Maltese food: 12 dishes you should actually try

What to expect from Maltese cuisine

Maltese food is resolutely Mediterranean but carries its own distinct fingerprint. The archipelago sits between Sicily and North Africa, and the cuisine shows it: you’ll find pasta dishes that would feel at home in Palermo, slow-cooked stews with spice levels that nod toward the Maghreb, and a bread culture that is entirely its own.

The honest starting point is that this isn’t a fine-dining destination in the way that Spain or Italy is. Maltese cooking is village cooking — hearty, seasonal, built around what the land and sea produce. When it’s done well, it’s outstanding. When it’s done badly — which happens in the tourist-facing restaurants on Republic Street in Valletta — it can be forgettable and overpriced.

This guide covers the 12 dishes worth seeking out, where to find them, and a few traps to sidestep.

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The 12 dishes that define Maltese food

1. Pastizzi

The iconic street food of Malta. Pastizzi are diamond-shaped or round pastries made from flaky, layered dough and filled either with ricotta (pastizzi tal-irkotta) or mushy peas (pastizzi tal-piżelli). They’re sold warm from the pastizzeria from early morning until they sell out, usually by midday.

A single pastizz costs around 35–40 cents. The quality varies dramatically: the best have shatteringly crisp pastry and a filling that’s well-seasoned and still slightly warm. The worst are soggy, lukewarm and filled with watery cheese.

Where to find good ones: Crystal Palace bar in Rabat (Malta) is the most discussed, but any pastizzeria away from the main tourist drag is worth trying. More detail in the dedicated pastizzi guide.

2. Ftira

Maltese ftira is not Italian pizza, though it can look similar. It’s a round, slightly chewy bread with a denser crumb, traditionally baked with a smear of tomato paste, local tuna, olives, capers, onions and perhaps a fried egg. It’s the original Maltese fast food — a full lunch wrapped in bread.

In Gozo, ftira is also a flatbread used more broadly, and Gozo’s version has acquired its own identity (some say it’s denser and better). The Gozo ftira with fresh cheeselets (ġbejniet) and sundried tomatoes is one of the simplest and most satisfying things you can eat in the archipelago.

3. Fenkata (rabbit stew)

Rabbit — fenek in Maltese — is the unofficial national dish. Fenkata is slow-cooked rabbit, typically braised with wine, garlic, bay, tomatoes and vegetables until the meat falls off the bone. It’s traditionally served as a two-course meal: the cooking broth goes over pasta as a first course, then the rabbit itself as a main.

The dish has cultural weight: for centuries, only the Maltese nobility had the right to hunt rabbit, so eating it was an act of quiet defiance by ordinary people. It’s now celebrated. We cover it in depth in the fenkata guide — including which village restaurants in Mġarr and Nadur do it best.

A fair warning: this is a dish of actual rabbit, clearly served as such. Diners expecting to just taste “local stew” without confronting the source sometimes get a surprise.

4. Aljotta (fish soup)

Aljotta is a thin, broth-based fish soup cooked with garlic, tomatoes, marjoram and rice. It’s lighter than bouillabaisse, with a cleaner flavour. The fish used is whatever is fresh that day — typically parrotfish, grouper or swordfish trimmings.

You find it mainly in the fish restaurants of Marsaxlokk and in older Valletta trattorie. It’s a good test of a restaurant: a kitchen that makes aljotta well usually does everything else well too.

5. Bragioli (beef olives)

Thin slices of beef rolled around a filling of breadcrumbs, bacon, hard-boiled egg and herbs, then braised slowly in a red wine and tomato sauce. Bragioli is classic Maltese Sunday lunch cooking. You’ll rarely see it on tourist-facing menus because it takes time to make and doesn’t plate dramatically. Restaurants that serve it — usually inland, less touristic spots — tend to be the ones worth visiting.

6. Kapunata

Malta’s version of ratatouille, kapunata is a thick vegetable stew of aubergines, courgettes, peppers, olives and capers, slow-cooked in tomatoes. Unlike ratatouille, it’s typically served at room temperature as a side dish or starter. The addition of capers and olives gives it a bolder, saltier edge than its French cousin.

7. Ġbejniet (fresh Maltese cheeselets)

These small, round cheeses made from sheep or goat’s milk are one of Gozo’s most distinctive products. They come in three versions: fresh (soft, very mild), dried (harder, more concentrated) and peppered (coated in black pepper and left to mature). The dried and peppered versions last longer and travel better; they’re what most visitors buy to take home.

Fresh ġbejniet on Gozo bread with a drizzle of olive oil is breakfast in Gozo. Don’t overcomplicate it.

8. Soppa tal-armla (widow’s soup)

A vegetable soup with ġbejniet fresh cheeselets dropped in at the end. The cheese gently melts into the hot broth, creating pockets of mild creaminess. It’s named, somewhat bleakly, “widow’s soup” because it was traditionally cheap to make — vegetables, broth, and a little cheese. It remains one of the best things you can eat in cold weather.

9. Torta tal-lampuki (dolphinfish pie)

Lampuki (dolphinfish, also known as mahi-mahi) is a seasonal fish that appears in Maltese waters between August and November. During this window, it dominates menus. The traditional preparation is a pie — baked with olives, capers, onion, tomatoes and parsley in shortcrust pastry. Outside of the season, you won’t find it (or shouldn’t — be suspicious of “fresh lampuki” in June).

10. Imqaret (date pastries)

Street food of the sweet variety: deep-fried pastry parcels filled with a mixture of dates, anise and orange zest. They’re sold warm from market stalls and fairs, dusted with icing sugar. The flavour is intensely sweet and aromatic. One or two is the right dose; four becomes cloying.

11. Bigilla (bean dip)

A thick paste made from dried broad beans, mashed with garlic, olive oil, parsley and chilli. It’s served as a starter with Maltese bread, functioning much like hummus. Bigilla is deeply savoury and slightly rough in texture — it’s nothing like the smooth Lebanese version, and that roughness is part of the appeal.

12. Kinnie

Not food, but you’ll be confronted with it. Kinnie is a Maltese soft drink made from bitter oranges and a blend of aromatic herbs. It’s amber-coloured, carbonated and quite aggressively bitter compared to most European sodas. It comes in regular and diet versions. The drink has cult status among Maltese people — it’s served everywhere from pastizzerie to fine-dining restaurants. Whether you enjoy it is a very personal matter; most visitors either love it immediately or find it medicinal.

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Where to actually eat Maltese food

In Valletta

The honest advice here: avoid the restaurants directly on Republic Street and the main tourist corridor. They charge 18–22 euros for mediocre pasta. The good food is two blocks off the main drag.

Try Old Bakery Street, St Lucia Street and St Paul Street for smaller trattorias where you’ll pay 14–16 euros for a proper main course. Nenu the Artisan Baker on St Dominic Street does excellent ftira in a casual setting. For a formal meal, Noni on Republic Street (despite the address) maintains good quality — a starter and main will run 35–45 euros.

The Valletta food tours offer a good way to orientate yourself on your first day:

Valletta street food and culture walking tour The ultimate Valletta food and market tour

In Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk is the fishing village in the south, and it’s the best place on the island for fresh fish. The caveats: Sunday is the famous market day, and the village becomes genuinely crowded (tourist coaches, high prices on the waterfront, pushy vendors). If you go on a weekday — Tuesday to Thursday — the same restaurants charge 18–22 euros for grilled lampuki or sea bream instead of 25–30 euros, and you can actually see the boats.

More in the Marsaxlokk fish restaurants guide.

In Gozo

Gozo has its own food identity: slower, more rustic, heavier on the sheep cheese and fresh vegetables. The market in Victoria on most mornings sells excellent local produce. For a cooking experience that covers ftira, ġbejniet and seasonal vegetables, the island’s cooking classes are genuinely worthwhile:

Gozo cooking class with market visit

The wine tasting dinners in Gozo combine local produce with Maltese wine — more on this in the Malta wine guide.

In Dingli and the interior

The village restaurants of Dingli, Rabat and Mġarr represent the most authentic Maltese cooking on the main island. These are where you’ll find fenkata, bragioli and soppa tal-armla on weekday lunch menus, cooked by restaurateurs who’ve been doing the same dishes for thirty years. Prices are lower and the dining experience more local.

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Maltese food by meal

Breakfast

The traditional Maltese breakfast is either a pastizz or a ftira. In hotels, you’ll get a full English-style buffet. In a pastizzeria, a coffee and two pastizzi cost about 1.50 euros. The local recommendation: skip the hotel breakfast once and find a pastizzeria.

Lunch

Lunch is the main meal for Maltese people. Many restaurants offer a two-course lunch special — pasta or soup, then a main — for 10–14 euros. Outside of this, a filled ftira or a plate of fenkata in a village bar is more than sufficient.

Dinner

Dinner in tourist areas starts around 7pm; in local restaurants, closer to 8pm. Expect to pay 25–40 euros per person for a proper three-course meal with wine at a mid-range restaurant. The Malta restaurants by budget guide breaks this down more precisely.

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Things the food guides don’t tell you

The tuna situation. Canned Maltese tuna is excellent and widely used in ftira and salads. Fresh tuna (bluefin) is occasionally on menus but expensive and, depending on the season, potentially not sustainable. Ask before ordering large cuts.

Capers come from Gozo. Some of the best capers in the Mediterranean grow on Gozo’s rocky coastline. The caper harvest (July) is a local event. If you see “Gozitan capers” on a menu, that’s a good sign.

Honey. Maltese honey — particularly from Gozo — is excellent. It has a distinctive herbal quality from the carob, savory and wildflowers that cover the islands in spring. Buy it at the Sunday market in Valletta or direct from Gozo farms. The village of Żejtun is known for carob syrup (ħarrub) if you want to explore local sweeteners further.

“Traditional Maltese kitchen” menus. Some restaurants, particularly in Mdina and Valletta, market themselves on “traditional cuisine” while serving tourist-adapted versions — milder, smaller portions, with English descriptions borrowed from a marketing sheet. The real test is whether the menu has Maltese-language dish names alongside the English ones.

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Street food beyond pastizzi

The street food guide covers this in depth, but the short version:

• Ħobż biż-żejt: bread rubbed with tomato paste, drizzled with olive oil, topped with capers, olives and tuna. Sold at markets and some bakeries.
• Qassatat: round pastry similar to pastizzi but larger, usually filled with spinach and anchovy or ricotta.
• Imqaret: date pastries, fried, sold at outdoor markets and Valletta stalls.
• Biskuttini tal-lewż: almond biscuits, a key part of Maltese festa culture. Sold in bakeries throughout the year.

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Useful words for ordering

You don’t need Maltese to eat well — English is universal. But knowing a few terms helps:

• Fenek — rabbit
• Lampuki — dolphinfish (mahi-mahi)
• Dott — grouper
• Ġbejniet — Maltese cheeselets
• Ftira — Maltese bread (also used for the filled sandwich)
• Pastizz (singular) / pastizzi (plural) — the iconic flaky pastry
• Bigilla — broad bean dip
• Ħobż — bread

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Frequently asked questions about Maltese food

Is Maltese food vegetarian-friendly?

It can be, but requires navigation. Pasta dishes, kapunata, bigilla, ġbejniet and various vegetable soups are naturally vegetarian. Fenkata and bragioli are obviously not. In tourist-facing restaurants, vegetarian options are always available; in traditional village places, it may take a little more conversation. Vegan is harder — dairy and eggs feature widely in Maltese cooking.

Is Maltese food spicy?

Generally no. The cuisine is flavourful rather than hot. Chilli appears in bigilla and occasionally in braised dishes but as a background note rather than the dominant flavour. If you want heat, you need to ask.

What is the best Maltese dish for first-timers?

Start with a pastizz (ricotta filling) from a proper pastizzeria. Then try ftira for lunch. If you’re eating dinner in a traditional restaurant, order rabbit if it’s on the menu. This sequence covers the main flavour registers of Maltese cooking efficiently.

Can I eat well in Malta on a budget?

Yes, if you shop where locals shop. Pastizzi (40 cents), a filled ftira (4–6 euros), and village restaurants with set lunches (10–12 euros) all represent good value. Tourist-facing restaurants on the main squares are where you overpay. See the budget restaurant guide for specific venues.

When is the best time to eat lampuki?

Lampuki season runs from August to November. Outside of these months, you won’t find it fresh. September is the peak — prices are reasonable, the fish is plentiful, and you can eat it everywhere from pastizzerie to fine-dining tables.

Is Gozo food different from Malta’s?

Yes, noticeably. Gozo’s cuisine leans more heavily on local produce: sheep’s cheese (ġbejniet), Gozitan capers, wild thyme, local wine and salt from the Xwejni salt pans. The food feels more rural and less influenced by the Mediterranean restaurant culture that has shaped coastal Malta. Gozo cooking tends to be simpler and, at its best, very good. See the Gozo food and cheese guide for specifics.

Are there Michelin-starred restaurants in Malta?

Malta currently has no Michelin-starred restaurants, though it has been reviewed in the Michelin Guide. Noni in Valletta and ION Harbour in Birgu are consistently the two most discussed fine-dining restaurants in terms of quality and price (70–100 euros per person with wine). The dining scene has improved markedly since 2018.

What should I drink with Maltese food?

With seafood and pasta, a local white wine — Meridiana’s Isis Chardonnay or Marsovin’s white blends — works well. Kinnie is the local non-alcoholic option. Cisk (a lager, pronounced “chisk”) is the default beer. With rabbit or braised meat, local reds from the Girgentina or Ghirghentina grape hold up reasonably well against a Sicilian red at the same price point. The Malta wine guide covers all the producers in detail.

Learn to cook it yourself: The Malta cooking class guide covers hands-on classes in Dingli and Gozo where you cook these traditional dishes with local instructors — the most direct way to engage with Maltese food culture beyond eating.

Last reviewed: 2026-04-20