Arigato! Tokyo Restaurant Dedicated To Maltese Cuisine And Endorsed By Prime Minister Gives Islanders VIP Treatment
When you’ve hosted the Prime Minister of Malta in your restaurant dedicated to Maltese cuisine, you’re bound to treat any Maltese customer like a VIP, and that’s exactly what マルタ (Maruta) did the other day.
In a post that appeared on popular Facebook forum The Salott during the week, the restaurant owner reportedly gave the lucky visitors their own menu in Maltse (after asking them to wait patiently in their own private booth).
Takashi Takamiya, the restaurant owner and chef, took great care in translating his entire menu from Japanese to Maltese and English, before handing the service over to the floor team who took great care of the couple who were visiting Japan.
When Takashi Takamiya arrived in Malta for an English course, he fell in love with the foods he found and couldn’t wait to share it with his fellow countrymen upon his return.
Takashi is the owner and chef at マルタ (Maruta) – a Maltese restaurant in the heart of Tokyo, offering customers every key aspect of Maltese dishes… and they’re really nailing it!
Takashi hadn’t just gone home and opened a restaurant, added rabbit to the menu and called it tal-Malti. No, he studied the cuisine with some of the best local food legends he could find.
There he is inside Maxokk’s iconic bakery, learning the ropes from the true pros.
And here he is mastering the mozzarella with La Maltesa in Gżira.
Takashi took all that he had learnt, and when he opened his doors shortly after his travels in 2016, his menu was an instant hit with the locals
But we would have only assumed this to have been the case, because you really can’t go wrong with bigilla.
In fact, his menu and restaurant caused such a stir, that when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat visited the country, he had to stop by and check out the place.
We wonder if he’d given the Cisk Strong (9%) a try while he was there, or even the Hanini digestive liqueur…
Takashi should be made an honorary citizen of Malta, don’t you think?