value for money, but we had to box up the last two as we realised we’d never make it to our mains otherwise. The snails came in a generous portion too. Had we known the starters were enough to feed a small army, we might've skipped the mains altogether. But no—gluttony prevailed. We soldiered on and ordered the rabbit spaghetti and horse meat stew. The rabbit spaghetti, I’m afraid, was a bit of a let-down. It looked more like a rabbit had been flung onto the plate than thoughtfully prepared. There was barely any meat, just a chopped up carcus, and the garnish was, quite frankly, like chewing a shoelace. Not the culinary adventure we had in mind. The horse meat stew, on the other hand, was surprisingly nice—tender and flavourful. Sadly, the sides let it down: the mashed potato was clearly instant (you can always tell), the chips tasted like they'd been sitting out since breakfast, and the “seasonal veg” was more oil slick than side dish. Overall, a bit of a mixed bag. The service was ok, took our starters away and forgot to give us clean cutlery, had to ask a few times, though cleaning the table next to us was more important. Solid starters, but the mains galloped off course. Still, it made for a memorable first meal—and hey, at least we didn’t order dessert. Probably would've needed a forklift to get us out.