The Borsch

The Borsch is a Slavic restaurant at 138 Tower Road, on the seafront side of restaurants in Sliema. The cooking is the sort of comfort food many people from Eastern and Central Europe grew up on: borsch, cutlets, potato fritters and cottage cheese pancakes. It trades every day as a lunch and brunch address, so it fits easily into a morning on the promenade or a relaxed meal before the evening passeggiata.

Homemade Slavic cooking

The idea behind the kitchen is plain and warm: food that tastes of home. Plates are built from fresh, seasonal produce and simple ingredients, and the aim is natural flavour rather than flourish. Four dishes sit at the heart of the menu, borsch, cutlets, potato fritters and cottage cheese pancakes, and each is the kind of dish that tends to get people around one table talking.

The photographs from the kitchen give a good sense of the style. One shows a deep bowl of ruby-red soup scattered with chopped herbs and served with a pot of cream. Another shows a whole table laid out at once, with cutlets, a bowl of grains, pickled vegetables and several small side dishes beside the soup. A third shows two golden potato dumplings with a spoonful of white sauce. The full list of dishes is on the menu pages of the restaurant's website.

A sweet pause

Dessert is treated as a pause rather than a finale. The kitchen bakes a classic honey cake, makes thin pancakes served with sour cream, and turns out freshly baked pastries. The sweetness is kept in check, so the cakes are balanced rather than heavy. In the pictures, a layered pastry slice arrives on a pink plate with a sprig of mint and a few berries, which is a pleasant sight to finish a long lunch.

The chef behind the kitchen

The kitchen is led by Eugene Ponomarev, a chef from the Baltics who cooked in some of Latvia's best-known restaurants. He led a team of 30 at the Gastronome restaurant chain and gave culinary masterclasses for Food Anatomy. Among his honours are a bronze prize in the Latvian Chef of the Year competition of 2010 and a silver prize at the Baltic Culinary Star Cup in 2011, and he has served on the board of the Latvian Chef's Club, Pavaru Klubs.

After moving to Malta he opened The Borsch as his own project, gathering the best Slavic dishes he has developed over the years into one menu. If you are building a trip around good tables, our guide to hotels in Sliema is a handy place to start.

Around Tower Road, Sliema

Tower Road runs along the Sliema seafront, in a town that was once a quiet fishing village on the peninsula opposite Valletta. Its name means peace or comfort, and today the town is a centre for shopping, bars and cafe life, with a promenade, rocky beaches and water sports. From here there are good views of the capital across Marsamxett Harbour, which our Valletta guide covers in detail.

Several defences from different centuries lie along this stretch. Sliema Point Battery, about 100 metres away, was built by the British between 1872 and 1876 and is now home to the restaurant Il-Fortizza. Lembi Battery, about 650 metres away, was built in 1757 by the Order of St John but has since been demolished. Cambridge Battery, about 700 metres away, is a Victorian-era battery that originally held an Armstrong 100-ton gun.

Booking and planning your visit

The Borsch is open from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm every day of the week. Booking is done online through the restaurant's website, and the same site lets you order for delivery through Wolt. If you would like to compare other tables nearby, Alma and Ta' Kolina both have pages in our Sliema listings, and our things to do in Malta page has ideas for the rest of your stay. To ask about a table, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the restaurant.