What do you do if you have a tenner and you worship both Halloumi & Burgers? You head straight on to Mriehel, with only 1 pitstop: Levantina Bistro.
Halloumi cheese has made its way up the list of the most popular food trends, and with good reason! Halloumi is a delicious and uniquely grillable cheese like no other. But there’s a catch, this cheese comes with a hefty price tag attached. And that’s enough good reason for us to go to Mriehel and investigate further.
Mriehel is mostly known for its many snack bars that offer countless versions of the venerable Maltese bread filled with sausage and eggs. Levantina brings a breath of fresh air in the area, as the main concept is to offer Middle Eastern inspired food, with a bistro and bakehouse flair. Yes, they do eat burgers in Cairo and Istanbul, so we’re game! The bistro opened its doors in August 2017 and has been a steady beacon for avantgarde foodies, who come from the surrounding office areas, and beyond. Silvana Callus Mizzi is the driving force behind it all. 7 years ago she quit her career in financial services and shortly moved to Surrey where her hopes and dreams took an unpredictable twist and drove her to opt for a cooking course at Tante Marie School, that happens to be partly owned by none other than burger-lad Chef Ramsay! There she delved into classic French cuisine and acquired the highly regarded Cordon Bleu Diploma. Back in Malta, she pulled the guts out of an old factory and turned it into the exquisitely decorated place that we can behold today. There are shelves full of china, teapots and saucers, many books and even the toilets have a very chic flair. It’s not only an impeccable place for casual meetings & wining, but also a lovely & serene environment where one could hang out and spend his leisure time. Yes, we loved it that much!
The kitchen area is one of the largest and most equipped we’ve seen in the local restaurant scene. Here we find Chef Joseph, who helms the cookhouse and is getting ready to prepare the burger of the day. The patty is made from 200gr of chuck beef and is topped with 2 thick slices of grilled halloumi. There is a load of caramelized onions on top. All is housed in a black sesame seed brioche bun, which is spread with smoked mayo, produced in-house. There’s also a bed of lettuce and 2 beefy slices of tomato.
This burger is on the large size, and fortunately, it’s not one of those offerings from NYB or Hugo that seem to be made for XS appetite. The patty is ground daily from choice beef, is authentically juicy and has a wonderful char. And most important of all, it does taste beefy and well-seasoned, with no unnecessary intrusion from the other condiments. The bread is sourced locally, but Levantina add their own touch with a handful of black sesame seed, that bring an extra level of crunch. The grilled brioche bun has a nice crust and is a perfect fit with the meat, with the right amount of bread to meat ratio. There’s enough mayo sauce to inject the perfect volume of smokiness without turning the bun soggy and commit the ultimate sin of breaking the bread. This restraint shows that some good thought has gone behind the design of this burger. The caramelized onions are delicious and very well executed, in as much as they could stand as a side dish on their own!
Even though we consider the meat as the big Hero of any burger, the Halloumi proves to be no less. This cheese is prepared from a mix of sheep and goat milk and is often considered as the most traditional dish in Cyprus. It’s a soft curd-like cheese, free of rennet and thus safe for vegetarians who do not consume rennet. The outside turns perfectly crispy and golden when grilled, and the inside retains some structural integrity but gets just gooey enough. The cheese is tangy and salty, not dissimilar in taste to some versions of feta, but with quite a different consistency. There are two thick slabs of Halloumi, and considering the current market price of quality Halloumi, paired with the meat used here, it takes a true financial wizard to be able to keep the price of this burger for under a tenner. The French fries are also worth a notable mention. They are hot, crispy and crunchy and full of potato flavour. We could eat these all day long, as they are very lightly fried, with no greasy aftertaste.
Levantina has hit all the right buttons with this burger. Overall there’s a perfect symphony of meat, cheese and bread within the first two bites. This burger creation has that much sought-after taste and smell of burger perfection and stands high amongst the most noteworthy burgers we’ve tried out this year. Whether you like Halloumi or not (who doesn’t?!) this burger should be on your next to-eat list!
