Malta doesn't have a reputation for great food — the author of this piece arrived expecting to be underwhelmed, noting that locals once sailed 90km to Sicily just to stock up on edible supplies. What she found instead was a small capital packed with hole-in-the-wall cafes, a proud traditional cuisine, and seven Michelin-starred restaurants on an island you can cross in under an hour.
Her base was Valletta, where cobbled streets are lined with outdoor tables. First stop: Atilem Coffee & Wine, next to the 16th-century Casa Rocca Piccola palazzo, where a decaf Americano and pistachio cheesecake came to €7.50 — and a neighbouring couple secretly paid the bill as a welcome. Dinner at Ta'Nenu, housed in a historic limestone bakehouse, delivered the classic aljotta fish soup (€10.50), dark, garlicky and loaded with mussels, white fish and tomato, plus grilled swordfish in a spiced pepper sauce (€23.30). She skipped the national dish of fried rabbit — and, understandably, the braised horsemeat and snail stew.
Day two started at Caffe Cordina, a Maltese institution founded in 1837 and now occupying the former Treasury of the Knights of St John. The breakfast menu skews British (a legacy of 164 years of colonial rule — Brits still make up 30% of Malta's 4.5 million annual visitors), and the omelette was forgettable, though the €2.40 coffee was excellent. Better value came from Manuela Malta Pastizzi, where warm ricotta and mushy-pea pastizzi cost just €3 — and again a local picked up the tab. Lunch was Roman-style flatbread pizza at NPOM NOM Pinseria for €4.85, and dinner meant a Bolt ride to Marsaxlokk, a pretty, less touristy fishing village 7km out, whose harbour of brightly painted wooden boats fronts seafood restaurants. At Liska, whitebait fritters (€15) and whole sea bass, deboned tableside and caught that morning (€6 per 100g, sides included), were the meal of the trip so far.
Sunday was built around Noni, one of Malta's Michelin-starred restaurants, set in a 400-year-old building. The eight-course tasting menu at €145 included qassata (mushroom pasta with hazelnut sauce), Rossi prawns, wild game pie, and a showstopper dessert: a dome of sheep's yoghurt filled with mandarin chamomile and citrus honey that cracks open like an egg. Earlier, a smoked salmon bagel at Bus Stop (€9.95) kept costs down, and a friend road-tested the rabbit stew (stuffatt al-fenek) at Rubino for €16, vouching for its slow-braised tomatoes, wine, garlic and peas.
The takeaway for travellers: Malta has quietly become a serious food destination, and a cheap one outside the fine-dining rooms. Street snacks cost pocket change, harbour seafood is priced by weight, and hospitality — literally strangers paying your bill — seems part of the culture. Pairing Valletta's historic streets with a evening in Marsaxlokk covers both ends of the eating spectrum in one weekend.
Story first reported by Traveller (Sydney Morning Herald).
