An even hotter restaurant inside meant a good glugging of local Maltese white wine and a litre of water needed to help settle us in. Prices were very reasonable for both food and wine but service was amicable. It was probably the only restaurant on our trip where we really felt, and were treated like foreigners – simply put, there was a lack of it.
Our starters arrived and first out was an incredibly thick pita bread, very well made and carried a nice meaty smokiness from the grill. Its accompanying aubergine dip was so heavily doused with garlic it made the hairs on my arms stand up. The flavour, if you can get through the garlic was OK but it was much too dry and cloying – perhaps some olive oil could have lightened it up.
Deep fried calamari was perfectly seasoned – it even left that sort that lingering peppery flavour and saltiness on the tongue you long for. The downside to it all though was the actual squid being extremely overcooked and very chewy, which was a real shame because the batter was very nice with bags of flavour and had a lovely crunch.
Main courses didn’t fare particularly better. There is a website in Malta called ‘The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta’, and it effectively aims to be the islands very own Michelin Guide. According to its website they rigorously review restaurants on a similar scoring basis to the Michelin guide. Being a foreigner on the island i utilised this guide to my advantage and unfortunately, never agreed with them a single time. My disagreement became alll but apparent when the main dish of lamb souvlaki, tzatziki, tomatoes and rice arrived. It was all very simple and basic. The guide praises Zeus for having some of the best lamb on the island but in all honestly, i have never experienced pieces of lamb as tough as this – it was so overcooked it was completely unenjoyable, and inedible.
I had to introduce this side of roast potatoes as well, purely because of the shockingness of how bad they really were. A dark rim round the bowl as if they’d been either prepared and refrigerated too long or left covered with another bowl near a lot of heat. The potatoes managed to arrived anaemic in colour, undercooked and only a few corners had any crunch. We actually had to leave this bowl of potatoes because mainly because they had no taste, but also because they were not cooked.
For being apparently the best Greek restaurant on the island of Malta, i was apppaled. It’s on a rare occasion i dismiss a dessert menu – but when dining at Zeus i couldn’t bare the thought. The restaurant was absolutely packed when we arrived and is obviously doing very well – especially with the locals. How it is doing so well, i’m not so sure, but i think it has something to do with its very low prices – which, can be very attractive sometimes.
4/10
