What to eat in Valletta
A pastizz for a coin, a ftira for lunch, rabbit with spaghetti at night, and lampuki only from mid-August.
- Pastizz
- €0.40–0.80
- Ftira
- €3.50–5.50
- Rabbit stew
- €12–22
In Valletta you eat standing up in the morning and sitting down in the evening, and the dish tells you which hour it belongs to. A pastizz goes with the first coffee, a ftira with lunch, rabbit with the long dinner, and only one thing on the list, lampuki, depends on the calendar. Order by the time of day and the city stops feeling like a menu.
Breakfast for a coin
A pastizz is a flaky pastry, usually filled with ricotta, and it costs €0.40–0.80. You take it from a counter, eat it from the paper bag and are on your way to the co-cathedral before the coffee has cooled. Nobody sits down for one.
The market hall of Is-Suq tal-Belt sells pastizzi alongside the rest of its food stalls, which makes it the easiest stop on a morning walk. The building went up between 1859 and 1861 on the site of the old prisons, it was the first in Malta built mostly of iron, and it reopened as a food market in January 2018. For a table, Caffe Cordina stands on Pjaca Regina and suits the slower version of the same breakfast. Coffee in town: €1.50–2.50.
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Ftira for lunch
Ftira is bread with a filling, and a lunch from a counter costs €3.50–5.50, which leaves the budget for the tickets.
Rabbit stew and ravioli
Rabbit stew arrives in two acts, as the custom goes. The sauce comes first, poured over spaghetti. Then the rabbit follows, with potatoes. A plate costs €12–22, and a whole evening is better planned around it than the other way round.
For a first try, Nenu the Artisan Baker on Old Bakery Street is the safer table, because its menu also lists ftira and gbejniet for anyone who hesitates. Rubino on Merchants Street goes further, with rabbit and ox tongue. Those who want pasta instead can order the ravioli at Café Jubilee on St Lucia Street for €10.
Lampuki, the only seasonal one
Lampuki is a fish that arrives with the season, from 15 August until December, and it turns up in a pie. Café Jubilee on St Lucia Street serves a pie of it, which makes a mid-August lunch easy to plan. The season opens on 15 August, so the pie is a late-summer and autumn order, and the sensible ruling is to leave it off a July list.
Where to sit down in the evening
Evening is the hour for a proper table. Legligin Wine Bar on St Lucia Street runs a tasting menu, 59 Republic serves fish and pasta, and the Harbour Club has a terrace in the Upper Barrakka Gardens with a view of the water. The table below puts the main courses in a range, so the choice depends on the mood rather than the price.
Main-course prices are a range from one April 2026 guide; places change their menus.
Where to next
The best time to visit Valletta
→Spring and early autumn for sightseeing, summer for the sea and the heat, winter for quieter days with rain and carnival.
Malta
→Three islands, a capital smaller than a square kilometre and megalithic temples from the fourth millennium BC
How well does Valletta suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Valletta
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Ready for Valletta?
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