Dragonara Brasserie

Dragonara Brasserie is the restaurant inside the Dragonara Casino, which occupies the Dragonara Palace at the very end of the Dragonara peninsula in St Julian's. The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Claudio Schiavone, and his long, approachable menu moves from salad bowls and fresh pasta to grilled ribeye, a dozen pizzas and burgers. Gaming is the casino's main business, but the brasserie gives visitors a reason to come for the palace and the food alone.

Prices are gentle for a seafront palace, with pizzas from €6 and mains topping out at €24 for the grilled ribeye, which makes it as easy for a casual supper as for a night out. For a wider choice in the area, our round-up of restaurants in St Julian's covers the town, and our page on Italian and Mediterranean restaurants collects places cooking in a similar style across Malta.

A palace on Dragonara Point

The setting is the main reason many visitors come. A Maltese legend tells of a dragon living at the tip of the San Ġiljan peninsula, its roars carrying across the area day and night, and Dragonara Point takes its name from the beast. The palace that stands there was built in 1870 as a summer residence for Emmanuele Scicluna, a banker and the first marquis of his line, and much of its original architecture survives.

The building has had an eventful life. It served as a hospital during the First World War, and during the Second World War the Scicluna family gave shelter to more than 100 refugees. In 1964 the family leased the palace and grounds to the Kursaal Company, which opened Malta's first casino here, and the business helped to establish St Julian's as one of the island's main business hubs. Today the palace has been renovated, but the operators have made a point of staying true to its history.

The casino's own photographs show the palace lit up on its rocky point at dusk, white columns framing the open sea, and a colonnaded terrace with lounge seating. The home page invites guests to take in the views of the Mediterranean over a cocktail with friends.

Chef Claudio Schiavone's kitchen

Executive Chef Claudio Schiavone leads the kitchen, and the brasserie presents his menu as one designed to delight the senses in a handsome setting. In practice it is a broad, Italian-leaning Mediterranean list with something for most appetites: light bowls and fried prawns to start, Roman and Sicilian pasta, a short choice of meat and fish mains, a full page of pizzas, a burger corner, sauces, sides and a handful of desserts.

The dining room, as pictured on the website, is bright and cheerful, with blue and peach upholstered chairs, round tables, tall urns and a bar along the back wall. The food photography shows neatly plated dishes such as spaghetti with whole prawns, stuffed squid with mussels, and fish fillets dressed with capers and a vivid orange sauce.

Starters and pasta

Four starters cost between €10 and €13. The Avocado Bliss Bowl (€10) combines avocado with feta, a soft-boiled egg, leaves, a little yogurt and croutons, while the Nordic Breeze Bowl (€12) brings salmon marinated in house with baby potatoes, greens, roasted cashews, croutons and a mint chutney. Straccetti di Manzo, thin strips of beef on parsley potatoes with a pan jus, is also €12, and King Prawns Tempura (€13) is a plate of five Argentinian king prawns in a panko crust with curry mayonnaise.

Pasta runs from €8 to €14. Casarecce Cacio e Pepe is the simplest and cheapest at €8, the Roman pairing of Pecorino Romano and cracked black pepper on twisted pasta. Tortiglioni Amatriciana (€12) is made with guanciale, slowly cooked tomato, black pepper and Pecorino. Spaghetti Pesto Siciliano e Gamberoni (€13) mixes a prawn sauce with a Sicilian pesto of almonds, cherry tomatoes, ricotta and basil, and the homemade Tortelli Baccalà e Cozze (€14) are stuffed with salt cod and served in a sauce of mussels and cherry tomatoes.

Grills and mains

The main course list is short and priced from €16 to €24. Chicken Supreme (€16) is a pan-seared breast finished with a white wine and lemon reduction. Two fish dishes cost €22 each: a 200g salmon fillet, pan-seared with lemon and cracked pepper, and a whole local farmed sea bass weighing 500g, cooked on the grill. The Grilled Argentinian Ribeye, a 300g steak, is the most expensive dish on the menu at €24.

Sauces cost €3 each, with a mushroom, brandy and black pepper sauce, a chimichurri and a béarnaise on the list. Sides range from €1 for homemade bread to €5 for grilled vegetables, with French fries at €3.50, boiled or roasted vegetables at €4, roasted baby potatoes or parsley mash at €3, and a mixed salad at €2.50. If you would like to compare a more formal dinner close by, our page on Quadro covers a tasting menu restaurant on Dragonara Road, and Caviar and Bull is another St Julian's address for steak and seafood.

Pizzas from €6 to €14

A dozen pizzas make up the longest section of the menu, most built on San Marzano tomato and fior di latte mozzarella. The Marinara is the cheapest at €6, with tomato, garlic oil, oregano and basil, followed by the Margherita at €7. At €9 are the Norma, with aubergine, salted ricotta and basil oil; the Napoli, with anchovies and black olives; and the Funghi, with champignon mushrooms and a dusting of porcini.

Five pizzas cost €10: the Siciliana with Sicilian pesto, Sicilian sausage, roasted peppers and olives; a Capricciosa loaded with mushrooms, peas, ham, boiled egg and olives; the Calabrese with spianata Calabrese and Pecorino; a four-cheese version with Pecorino, smoked cheese and Gorgonzola; and Tonno e Cipolla with tuna and onion. The Summer Garden (€13) swaps tomato for a red pepper cream with green peppers, cherry tomatoes, pesto, rocket and buffalo mozzarella added after baking, and the Bufala and Mortadella (€14) tops buffalo mozzarella with almond pesto, mortadella and rocket. For a different Italian table in town, see our page on Palio's Trattoria.

Burgers and desserts

The Burgers Corner runs from €7 to €15. A Veggie Quesadilla (€7) is a toasted wheat tortilla filled with cheddar, peppers and onions, and the Crispy Chicken (€8) puts breaded chicken breast with aioli, lettuce and tomato in a brioche bun. The Bacon Burger (€14) pairs a 200g Angus patty with smoked streaky bacon and the house sauce, and the Egg Benedict Burger (€15) tops the same patty with a runny egg and béarnaise.

Every dessert costs €4: crème brûlée, tiramisu, a Lemon Dome of soft sponge filled with lemon cream and soaked in limoncello syrup, and a Tartufo Semifreddo, a truffle-shaped hazelnut and chocolate semifreddo rolled in cocoa. Ice cream costs €3 per scoop. With twelve pizzas, four burgers and plenty of pasta on the list, it is an easy place to bring a family or a group with mixed tastes, and sharing a few starters and a pizza or two works as well as three formal courses.

Booking, parking and getting there

The brasserie takes reservations through an online form on the Dragonara Casino website, where you give your name, the number of guests, the date and your preferred time, with space for a note about anything the team should know. Opening hours for the brasserie are not published, so include your preferred time when you book. The casino has its own car park for visitors, and its dress code is smart casual.

St Julian's sits on Malta's east coast a short way north of the capital, so dinner here combines well with a day of sightseeing. Our Valletta guide covers the city, our list of things to do in Malta has ideas for the rest of your stay, and our guide to hotels in Sliema and St Julian's lists places to stay within easy reach. To ask about a table or any special request, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the restaurant.