A Sunday morning at Marsaxlokk's fish market

We got there at 7:45am and it was already busy

Marsaxlokk is a fishing village on the southeastern coast of Malta, and on Sunday mornings it hosts what may be the island’s most atmospheric market. Not the most convenient — getting there from Sliema without a car involves a bus via Valletta that takes 80 minutes — but certainly the most photogenic, and arguably the most honest expression of what Malta is before tourism arrived and arranged everything for the camera.

We drove down in July 2022, arriving just before 8am. The car park at the edge of the village was already two-thirds full, half locals with shopping bags, half tourists with cameras. The smell reached us before we’d fully parked: fish, salt water, diesel from the boats, and somewhere behind it the suggestion of garlic and olive oil from a food van near the waterfront.

The boats first

The most photographed thing about Marsaxlokk is not the market itself but the luzzu boats moored along the quayside. These are the traditional Maltese fishing boats: high at bow and stern, painted in vivid reds, yellows, blues and oranges, with the Eye of Osiris painted on both sides of the prow — an ancient Mediterranean talisman against evil that has been on Maltese boats since the Phoenicians, and probably before.

In 2022 there were still enough working luzzu that the harbour felt genuine rather than decorative. Some of the boats were clearly still fishing boats rather than museum pieces: nets piled at the stern, the smell of brine and fish on the decks. Some were being washed down by their owners as we walked past. One fisherman, without particularly acknowledging us, held up a dorado the length of his forearm and spoke rapidly in Maltese to another fisherman standing nearby.

Photographs, yes. But it’s worth standing still first, without the phone, to let the atmosphere actually settle.

The fish stalls

The fish market runs along the waterfront on the north side of the village. By 8am there are maybe twenty stalls, some covered with shade cloth, some not, all of them piled with that morning’s catch and priced in euros per kilo on small handwritten cards.

What’s on the stalls in July: dentici (dentex, a prized Mediterranean fish with white firm flesh), lampuki (dorado/mahi-mahi, Malta’s most celebrated seasonal fish, though its main season is autumn), swordfish, octopus, squid, local crayfish (imqarrun), and an assortment of smaller fish — frott tal-baħar — that the Maltese buy for soup stocks.

The lampuki is the fish that the Maltese are most passionate about: a migratory species that comes through Maltese waters from late August to November, chased by fishing boats using traditional raft-based fishing (kannizzati). In July it’s not quite the season, but a few were there, early-season fish of exceptional quality.

Buying from the market: bring cash, though some stalls take cards. Be prepared to negotiate on larger quantities. The stall holders are not aggressive — this is a genuine market, not a tourist pitch — but they are businesslike. Prices fluctuate with the season and the catch; July tends to be mid-range.

The tourist-facing stalls

Behind the fish market, along the upper side of the square, the market shifts to lace, Maltese glass, pottery and the usual tourist goods. The Maltese lace — bizzilla — is a genuine craft tradition, and if you want to buy some, the market price here is significantly lower than the boutiques in Valletta. Be clear about what you’re buying: machine-made lace exists here alongside hand-made, and the price difference should make the category clear.

The glass stalls sell decorative glassware in the traditional Maltese style — deep blues and greens with amber — made in Gozo and nearby workshops. These are genuine crafts rather than imported goods and make sensible presents if you’re in the market for something breakable.

Breakfast and food at the market

There are several food vans near the waterfront selling pastizzi, hobż biż-żejt (Maltese bread with tomato and olive oil), and coffee. The pastizzi at the market vans are usually decent rather than exceptional — Crystal Palace in Rabat remains the standard for pastizzi quality — but at 7am on a hot morning, a fresh pastizzi and a black coffee from a market van is a very satisfactory breakfast.

The restaurants along the quayside are another matter. By 10am they’ve all opened and are putting out signs advertising grilled fish. The prices here — €25-35 for a grilled fish main — are the highest on the island for what they are. The location is beautiful (tables facing the luzzu boats, the Grand Harbour to the north), the quality is usually decent, but you’re paying primarily for the view.

If you want to eat fish in Marsaxlokk at a price that feels more proportional, there are a few options: the tavernas on the back streets (one block behind the waterfront) serve the same fresh catch at 20-30% less; or there’s the approach favoured by many Maltese families, which is to buy directly from the market and cook at home.

The honest version of a Sunday in Marsaxlokk

Go before 9am. After 9am, the coach parties arrive and the atmosphere changes character. Not bad — still busy and colourful — but the organic Sunday-morning quality dilutes.

July is not the best month for the market. The finest version of the Marsaxlokk market is October-November, when the lampuki season is in full swing and the market feels like it’s serving a real need rather than a tourist ritual. July is still worthwhile but bring modest expectations about fish variety.

The village itself is worth exploring. Beyond the waterfront, Marsaxlokk is a working village with a baroque parish church (the church of Our Lady of Pompeii, worth five minutes inside for the ceiling paintings), old stone houses with brightly painted wooden balconies, and a completely functional everyday life that continues regardless of the tourists on the quayside.

St Peter’s Pool is 20 minutes’ drive from Marsaxlokk, a natural limestone swimming pool on the southern coast. Combining a market morning in Marsaxlokk with an afternoon at St Peter’s Pool is one of the better days you can construct in the south of Malta.

The Sunday fish market is one of those places that delivers exactly what it promises: noise, colour, the smell of the sea, and the particular pleasure of watching a place go about its real business with total indifference to being observed. Come early, bring cash, eat something, and let it be exactly what it is.