Have you ever dreamed of a wedding by the sea?

An upcoming venue by the coast of St Paul’s Bay is promising just that.

The team behind the iconic establishment that used to be called Ostrica at Gillieru is set to transform it into a bistro and a wedding and events venue.

As revealed by WhosWho.mt, it is set to open in the coming months and will have an indoor and outdoor area, allowing couples to have their first dance with the sea as their backdrop.

The venue will continue hosting the weekly Mamma Mia Mediterranean nights that used to be held at Ostrica. Our team had attended one of these nights and let’s say we were pretty impressed.

The Gillieru Harbour Hotel remains in operation, as does the Gillieru Cafe inside it, which caters to hotel and walk-in guests alike.

Both the venue and the bistro will be run by the hospitality management company Bastions View Ltd, which took over Ostrica in October 2024.

Since then, Bastions View Ltd has set out to begin a new chapter, taking time to observe, reflect, and explore how best to honour and give back to the Gillieru area, whilst respecting the heritage of the site, whose history is knitted into the very fabric of St Paul’s Bay. 

It is the latest chapter for an establishment which has a fascinating history that dates back to the early 1900s, when home cook Rosi and her fisherman husband Toni would sell seafood meals to contractors and masons who were building up St. Paul’s Bay at the time.

It survived two world wars and was eventually revamped into Il-Gillieru, and later Ostrica at Gillieru.

And now it is reinventing itself once more, in a chapter that could be worth saying “I do” to.