Most small restaurant kitchens in Malta are built around compromise. The space is tight, the brief is ambitious, and the budget has to stretch across cooking, refrigeration, warewashing, and extraction all at once. What tends to suffer is coherence: equipment gets specified in isolation, brands get mixed without much thought, and the kitchen that results works, after a fashion, but never quite as a whole.
A recent installation we completed for a small restaurant in Malta went the other way. Four brands, each chosen for a specific reason, each doing exactly the job it was selected to do. The result was a kitchen that felt considered from the cooking line to the pot wash. We think the brands are worth naming because they tell the story of how the kitchen was put together.
The cooking line: Bertos Macros 700
The Bertos Macros 700 series has been at the centre of more of our restaurant installations than any other cooking line. It earns that position. The 700mm depth gives chefs a genuinely usable cooking surface, the construction tolerates continuous service use without complaint, and the modular configuration means the line can be specified precisely for the kitchen rather than approximated from whatever is available. For a small restaurant running a serious kitchen, it is the right starting point. Everything else in the cooking zone is organised around it.
If you want to understand why we build with Bertos in more depth, we covered the brand in full in The Brand Behind the Line: Why We Build with Bertos.
The pizza station: XTS F2/90E
The XTS F2/90E is a double-deck electric pizza oven from XTS International, a specialist Italian manufacturer based in Thiene, Veneto, whose entire range is built around the specific demands of pizza and pastry production. The F2/90E holds six 30 cm pizzas per deck, runs to 500°C, and weighs 178 kilograms: substantial enough to hold heat through a busy service, precise enough to handle the difference between a properly blistered base and an overworked one.
Electric deck ovens like the XTS F2/90E suit smaller restaurant kitchens well. There is no flue to route, the heat profile is consistent across both chambers, and the operating temperature range gives chefs flexibility across different dough types and crust styles.
For a small restaurant serving pizza as a core part of the menu, a dedicated deck oven with this kind of temperature range and chamber capacity earns its footprint. The XTS sits alongside the Bertos line without competing with it for space or for the team's attention during service.
Refrigeration, neutral equipment, and extraction: Combisteel
Combisteel supplied three distinct things in this kitchen: the refrigerated counters, the neutral stainless steel fabrication, and the extraction canopy. That breadth is one of the reasons we return to Combisteel for kitchen builds of this scale. Specifying refrigeration, prep surfaces, and extraction from a single manufacturer simplifies the installation, produces a consistent finish, and reduces the number of moving parts in the support relationship afterwards.
The refrigerated counters keep prep ingredients at temperature directly at the point of use. The neutral equipment, which includes the work tables, sink units, and the pot wash inlet table, is built to the same standard as the refrigeration: heavy-gauge stainless, clean joins, and the kind of finish that holds up to daily cleaning without deteriorating. The extraction canopy is sized for the cooking line beneath it, drawing heat and vapour away from the team at the rate the kitchen generates both.
Dishwashing: Krupps lift-door dishwasher
The Dishwashing specification for this kitchen is a Krupps lift-door dishwasher installed as a complete station: inlet sink, the machine itself, and an outlet table for clean ware. The lift-door format suits a small kitchen well. It occupies less floor space than a conveyor, cycles fast enough to keep pace with a restaurant service, and is straightforward to operate and to maintain. The complete station approach, with the inlet and outlet tables integrated into the installation, means the wash-up area functions as a proper zone rather than an afterthought.
Krupps Dishwashing is a brand we have covered before. If you are weighing up a dishwasher for your own operation, the Krupps KE50UT guide is a useful reference point for understanding the range.
Why brand selection matters in a small kitchen
In a larger kitchen, a mismatched specification has room to hide. In a small restaurant kitchen, it does not. Every piece of equipment is visible from every other piece. The extraction has to keep pace with the cooking line. The refrigeration has to sit within reach of the prep surfaces. The wash-up has to clear covers at the speed the front of house generates them. When the brands are chosen without that wider view in mind, the kitchen works in parts but struggles as a system.
What we put together here was a kitchen where each brand was selected for what it contributes to that system. Bertos anchors the cooking. XTS handles the pizza station with the precision the menu demands. Combisteel ties the refrigeration, fabrication, and extraction together. Krupps closes the loop at the wash-up. The installation reflects that thinking, and the kitchen performs accordingly.
If you are planning a restaurant kitchen in Malta and want to talk through how to specify it properly, we would be glad to help. Get in touch with the Spiteri Catering team and let us understand what you need. We handle everything from initial consultation and design through to supply, professional installation, and ongoing technical support.
Related reading: The Brand Behind the Line: Why We Build with Bertos | From the Van to Nadur: Fitting Out the Joe's Street Pizza Kitchen | Why Maltese Caterers Are Turning to the Krupps KE50UT Dishwasher