A steak to remember at Sciacca

A good steak is the ideal litmus test for a restaurant. Easy to get wrong, it is also, in its tastiest form, a meal that requires little intervention. Assuming you don’t go for a marinated cut, all that is required is the steak itself, a grill and some olive oil, if that. And yet there’s no denying that when done correctly, a steak can be a sublime gastronomic experience.

Sciacca in Valletta takes the humble steak very seriously. Long gone are the days when a simple ‘fillet steak’ on the menu was enough to convince diners. An overdue awareness on the different kinds of meat, where it comes from and how it’s cooked has led to establishments putting a little more effort into giving the customer the information they want.

Sciacca however goes beyond that. The menu itself contains everything– a good selection of starters, side dishes and desserts - but the meat. To decide on what the star of the evening’s show is going to be, customers must venture to the glass display – right beside the open kitchen, another trend that’s quickly catching on - and see what is on offer for the evening. Big, beautiful chateaubriand steaks sat next to veal cutlets, a collection of neatly curled up sausages, lamb saddles and Irish rib eye. 

Our host Johan certainly knew how to take care of a couple of hungry customers. He escorted us to the display and talked us through what was on offer. Being a tiny bit overwhelmed by the selection, we decided to trust him with choosing for us. It turned out to be the best idea we’d had all night.

We started off with a cocktail from the well-stocked bar while we waited. The mystery cocktail – also entrusted to Johan – looked and tasted like a Sex on The Beach minus the sticky sweetness and garish colour reminiscent of those first teenage forays into ‘grown-up’ drinks. A breadbasket kept the hunger at bay until a crackling hot cast iron dish made its way to our table. Nestled inside were veal and fennel, and pork sausages. Succulent and just the right amount of salty, there was not one spot of gristle to be seen, proof (although we didn’t need it at this point) of Sciacca’s insistence on good quality ingredients.

All good things are worth waiting for and we took a closer look around while our main course was being tended to. Restaurants in Valletta tend to follow a certain template. Given the age and history of many buildings in the City, many establishments choose to accentuate the old elements of their environment. It’s all uncovered stone, original tile flooring and exposed beams in a lot of places, which is fine really – all these features are worth preserving.

But at Sciacca, the atmosphere was decidedly non-Valletta like and that, I will admit despite being a lover of traditional architecture, was a breath of fresh air. In fact the interior didn’t feel like Valletta at all. Light wood flooring, uneven wooden paneling on the walls and a series of large butcher’s diagrams on the wall over the kitchen made for a classy but comfortably casual ambience. The dining tables were generously sized and well-spaced, another point local restaurants do not seem to appreciate when attempting to stuff as many patrons into the room at once.

Our musings on interior design were cut short when our main course arrived. Johan explained earlier that sharing food, as opposed to dining individually, was something Sciacca encouraged. To this end, two enormous cuts of Wagyu beef and a pair of veal cutlets were carefully heaped on a wooden board and placed in the middle of our table. Roasted vegetables and some irresistible steak house chips followed.

I believe in not complicating things, in life and in writing. So here it is. The veal cutlets were fantastic – great colour and perfect texture, launching what is usually standard fare to new heights of flavour. The real showstopper though was the Wagyu. Cooked medium rare but without that sanguineous flood that threatens to soak nearby chips and veggies, it was almost an out-of-body experience. Tender, beautifully marbled and with just the right amount of outer crust, this steak may or may not have changed our lives.

Dessert was good, despite our struggle with making room. The tiramisu, a mainstay of the dessert section, was well presented and not too sweet, certainly a positive after all the intense flavours we had just enjoyed. The pistachio cheesecake was an unusual offering but it too performed well. By the end, we had to turn down Johan’s generous offer of a digestive simply because there was no more room left.

We left with two things in mind. The first was that next time, we would skip lunch so that we would have more space for dinner. The second was that there would definitely have to be a ‘next time’.