People have asked me why the fashionable people of the Labour Party are always being photographed at Ta’ Karolina in Xlendi
Andy Ellul and his Auberge de Castille girlfriend Claudia Cuschieri with Carmen Ciantar at Ta’ Karolina
Joseph Cuschieri at Ta’ Karolina
The prime minister and Mrs Muscat at Ta’ Karolina
Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia, his girlfriend Amanda Mifsud, MEPA consultant Robert Musumeci and Magistrate Consuelo Herrera at Ta’ Karolina
The Facebook pages of the fashionable people of the Muscat government – you can’t really call them a klikka because several of them don’t speak to each or are rivals, but in general they’re the Muscat ‘in’ crowd – regularly feature photographs of them eating with friends at Ta’ Karolina in Xlendi.
It is as though this is the only restaurant, or rather, the only restaurant they want to tell us they went to. Joe Grima, Joseph Cuschieri, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Consuelo Herrera, Robert Musumeci, the prime minister and his wife, Labour Party activist and police turned lawyer Andy Ellul and his girlfriend who has been given a job at the Auberge de Castille, Carmen Ciantar (former JPO consort), Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia and his girlfriend…they’ve all been photographed there.
People have begun to ask why Ta’ Karolina, when Xlendi is full of restaurants and so is the rest of Gozo, and Ta’ Karolina is nothing special either in terms of ambience or food. I made a few enquiries with my sources in Gozo, who tell me that Ta’ Karolina is owned by a man from a diehard Labour family from Fontana, called Ta’ Durellu. His mother-in-law was Magistrate Carol Peralta’s on-off mistress for many years during his official relationship/s and has for the last few years been his official consort herself.
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And most probably at a discount
ma tafx li jigu ghand ta karolina xlendi kulhadd jaghmel li irrid kullimkien maghluq bil plastin mank tista timxi fuq bankina u dak ta karolina taparsi skrivan mal gvern u qatt ma mur xoghol dak li hawn f ghawdex kullhadd jaghmel li irrid.
Debono Grech jaf bih lil dan? X’jigifieri ‘taparsi skrivan mal-gvern u qatt ma jmur xoghol’?
Ghalfejn iz-z.pp qed jithalsu, kemm wiehed u kemm l-iehor?
Insomma ilhom gia sena fil-gvern u l-agir hazin taghhom hija rampanti.
Sew qed tghid. Taht in-Nazzjonalisti ghamel snin twal ma jersaqx lejn ix-xoghol specjalment fl-aqwa tas-sajf u minn fuq jghid kontra il-gvern. Niftakru sew dejjem bil-Laburisti bejn in-96-98.
Nahseb li jaf bih Debono Grech ghax h u l-uniku wiehed li ma hax ritratt hemm.
Ghadu ma marx Debono Grech ifittxu fuq ix-xoghol mela, ha jara hux jiskarta.
Maybe we are paying and we don’t know.
Well – I go there too. However for me it’s the lovely location in stunning Xlendi bay, with the sound of the waves lapping up right next to you.
Food is good, and the staff are always VERY helpful when it comes to service and getting a table on a busy day.
Churchill’s on the other side is also a lovely spot, but not the same.
As for this motley crew’s reasons for going there, well I can only speak for myself.
Ta’ Karolina is a nice restaurant especially in the late evening.
Service and food are very good and the guys serving were very nice too the last couple of times I have been.
You should not be throwing mud at hard working people’s faces. They deliver a good product at a reasonable price. Irrelevant of politics and relationships it is a good restaurant and the location is spot on.
[Daphne – I never said ‘don’t go there’. On the contrary, I gave them a massive free advertisement for which they should be grateful. Most people are Labour, remember. I tend to be a bit fussy about restaurants, I’m afraid, and never interpret ‘popular’ and ‘good’ as synonymous. I find that the opposite is generally true. Popular restaurants tend to quite mediocre and with a set-up that’s an aesthetic killer.]
Basically it is a restaurant for hamalli. Xarabank is also popular – however, it does not mean that it is a must-watch TV programme for everyone.
Exactly in synch.
Xarabank veru programm tal-marmalja u hamalli Maltin u ghalhekk jarawh hafna nies ghax il-maggoranza tal-poplu hekk huwa.
Bad publicity is worse than no publicity.
I am fussy too and can differ between good food and ‘good’ food.
As for the aesthetics, I will not comment as it’s not my forte, but I must that its neighboring restaurant The Boat House looks nicer but I still prefer Ta’ Karolina for the service.
We got the point of the article, I just wanted to put through to whoever is reading that the restaurant’s overall experience of the restaurant is very good. By no means I am related to the restaurant owners.
Thank you.
[Daphne – It’s not bad publicity. As I said, the vast majority of people in Malta are Labour. They will want to go where the prime minister went and where all the important Labour people go. Now they know about it. That’s how these things work.]
Is this safe? All it takes is one contaminated utensil and the country’s entire leadership would be down with the Rangoon Runs.
It’ll be like the 2010 Polish Air Force plan crash, but embarrassing.
It’s calling these people fashionable that worries me. The sooner that they go out [of fashion] the better for the rest of us.
I am a frequent patron of Ta`Karolina which is my favourite restaurant in Gozo . I have long realized its popularity with the Labour (temporary) elite and know that the owner family are Labourites themselves.
However, I can vouch that they provide an excellent service, the food is pretty decent and priced reasonably and the ambience is wonderful. As long as they keep this up and refrain from politicizing their establishment, I will continue to be a frequent customer.
Well Chris, I have been there a few times and agree that the food is quite good but there are tens of other good restaurants in Gozo and now have decided that I shall be going to the other restaurants and shall give Ta’ Karolina a miss.
You can add Natius Farrugia to the list. I saw him there on the day of a Labour mass meeting in Gozo around the March 2013 elections.
We’ll I wouldn’t be seen dead there for 2 reasons.
1. I definitely don’t want to run into any diehard laburisti
2. I don’t want to give the man my money.
Thank you for the tip off.
I am a frequent visitor to Karolina Rest and I am a die hard Nationalist. The food is exquisite there and so is the service. To be quite honest I prefer to go there for dinner or lunch as i dont care if he s a Labour supporter as long as Joseph gives excellent service rather than I go to an ex Nationalist who know have voted Labour this time as i prefer a Laburist milli an opportunist
Dubious..
Fashionable people of the Labour Party? Are you hallucinating, Daphne?
The only problem that I have with this is that this man owns and runs a restaurant while he is supposed to have a full-time job as a civil servant.
Joseph id-Durellu is a decent guy. He is a hard working man, from Fontana who has supported Labour forever.
He is employed as a government clerk but runs a restaurant full time while on the state payroll in the republic of Gozo.
His sister Monica was heavily involved in the Labour Youth Forum and has since had an iced bun of her own with a ministry job.
In Gozo, more so than in Malta, politics are tribal. The official switchers are the large number of people originally from the bigger island who are now registered in the smaller one.
Anton Refalo administers his ministry very much like a parish priest, attending to the needs of his constituents. The majority of Labour supporters who have a government job don’t turn up for work. Everyone is aware of this.
This is why young people from Gozo who are actually relevant don’t want to work there.
In a public meeting at the PL club in Victoria, last January, Anton Refalo said that the children of Gozo Laburisti are being treated as inferior and that the government should change the rules to accommodate this.
He went on to mention examples like lowering the entry requisites for the Army and Police. The people that he was referring to were the bunch of unskilled and unqualified individuals who have been queuing in the ministry halls for a government job so that they can carry on being unproductive while receiving a government pay cheque.
They are lining up to take what they can.
There is nothing new about this. Gozo has not had decent leadership since Anton Tabone, who loathed this mentality and single-handedly gave Gozo the respect it deserved after Mintoff swore doom on it in the 1960s when their bells and whistles interrupted his speaking at It-Tokk.
Joseph id – Durellu is a hard working man and anyone who comes to eat at ta’ Karolina will be eating the best food one can ever taste. The service is the best. Also I would like to answer everyone’s shit by first saying that he only works part time with the gov not a full. Also both parliament parties comes at ta’ Karolina which are served the same as others. When are we all going to grow up and not let politics take the role in our lives 24 7 , Isn’t there anything better to talk about in life other than politics. You Ms. Caruana I really feel sorry for you having nothing better to do. Is your life that boring?
[Daphne – The reason I don’t think taking a ferry to Gozo to eat at a place like Ta’ Karolina is the height of excitement, Mel, is precisely because my life isn’t boring. And if you think that sort of food is the best you will ever taste, I suggest you widen your experience. Some of us eat better than that even at home. Food/restaurant standards and expectations are so low in Malta that it’s almost frightening.]
Why should Gozo need leadership? Is it an independent country?
I think you people need to come back down to earth. This “poplu Malti u Ghawdxi” business has gone to your heads.
Not sure what the gossip and Hype is about here.
Is it the food at Ta’ Karolina, which i find excellent, well priced and serviced with the most friendly atmosphere and ambiance that is truly unique.
Is it the people eating there, which I for one never found myself to be in bad company such as what is quoted further up as “Hamalli” .
Is it Joseph himself, because of a half truths said about him by Ms DCG even about his family. I always found Joseph as a very hard working man,always seriously concerned about the client’s experience at his restaurant , and for me when i go to a restaurant that is all i care about.
Please tell me why all this, tell me, which one MP past or present that doesn’t go to GOZO and dine out every night and even at more luxurious eateries.
Joseph do not worry, as i know you are right now. Real people of value are beyond this shit, I will be back for sure, can’t wait really. and now that I know that DCG is a sure no show, i think i will come even more.
[Daphne – Ref your last few words, Chris: just don’t do it all over your iPad.]