Food Icons: The Olympic
Written by Alex Grech
The Olympic is a Maltese institution. If you want to savour home cooking 1970s style, this is the place for you. It’s cheap, it’s brash, it has TV screens, loud people, plastic chairs, fat men lounging by the bar. But there is a wonderful honesty about the food. In the morning, the Olympic specialises in ftiras. You either go in with a fixed idea of what your door-stopper has to be, or else you leave it up to the guy in t-shirt to do his own thing. There’s a great onomatopeic Maltese word – ‘thawwara’ – roughly translated as ‘mix it up.’ On several occasions I have watched in a mix of awe and horror as Mr Olympic first used his brush to paste both sides of the bread with tomato paste, and then swiftly assembled a mountain of mortadella, cheddar, ham, pickle, gbejna, giardiniera, olives and an extra squirt of tomato paste for good measure.
By mid-morning, the hungry guys are already in. The pork chops are succulent, the cannelloni folded neatly under the bechamel sauce: french fries still reign. It can get a bit crowded for lunch but a table always materialises after a short wait.
Wash it down with some Kinnie, Dr Pepper or a beer. Then ask for an Espresso.
Go out into the sunlight. Look at the Mosta dome.
Life is good at the Olympic.
Contact Info:
Google Map - for how to find Olympic.
47, Triq il-Konstituzzjoni, Mosta
Tel: 21432067
where is it?
Hi Neville. The Olympic bar (or ix-Xufi) as it’s fondly known to its patrons, is right at the top of Constitution street, diagonally across from the Mosta Dome. We’ll insert a map on the post shortly! But you can’t miss it.
so just to clarify: the Mosta ‘dome’ is a huge Rotunda church in the town of Mosta, in the centre of the island! Its claim to fame is that it has the third largest unsupported dome in the world. And on 9th April 1942, it took a direct hit from an Axis bomb that came in right through the dome, but failed to explode. Which has added to various claims of miracles. The church is a wonderful piece of architecture. As sophisticated.. as the Olympic is not! And yet unique, in their own way.
[...] raw. Concoct bruschetta versions like the picture. Eat it at home. Go to craftsmen like the guys at Olympic in Mosta who have multiple [...]
Finally got to try it out – It’s great
We love The Olympic and visit it everytime we come to Malta
Olympic is our favorite – we go there and order take away very often. My wife likes their lamb shank and I LOVE their spaghetti Bolognese and also their ftira.
Want to eat good and spend little? Go to Olympic situated to the right hand side of the Mosta Rotunda, next door to BOV.