I had eaten and eaten well at Risette before the pandemic hit us and spoiled our fun. I like the simple but 'clean' ambience of this restaurant. The décor is subdued but stylish and has a decisive modern stamp. Now they have added Luke Azzopardi's photos on one wall for added chic.

Risette has now changed chef or rather promoted someone who was there already.  The present chef, Steve Scicluna, cut his teeth in several restaurants both here and abroad but his greatest experience came from working in Michelin star eateries such as the Clove Club in London and Chapter One in Dublin.

Ensuring the diner has a truly memorable meal with exemplary service and dishes is at the heart of what his team does. Steve's mantra is that every dish has to be "delicious, beautiful, creative." What he is really going for is haute-casual, or effortless refinement.

Steve has exacting standards for the ingredients he uses which is obvious to anyone eating there. He is adept at cooking anything and loves to invent some new delicacy to delight and surprise the diner.

He tries to combine layer upon layer of flavours to create something to magical effect.

I went with a friend, who is an excellent cook herself (and composes poetry in her head, as she is watching the pasta).  She has eaten in many a restaurant both here and abroad and enjoys her food.

We settled for the tasting menu. I like this invention. One doesn't have to ponder over the menu, to start off with an impossibility if one has forgotten one's reading specs.  Decisions are taken out of your hands: fish, poultry or meat?  and even then the choice of fellow diners invariably looks more delicious.

At Risette you get a collection of nine dishes in small portions. A tasting menu is really a showcase to highlight the culinary artistry of the chef.

As soon as the waitress put the bread and butter on the table I could sense that whatever was going to follow was not going to be ordinary. Just look at that bread and the way the butter was presented. At the end of the meal Chef Steve in his impeccable whites came to our table to see our reaction and if we had enjoyed it all. What about the bread?: "It's a sourdough focaccia which is fermented for 24 hours. We use two different types of organic flour and we bake bread everyday for service inhouse."  Simplyfying may be a short cut to sanity, but where's the fun, the sense of achievement that you get from going all out?

The tiny feast started with canapés which looked too good to eat, but we sunk our teeth into them nevertheless, apologising to them, while closing our eyes in delight. Sad for the canapés but a few moments of heaven for  us.

There were balls presented. Mysterious and delicious. How are they made? We asked the chef later on. We accepted his silence. Not a state secret but certainly a trade secret. Why should he share the recipe after all?

A small tumbler of mushroom soup followed. There must have been some special ingredients for it tasted nothing like mine. We both wished there was more of it.

The Bernardaud dinner service adds to the experience. This is after all Limoges porcelain in which you are being served. Bernardaud is regarded as an expert for spectacular dinnerware that can also withstand special demands.

At Risette they have opted for the cool elegance of the Écume White dinnerware which is characterized by engraved surfaces that evoke fine sea foam frozen in time. It is one of Bernardaud's most popular china collections. Écume White is slightly thicker than other porcelain collections. It is less translucent but robust enough for restaurant use.

Matthew Ellul, owner of the boutique hotel, Casa Ellul and therefore Risette, is steeped in the knowledge of fine wines and spirits. Their family has had the well known family business which has been dealing in wines, spirits and cigars in Santa Lucia street for many years. Matthew is a qualified sommelier and is a permanent and enthusiastic student of wine. He will advice on wine at Risette, and make sure that every diner is happy as he charms his way to each table. He is genuinely interested in what patrons have to say.

So, on with the menu. An organic hen's egg, infused with aromatic saffon, with creamy polenta and drizzled with the cacio e pepe sauce lulled us into a mood of benign tolerance. What a yum, yum that was!

The seabass with pumpkin saffron sauce made an entrance and soon, its exit as we tried to eat it slowly.

The waitress gave us a short description of every dish.

On the  next table there were seven or eight patrons who had come from Gozo to stay at Casa Ellul overnight and fly to Manchester for some important football match the following day. They were animated without being noisy and obviously enjoying the meal.

Then came the rabbit ravioli! About four of them. Not the heavy local ones stuffed with ricotta which come with our mother's milk. The pastry for these was light and the filling abundant. When the menu says stuffed with rabbit goodness only the chef knows what he has concocted so that they taste so ultra delicious.

We both opted out of the Angus Beef sirloin on offer. There is little meat in my life these days. I am bored with cooking it, eating it and just thinking about it. There are only a certain number of ways you can cook a piece of meat after all. Poultry is different.

Also we had had our fill and eaten more than enough. We had just enough space for dessert.

Custard cream biscuits can certainly turn us into ugly puddings but not so one of the desserts on offer that evening, chocolate and banana millefeuille with parsley ice-cream. Parsley ice-cream? Yes and surely one of the most delicious millefeuilles I have ever put into my face.

And Hey ho! all through that not a single leaf of kale, which has suddenly come out of the closet... what in heaven's name is this trend that has come upon us?

Even a health fascist would be happy with this tasting menu.

Were I given to betting I would wager a tidy sum that it will not be long before Steve is awarded his first Michelin star. There is another restaurant in St Julian's which is bound to receive a Michelin star soon, you can bet. That makes two of them.

Soon, everyone will want to eat at Risette, not least to tell everyone they have.