4 Best Restaurants in Malta

Traditional Maltese cuisine is Italian in origin, but "international" food is on most restaurant menus as well. Locally caught fish is a specialty. The national dish is fenek (rabbit); bra?joli (beef olives) and lampuki (dorado) pie are runners-up. Pastry coats fish, vegetables, cheese, and pasta dishes. Soups, minestra (minestrone) and aljotta (fish) especially, are common, and are delicious with daily baked crusty Maltese bread. Capers, the buds of the caperis specicum shrub that is native to the islands, are widely used. Native wine is abundant and inexpensive; look for medium-dry whites. Cisk lager is a local favorite, and try Hop Leaf pale ale for something with a bit more bite. Kinnie, a terrific nonalcoholic thirst quencher, is made from a "secret recipe" that includes bitter oranges.

Beati Paoli

$$ Fodor's Choice

One of the buzziest restaurants in the capital is the family-run Beati Paoli, an impossibly cozy, friendly affair that still flies under the radar of most visitors. It has that neighborhood feel, boasting of its "local fresh rabbit" on the blackboard frontage, yet serves up subtly crafted, on-point Maltese and Mediterranean dishes with a changing specials menu that never fails to delight. The interior is all stone and white walls, with an open kitchen to boot. Add to that a good local and European wine list and you can't fail to be charmed.

Noni

$$$ Fodor's Choice

One of the current rising stars of Malta's dining scene is Jonathan Brincat, owner-chef of the much talked-about Noni, a chic, cozy escape set in a former jazz bar. The menu is a studied, elegant affair taking a number of Maltese and Mediterranean classics and fine-tuning them with a bit of French flair, from saddle of rabbit with confit croquette to a crackling smoked rib "gyoza" that accompanies the pork to smoky chorzio bean puree. It also has one of the better wine lists in town. Book early to get a table downstairs in the stone cellar and avoid the chilly overflow tables on the ground floor.

Ta' Frenċ

$$$

You'll find refined service and classic cuisine in this old limestone farmhouse. Using produce from its vegetable garden, a seasonal menu includes boat-fresh seafood dishes, fresh pasta, and a fine suckling pig. Signature dishes err on the traditional side and some are cooked tableside, including steak Diane (flambéed in Cognac), and a chateaubriand for two. And while the actual building is in simple traditional Gozitan style, the dining room is embellished with fine drapes and table settings to match the elegant cooking.

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Tal-Petut

Squirreled away in the backstreets of Vittoriosa, this eatery offers traditional Maltese food dished up in tasting menus (€28 per person) that typically feature pork, beef, and rabbit options. Bigella bean dips, cheeselets, and locally hung sausage starters form a crash course in local specialties; rabbit marinated in a zalza (a tomato-based sauce) preceded by an assagi (taster course) of ravioli stuffed with local ricotta-style cheese ram home the restaurant's credentials. As authentic a taste of Maltese home cooking as you'll find on the mainland.

Malta

Malta

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