Mustaccun Restaurant in Smart City gave us an authentic taste of Sicily in just 4 items

Mustaccun restaurant is family run, specializing in Italian food. Should you make your way to Smart City, you’ll be rewarded with good food albeit not much of an atmosphere. 

The recent pandemic has hit many people hard. Among these are many in the catering business. Let’s face it, it’s hard to make ends meet. When we recently made our way to a seriously empty Smart City recently, we were not only reminded of how some big projects can sometimes not be the smartest, but also how some places have been hit hard by recent events.

Mustaccun restaurant is family run, specializing in Italian food. The menu is limited, with the main dishes being, predictably, pasta and pizza. The latter, in particular, is their main selling item. Criminally empty when we arrived, we opted for an outside table and subsequently had the luxury of repeatedly changing tables because of the unpredictable weather.

The place is very spacious, with an ample outside seating area, ideal if social distancing is on your mind. COVID19 related measures were taken to sanitize our seating, even though we had changed tables.

Mustaccun restaurant is family run, specializing in Italian food.

Years and years of watching Italian television finally brought their fruits as I could apologise to the waitress (who did not speak much English) for the continuous table hopping, whilst asking about food items on the menu. Having been told both starters (mixed platters for 2) were not available with only the focaccia available, we opted instead to have two of the pasta dishes as a starter portion, and then decided on sharing a pizza.

The first pasta dish we chose was the Casarecce alla Mustaccun. The nice thing about this type of pasta, which originates in Sicily, are it’s curled edges. These leave a groove in the middle, trapping droplets of sauce in between, ensuring each bite is heavenly, if the sauce is right. In this case, we got more than our fair share since the pasta was accompanied by a very (very) thick and cheesy sauce.

Add to that thick chunks of Sicilian sausage, even thicker chunks of Grana and a healthy dose of pistachio, and you have a very hearty and satisfying filling pasta plate.

Casarecce alla Mustaccun

The Risotto Verde was certainly worth getting as our second starter dish. It comprised spinach and rocket leaves, bacon, cream cheese and cherry tomatoes. It was creamy and full of flavour, certainly aided by a fairly good amount of pork jowl bacon bits.

Two mouthfuls and I was reminded of the type of dish you get served during Sunday family dinners, where your grandma serves you a heavy portion of good, honest food because “you need to be strong and healthy”.

Risotto Verde at Mustaccun Restaurant

The main item at Mustaccun restaurant was the pizza La Mortadella. The unmistakable flavour of four fine slices of mortadella sat very well on a cream of pistachio pesto from Bronte. The topping was creamy, with a touch of sweetness.

The dough was pleasant, dense, not as light as you might expect from such a thin dough and even though the pizza topping was generous, the dough didn’t get overwhelmed and retained its texture.

Our main food item, pizza La Mortadella

We finished off our experience at Mustaccun restaurant with four small but lovely Sicilian cannoli. Fresh and crunchy crust, with a creamy filling and of course, a touch of pistachios, these small delights were the perfect way to finish off an enjoyable meal.

Small but lovely Sicilian cannoli

Both starters portions could easily have been presented as main courses, whilst the pizza was as large as we have seen. Most importantly, the food was good. If you happen to be in the area in the next few weekends, you might want to consider paying Mustaccun restaurant a visit and see what you think. Otherwise, if staying at home is your thing right now, get yourself a delivery.

OMGFOODMALTA Rating: 7/10

Star Items: Risotto Verde / La Mortadella

Website: facebook.com/smartcityrestaurant/

Email: Message them on Facebook

Address: Smart City, Triq Ricasoli, Kalkara

Tel: +356 79384208