Maltese Food: What to Eat in Malta (A Complete Food Guide)

Maltese cuisine doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves. Most visitors arrive focused on the history and the beaches, then find themselves genuinely surprised by how good the food is. It shouldn't be a surprise — Malta sits at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, with centuries of Phoenician, Arab, Sicilian, Norman, and British influence all leaving their mark on the kitchen. The result is a cuisine that's hearty, coastal, historically layered, and built around simple, quality ingredients.

This guide covers everything you should eat in Malta: the essential street food, the traditional dishes, the local drinks, and a few things that are easy to miss if you stick to tourist menus.

The Culinary Influences Behind Maltese Food

Understanding where Maltese food comes from makes it taste better. The islands have been occupied or influenced by practically every major Mediterranean power at one point or another, and each left something behind in the kitchen.

The Arab influence (9th–11th centuries) shows up clearly in spiced pastries, date-based sweets, and the heavy use of herbs and aromatics. The Sicilian connection is present throughout — pasta dishes, ricotta, and the general structure of a lot of Maltese cooking have strong parallels across the water. The Knights of St. John (1530–1798), who came from France, Spain, and Italy, brought new ingredients and refined the cooking further. British rule (1800–1964) contributed less glamorously — corned beef became a pantry staple and remains a pastizzi filling to this day.

The underlying base is deeply Mediterranean: olive oil, fresh tomatoes, capers, olives, seasonal vegetables, and fish from some of the clearest water in the region.

Essential Street Food

Pastizzi

The single most iconic thing you'll eat in Malta. Pastizzi are small, flaky pastry parcels — diamond-shaped or round — with a shatteringly crisp exterior and a soft, savoury filling. The two traditional fillings are ricotta and mushy peas (piżelli), though you'll also find versions filled with spinach, chicken, Maltese sausage, and even sweet fillings like apple or chocolate.

They cost around 50 cents each, are available at every pastizzeria, bar, café, and street kiosk across Malta, and are eaten at any time of day from breakfast through to late-night snack. Locals eat them with coffee in the morning or with a cold Cisk (Malta's local lager) in the evening.

Don't leave Malta without trying both the ricotta and pea versions. The pea version in particular is underrated — most first-timers default to ricotta, but the mushy pea filling has more character.

Where to find them: Literally everywhere, but Crystal Palace in Rabat is often cited as serving the best on the island.

Ftira

Ftira is Malta's traditional sourdough bread — ring-shaped, baked at high heat for a thick, crackly crust and an open, airy crumb inside. It's so central to Maltese culture that it's listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

As a sandwich (ftira biz-zejt), it's typically filled with tuna, capers, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, onion, and olive oil — sometimes with a boiled egg or potatoes added. Every bakery has its own version, and every family tends to customise it. It's simple, filling, and properly good.

Don't confuse it with Gozitan ftira, which is a different thing entirely — a flat, pizza-style bread from Gozo, baked with toppings on top rather than filled. Both are worth eating; they're just very different.

Where to find it: Any local bakery or sandwich shop. In Valletta, the Is-Suq Tal-Belt food market has several good options.

Ħobż biż-Żejt

Literally "bread with oil", ħobż biż-żejt is the simplest and most satisfying thing on any Maltese table. Crusty Maltese bread, smeared with kunserva (a thick, intensely flavoured tomato paste), drizzled with olive oil, and topped with whatever's going — tuna, capers, olives, ġbejna cheese, anchovies. Often served as a starter in traditional restaurants. The quality of the bread and the kunserva is everything here.

Platt Malti (Maltese Platter)

If you want an overview of Maltese flavours in one sitting, order a platt Malti. It's a sharing platter of local staples — typically including ġbejna cheese, Maltese sausage (zalzett), bigilla bean dip, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, kunserva, Maltese bread, and galletti crackers. It's the best introduction to Maltese food that exists, and a good test of any traditional restaurant's kitchen.

Traditional Dishes

Stuffat tal-Fenek — Rabbit Stew

Malta's national dish, and the one you absolutely must order at least once. Rabbit was historically the meat of the Maltese peasantry — cheap, available, and sustaining — and fenek (rabbit) remains central to Maltese cooking in a way that feels genuinely cultural rather than just culinary.

The classic preparation involves marinating the rabbit in red wine with garlic, bay leaves, and herbs, then slow-cooking it until the meat falls off the bone. It's served either as a stew with potatoes, or with pasta — typically spaghetti — in what's called fenkata. The sauce, reduced from the wine and tomatoes, is rich and deeply flavoured.

Where to eat it: Ta' Kris in Sliema is consistently recommended by locals and visitors alike. Traditional family-run restaurants outside Valletta tend to do the best versions — look for places with a handwritten menu.

Braġjoli — Beef Olives

Despite the name, there are no olives in this dish. Braġjoli are thin slices of beef rolled around a stuffing of minced meat, breadcrumbs, herbs, and hard-boiled egg, then braised slowly in a rich tomato sauce. The name comes from their shape, which resembles an olive. Rich, comforting, and very Maltese — it's the kind of dish that makes more sense in winter but appears on menus year-round.

Aljotta — Fish Soup

Malta is an island, and its fish cooking reflects that. Aljotta is a traditional Maltese fish soup — a clear, tomato-based broth with garlic, fresh herbs (particularly wild fennel and marjoram), rice, and whatever white fish is fresh that day. It's lighter than it sounds, aromatic, and genuinely delicious when made well. Particularly popular during Lent, when it appears on nearly every menu across the island.

Some local cooks judge a new restaurant by its aljotta — if they can make the soup well, the rest of the kitchen probably follows.

Torta tal-Lampuki — Lampuki Pie

Lampuki is the Maltese word for dorado (mahi-mahi), a fish that appears in Maltese waters in late summer and autumn. During lampuki season (roughly September to November), it's everywhere — in restaurants, in home kitchens, and most distinctively, in torta tal-lampuki: a double-crusted savoury pie filled with lampuki, capers, olives, onions, cauliflower, spinach, and tomatoes. It's a seasonal dish tied deeply to a specific time of year, and if you're visiting in autumn, it's not optional.

Imqarrun il-Forn — Baked Pasta

Malta's version of baked pasta — macaroni or penne layered with a rich beef and pork ragu, egg, and cheese, then baked in the oven until set and golden on top. Think of it as a Maltese lasagne, or a cousin of the Greek pastitsio. Comfort food, unambiguously, and all the better for it.

Timpana

A step further than imqarrun il-forn: the same baked pasta filling encased in a puff pastry shell and baked. Substantial, rich, and something you're unlikely to need a large dinner after. Usually served sliced, often as a main course with a side salad.

Kapunata

Malta's take on ratatouille — a slow-cooked stew of aubergine, courgette, peppers, tomatoes, capers, and olives. Served warm or at room temperature, often alongside meat or fish, or just with good bread. The capers give it a distinctly Maltese character.

Zalzett tal-Malti — Maltese Sausage

A dry-cured pork sausage seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, coriander, and fennel seeds. Milder and drier than Italian sausages, with its own particular flavour. Eaten sliced on a platter, grilled, or incorporated into pasta dishes and pizzas. Worth trying on its own first to appreciate the seasoning before it gets lost in a sauce.

Cheese

Ġbejna

Malta's signature cheese — small rounds of sheep's milk (occasionally goat's or cow's milk) cheese made with minimal ingredients: milk, salt, and rennet. It comes in four forms: fresh (soft, mild, eaten young), dried (firmer texture, more concentrated flavour), peppered (dried and rolled in cracked black pepper), and pickled (preserved in brine or vinegar with herbs).

The peppered and dried versions are the ones you'll encounter most often on platters and in restaurants. Fresh ġbejna, soft and mild, is harder to find outside Malta but absolutely worth seeking out if you spot it — it tastes entirely different from the dried version and has a delicacy to it.

Sweets and Desserts

Imqaret

Hot, crispy pastry pockets stuffed with date paste and served with a drizzle of honey, sometimes a squeeze of lemon. Imqaret are sold at street kiosks and bakeries, eaten warm, and are the Maltese equivalent of proper comfort food. A couple of imqaret and a coffee is a legitimate meal.

Nougat (Torrone)

Maltese nougat — typically studded with almonds and sometimes pistachios, lighter in texture than the Italian version, and less aggressively sweet. Available in any bakery or tourist shop, though quality varies wildly. The artisan producers around Valletta make genuinely good versions.

Ftira tal-Hnini (Honey Ring)

A pastry ring filled with a honey and almond paste, eaten at Easter. If you visit around Easter, seek this out; it's seasonal and genuinely special.

Cassata and Granita

Cassata — sponge soaked in fruit juice, layered with ricotta and a thick sugar paste, the whole thing encased in white royal icing — is the traditional Easter and celebration cake in Malta. Granita, meanwhile, is Malta's version of Italian granita — intensely flavoured shaved ice, typically served in the morning with a soft bread roll (brioche) for dunking. Flavours are seasonal and local: in summer, lemon and almond are classics; in winter, strawberry and mulberry.

What to Drink

Wine

Malta's local wine industry has grown significantly in the past 20 years. The island's wine valley, around Mtaħleb on the main island, produces some genuinely good reds and whites — look for producers like Delicata, Emanuel Cachia, and Meridiana. If wine's important to you, a visit to a local winery is worthwhile, and wines are considerably cheaper to buy directly from producers than in restaurants or shops.

Cisk

Malta's local lager beer — light, sessionable, and what locals drink. Available everywhere.

Kinnie

A local fizzy orange and herbal drink — peculiarly Maltese, acquiring taste, and either loved or disliked intensely. If you want a sense of Malta in a bottle, Kinnie is it. Try it at least once.

Where to Eat

For traditional food in Valletta:

Tal-Petut — small, no-fuss, properly local
U Bistrot — fine dining with Maltese roots

Outside Valletta:

Ta' Kris (Sliema) — rabbit stew
Ta' Rikardu (Gharb, Gozo) — home cooking in a farmhouse, booking essential
Borg (Mġarr) — traditional cooking, open since 1952
Kokkini (Rabat/Mdina) — local dishes in a converted farmhouse

For budget meals:

Crystal Palace (Rabat) — pastizzi
Any village bakery — ftira, pastizzi, bread
Street kiosks — arancini, imqaret, pizza slices

Final Notes

Maltese food is best eaten in the context it was built for: at a long lunch or dinner with other people, with wine or local beer, and without any particular hurry. The food tastes better that way. Tourist restaurants serving "Maltese food" to turn tables quickly often miss the point entirely.

Seek out small, family-run restaurants — look for handwritten menus, tables where locals are eating, and places where the kitchen seems to know what it's doing. The food will be better, the prices will be lower, and you'll get a genuine sense of how Maltese people actually eat.

Malta's cuisine is built on centuries of layered influence and made with the island's own agricultural and marine resources. It deserves more than a passing glance, and it's worth exploring properly while you're there.