Forget the sightseeing, and you'll still have a fine time on Malta. Just eat.

We were expecting great food from Malta, and it didn't let us down.

Its mid-Mediterranean location means it's ringed by some of my favourite cuisines, well supplied with fish, vines and olive oil.  That's a fine start, and the relative prosperity of Malta's tourism scene creates fertile opportunity for some high-end chefs.  Particularly noteworthy:  Marvin Gauci at Tarragon on St. Paul's Bay.

A Maltese friend living in London asked her cousins for their pick for the best place on the island.  This was it.  The decor is simple and unpretentious.  Fish tank beside the front door, long wooden bar, plank floors, undraped wooden tables, big windows overlooking the sea.  It could be one of a million beach restaurants anywhere in the world.

The differentiation starts immediately with the service.  A polyglot gang of waiters is eager to get you settled, get drinks in your hands, discover your preferences, explain the menu.  And then comes Chef Marvin himself to give a bit of personal consultation.  Piers' tomato allergy?  No problem.  Couldn't decide between the starters?  I'll make you sample plates so you can have more.  Perfect.

Tarragon is creeping in to haut cuisine territory with its culinary show: "pearls" of different flavours decorating plates, dry ice making after dinner drinks smoke, salt-baked sea bass flamed and chiseled out of its case at the table, smokers imbuing flavour to fish right in front of you.  They stay just on the right side of going overboard and, fortunately, those touches enhance the local fare rather than make up for any shortcomings in the kitchen.

Being indecisive (or, honestly, just being too greedy to pass up the offer of multiple starters), we sampled a range.  There was a reconstructed olive; one of those chemically engineered spheres made to look just like an olive, but it's actually a thin, gelatinous membrane enclosing a liquid that bursts when your teeth hit it, and out explodes pure essence of olive.  I had an enormous oyster dressed with a "pearl" of smoked water and lime, made with the same process.  Rabbit is a local favourite and we had a creamy fricassee presented in a filo pastry basket.  (This would have been a fine main course all on its own.)  Add a plate of mushrooms given a sesame tempura treatment. The starting star was, however, a plate of beautifully cut slices of raw, locally caught tuna, smoked at the table (see photo) and dressed with a balsamic reduction, olive oil and lemon.  Some of the best tuna I've ever had, and a testimony to the basic truth that when you have exquisite ingredients, you don't need to do much with them.

Our mains were more locally-caught fish.  Though the sea bass is Marvin's signature, he steered us towards the barracuda, which was a seasonal catch that's far rarer.  I've been a fan of this fish in the Caribbean, except for the time I dove off a snorkel boat and ended up face-to-face with a big one; they have alarmingly large teeth.  I have to admit I like the West Indian preparations better than the simple grill here.  It's a thick, white, slightly oily fish that takes to spice and fruit well.  Unlike the tuna, I think this more robust flesh needs stronger flavours to help it shine.  Tasty, but I'd have the sea bass next time.

For dessert I moved on to a cassata Siciliana that was about as far removed from my peasant version of this dish as my great grandfather no doubt was from the Sicilian noble who owned his village.  A more formal version in a pastry tart crust with a delicate film of pistachio over the top.  Piers had a perception-busting mango panna cotta; the mango had been distilled into a sphere (Marvin does like his spheres) in the centre of the white custard, looking more like a fried egg than a sweet.  I wrapped things up with the local prickly pear liqueur, given added oomph by the dry ice that made it smoke like a witch's brew as it came to the table.

We complemented all this with some good local wines offered at very reasonable prices.  Overall, an experience on par with Michelin star aspirants in London, but with a far more laid back and fun atmosphere.  And cheaper, too.  Add the view of the sea on a lingering summer's night, and it might be worth a weekend on Malta just to eat here.

The night before we'd eaten at Quadro, the restaurant linked to our hotel (The Westin).  Almost as good on the food front, more traditional in presentation and atmosphere, an equally lovely staff but far steeper wine prices.  Local wines here were 30% more than at Tarragon, meaning our bills for the two meals were almost exactly the same, even though we had much more at Marvin's.

Quadro did a chocolate brioche with foie gras that blew us away as a starter.  What innovation, we thought.  We were less impressed when we found the same brioche on the standard hotel buffet menu the next morning.  Still, I might steal the idea for a future dinner party.  I started with artichoke-filled pasta done with langoustine before we both moved on to a local fish called maegre, also known as ombrina.  Very much like sea bass but with a thicker, larger fillet.   Dessert was a crowd-pleasing chocolate fondant.  Other than the introduction to maegre, the best bits of this meal were the highly informative staff, who were happy to give us all sorts of sightseeing tips, and our introduction to the Isis Chardonnay from local Meridiana wineries.  Slightly floral but dry and with a mineral edge, it tasted nothing like a typical chardonnay, was great with fish and prompted me to load up on Meridiana whites at duty free on the way home.  So overall, Quadro was far better than your average hotel restaurant fare, but nowhere near as good as Tarragon.

A nod goes to Sharma in Mdina, into which we stumbled for a late lunch on Saturday.  They have a great concept, tracing the spice route from India through the Middle East to the Med, providing a fusion menu with some real logic.  The exotic Arab interior is a nice touch for the part of the island that retains the most Arabic heritage.  The waiters, however, were the only people we encountered on Malta who didn't understand English.  Poor Piers' request for one of the pasta sauces without tomato got him a plate of absolutely plain penne just out of boiling water.  Fortunately a manager turned up to whisk it back into the kitchen for the addition of butter and cheese.  I, happily tucking in to a chicken shawarma skewer and a lovely salad, definitely got the better end of that deal.

Three meals, three great experiences.  No doubt about it, the food ranks on par with the sightseeing in a weekend on Malta.