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Maltese food is built on rabbit, pastry and the sea, layered with the Sicilian, North African and British influences that centuries of foreign rule left behind. Pastizzi and ftira turn up on every street corner, fenkata (Malta’s rabbit feast) is the closest thing the island has to a national dish, and Kinnie and Ċisk are the two drinks locals reach for alongside all of it. That layered history gets a fuller treatment on our wider Malta facts page, and this list pairs well with our roundup of the most fun things to do in Malta if food is only part of the trip.
Malta’s thin, rocky topsoil and limited fresh water push farmers toward stone-walled terraces and drought-hardy crops, tomatoes, capers, olives and prickly pears among them. That same dry climate is why so many Maltese dishes still lean on sun-dried, salt-cured or slow-simmered ingredients that were originally about preservation, not flavour, and turned out to deliver both.
1. Pastizzi
Pastizzi are small, diamond-shaped pastries of flaky, layered dough filled with either ricotta cheese or mashed peas, and they’re Malta’s most recognisable snack. A pastizzeria bakes them fresh through the day and sells them warm, straight from the oven, for around €1 ($1, £0.85) each, made from little more than flour, water, olive oil and a filling. Beyond the two classic fillings, some bakeries add spiced minced meat, tuna or spinach and cheese, and a squeeze of lemon or a spoonful of bigilla, Malta’s fava bean dip, is the usual way to add extra flavour on the side. They’re filling but not exactly light: the buttery, layered dough and rich fillings make two or three pastizzi a substantial snack rather than a quick bite.
2. Ftira
Ftira is a round, chewy sourdough bread with a thick crust and large, irregular holes, traditionally split and filled to make a sandwich rather than eaten plain. The classic filling is tuna, tomatoes, capers, olives and a drizzle of olive oil, and Gozo has its own baked version, topped with sliced potato, onion and tomato and cooked like a flatbread rather than filled as a sandwich. Ftira is made from just flour, water, salt and olive oil, left to ferment slowly on a sourdough starter before baking, which is what gives it its open, airy crumb and sets it apart from a standard baguette or ciabatta. Because it’s largely flour, water and vegetables, a simple tomato-and-olive ftira is one of the more balanced traditional snacks on this list.
3. Ħobż biż-Żejt
Ħobż biż-żejt, literally “bread with oil,” is crusty Maltese bread rubbed with kunserva, a sweet, sun-thickened tomato paste, and topped with tuna, capers, olives, onion and herbs. It’s assembled and eaten immediately, while the bread is still warm enough to soak up the oil and tomato without going soggy, which is what separates a good one from a forgettable one. The dish scales up or down easily: a light version with just tomato and herbs works as a snack, while adding tuna or Maltese sausage turns it into a full light meal. Ħobż biż-żejt and ftira are close cousins, built from the same bread and similar toppings; the difference is mainly technique, an open-faced spread against a filled sandwich.
4. Timpana
Timpana is baked macaroni in a meat and tomato sauce, encased in a pastry crust and baked until the crust turns golden and shatters on the first cut. It’s a heavier, more occasion-driven dish than pastizzi or ftira, closer to a Sunday lunch centrepiece than a quick snack, and it reflects the Italian pasta influence layered onto Maltese baking traditions. The pastry shell is what sets timpana apart from a plain baked pasta: without it, the dish is really just macaroni al forno. The filling usually includes egg and cheese mixed through the pasta before baking, which is what holds the slice together when it’s cut.
5. Kapunata
Kapunata is Malta’s version of the Mediterranean vegetable stew known elsewhere as caponata: eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, olives and capers, sautéed together into a sweet, sour and salty mix. It’s served warm or at room temperature, piled onto a slice of ftira or ħobż, or alongside grilled fish or meat as a side. Cooks vary the exact vegetables with the season, adding courgette or pumpkin in summer or stretching the dish with potato when eggplant is scarce, and letting the mixture cook down slowly is what concentrates the flavour rather than leaving it watery. Kapunata is naturally vegan, and it’s one of the easiest traditional Maltese dishes for a visitor avoiding meat to order with no substitutions needed.
6. Fenkata (rabbit feast)
Fenkata is Malta’s rabbit feast, a two-course meal built entirely around rabbit and treated by many Maltese as the island’s national dish. The first course is spaghetti dressed in the dark, rich sauce the rabbit cooks in; the second course is the rabbit itself, most often braised into stuffat tal-fenek, a stew with tomato, red wine, garlic and vegetables, though some tables serve it fried instead, marinated in wine and garlic and pan-fried as fenek moqli. The stew version usually carries potatoes, carrots and peas alongside the rabbit, and it’s typically simmered for an hour or more, until the meat comes away from the bone easily. Rabbit farming on Malta goes back centuries, and a fenkata is traditionally a long, unhurried, communal meal rather than a quick plate ordered on the way somewhere else.
7. Lampuki pie
Lampuki pie, or torta tal-lampuki, is a savoury pie filled with lampuki (the local name for mahi-mahi, also called dorado), spinach, olives and capers, baked inside a pastry crust. It’s a seasonal dish rather than a year-round one: lampuki migrate past Malta between mid-August and the end of December, and the pie only really appears on menus and in home kitchens while the fish is actually in season and cheap. Traditional Maltese fishing boats still lure the migrating shoals with kannizzati, rafts of floating palm fronds that lampuki gather under for shade, a technique that goes back generations and gives the whole season its name, l-istaġun tal-lampuki. Outside those months, a Maltese pie counter selling “lampuki pie” is more likely using frozen fish or a different white fish altogether.
8. Bragioli
Bragioli, also called beef olives, are thin slices of beef wrapped around a stuffing of egg, bacon, cheese, breadcrumbs and herbs, then browned and slowly braised in a tomato or meat sauce until tender. The braise is what makes the dish: a quick sear would leave the beef tough, while a couple of hours in the sauce lets the meat soften and the stuffing set inside it. Bragioli is usually served with the braising sauce spooned over rice or pasta on the side, and it’s a rich, calorie-dense dish that belongs on the table as a main course rather than a starter.
9. Aljotta
Aljotta is a garlicky Maltese fish soup, traditionally made by simmering whole small fish, bones and all, with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, mint or marjoram and rice or bread to thicken it. Straining or leaving it chunky both have their fans; either way, the soup gets its depth from the fish bones and heads doing the work over a long simmer rather than from a separate stock. Cooks who prefer a heartier bowl add root vegetables like potato or carrot, or fold in shellfish when it’s available, though the whitefish-and-rice base stays constant. A squeeze of lemon just before serving is the traditional finishing touch.
10. Bigilla
Bigilla is a thick, garlicky dip made from mashed dried broad beans, olive oil, garlic, mint or marjoram and a hit of chilli, and it’s the condiment most often served alongside pastizzi, qassatat and crusty Maltese bread. Making it starts with soaking the dried beans overnight and simmering them until soft, then mashing them with the oil, garlic and lemon juice while everything is still warm, so the flavours combine properly. It doubles as a starter on its own, scooped up with galletti crackers or bread, and it’s naturally vegan, which makes it one of the easiest traditional dishes to recommend to a plant-based visitor.
11. Ġbejniet
Ġbejniet are small, round cheeselets made from sheep’s or goat’s milk, curdled and drained in little reed or plastic baskets that leave a distinctive basket pattern on the outside. They come in several forms: fresh (friski) and mild, sun-dried (moxxa) and firmer, or rolled in black peppercorns (tal-bżar) for a sharper finish. Fresh ġbejniet are eaten plain, grated over pasta, crumbled into salads or served alongside olives and bread as part of a starter plate; Maltese sausage (zalzett tal-Malti), seasoned with coriander, garlic and parsley and often eaten raw or air-dried, commonly appears on the same plate. Gozo produces its own well-known version, ġbejna tal-Għawdex, which locals consider a step up from the mainland cheese.
12. Imqaret
Imqaret are diamond-shaped pastries filled with a spiced date paste, deep-fried until the outside turns dark and crisp, and usually flavoured with a touch of aniseed or orange flower water in the dough itself. They’re a common street food, sold hot from stalls at festivals and markets, and the crisp shell against the soft, sweet date filling is the whole appeal. Dates, aniseed and orange flower water point to Malta’s Arab-era culinary roots, the same layer of history that gave the island its Semitic Maltese language. A version baked instead of fried also exists, though the fried street-stall style is the one most visitors encounter first.
13. Kannoli
Kannoli are fried pastry tubes filled with a sweetened ricotta cream, often studded with chocolate chips, candied peel or chopped nuts, and they show Malta’s Sicilian influence about as clearly as any dish on this list, since the pastry is essentially the Sicilian cannolo adopted into Maltese bakeries. They’re filled to order rather than in advance wherever possible, since the shell turns soft if it sits filled for too long before serving, so a kannolo sitting pre-filled in a display case for hours is rarely worth ordering over one filled fresh.
14. Kinnie
Kinnie is a bittersweet, dark orange carbonated soft drink made from bitter oranges and a blend of aromatic herbs including wormwood, and it’s been produced in Malta by the Farsons brewery since 1952. Its flavour sits somewhere between a bitter orange soda and a light amaro, closer to Italian aperitivo territory than to a standard fizzy orange drink, which is exactly why first-time tasters are often surprised by it. It’s sold everywhere on the island, from supermarkets to restaurant drinks lists, usually served straight over ice, and a Kinnie Spritz version mixed with prosecco and served over ice has been on the market since 2021 for anyone who wants it with a bit more of a kick.
15. Ċisk
Ċisk is Malta’s most recognised lager, brewed by Farsons since the brewery’s first bottle went on sale in the summer of 1929, making it one of the older commercial breweries in the Mediterranean still operating under its original name. It’s a light, crisp pale lager built to pair with Maltese food rather than stand alone, and it’s the default beer on tap in most bars and restaurants across the island. Farsons, the same brewery behind Kinnie, still brews Ċisk in Malta today rather than under licence elsewhere, which locals tend to mention with some pride.
More Maltese dishes and desserts worth trying
Pastizzi through Ċisk are the dishes to prioritise on a first visit, but a longer stay in Malta turns up plenty more worth trying.
- Qassatat, small savoury pastries similar to pastizzi but with a softer, bread-like dough, filled with ricotta, peas or spinach.
- Kusksu, a broad bean and pea soup with small pasta beads, traditionally finished with a poached egg and a piece of ġbejna.
- Soppa tal-armla (“widow’s soup”), a vegetable soup, also finished with a poached egg and ġbejna, made from whatever vegetables are on hand.
- Imqarrun il-forn, baked pasta in a meat sauce, similar to timpana but without the pastry crust.
- Ħelwa tat-Tork, a dense, fudge-like sesame and sugar confection with roots in Arab-era Malta.
- Qargħa ħamra, Malta’s orange-fleshed pumpkin, used in soups, savoury pies and cakes.
- Kunserva, the thick, sun-concentrated tomato paste that flavours ħobż biż-żejt, stews and pasta sauces across Maltese cooking.
- Qaghaq tal-Għasel, treacle-filled honey rings sold especially around Christmas.
- Figolli, almond-filled pastries shaped like hearts or animals, made for Easter.
- Pudina tal-Ħobż, a bread pudding made from stale bread, milk, raisins and cocoa.
Maltese wine, the prickly-pear liqueur bajtra and imbuljuta tal-qastan, a spiced chestnut drink served at Christmas, round out the drinks list alongside Kinnie and Ċisk.
Where can you try these dishes in Malta?
A pastizzeria is the place for pastizzi, qassatat and imqaret, and most towns have at least one open early into the evening. Is-Suq tal-Belt, the restored covered market in Valletta, gathers several small kitchens and stalls under one roof and is a reliable spot to try several dishes on this list in one visit without committing to a sit-down meal. Marsaxlokk’s Sunday fish market is the place for aljotta and fresh lampuki when it’s in season, sold straight off the boats and cooked the same day at the waterfront restaurants behind the stalls. A village festa, the feast celebrating a town’s patron saint, is the most authentic setting for a full fenkata, since whole streets turn into open-air dining for the occasion, and Malta’s own festivals get fuller coverage on this page.
What ingredients define Maltese cooking?
Rabbit, capers, olive oil, broad beans and fresh seafood are the ingredients that show up most often across Maltese cooking. Rabbit (fenek) anchors the national dish; capers and olives, grown across the islands, season everything from ħobż biż-żejt to kapunata; broad beans (ful) go into bigilla and kusksu; and lampuki, tuna and swordfish supply the seafood side of the cuisine. Ġbejniet, the sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeselets, are Malta’s main dairy product and appear on nearly every antipasti or snack plate.
Gozo’s cooking leans a little more rustic than Malta’s, reflecting a slower-paced, more agricultural way of life than the main island’s busier restaurant scene, and its own honey and olive oil are especially well regarded. Seasonal produce still shapes the table across both islands. Summer and early autumn bring tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and the lampuki that go into torta tal-lampuki; autumn and winter shift to artichokes, cauliflower, spinach and citrus, and dishes lean toward heartier stews and baked pasta once the produce changes.
What is Malta’s national dish?
Stuffat tal-fenek, rabbit braised in a tomato, red wine and garlic sauce with vegetables, is generally considered Malta’s national dish, and it anchors the wider fenkata tradition, the two-course rabbit feast built around it. Rabbit farming has been part of Maltese life for centuries, and a fenkata built around this stew, or its fried counterpart fenek moqli, remains the dish most Maltese people would name first if asked what to eat on a single visit.
What do vegans and vegetarians eat in Malta?
Kapunata and bigilla are the two easiest traditional Maltese dishes for anyone avoiding meat and dairy, since both are naturally vegan with no substitution needed. Fenech, a slow-cooked vegetable stew in a tomato and wine sauce, and qargħa ħamra dishes built around Malta’s pumpkin cover a heartier option, and most pastizzerias will confirm which of their pea-filled pastizzi are made without animal fat in the dough.
How is Maltese food traditionally cooked?
Slow braising over hours is the technique behind most of Malta’s signature dishes, stuffat tal-fenek included, a method that predates modern kitchens and made the most of tougher, cheaper cuts of meat. Many village homes historically had no oven of their own, so a timpana, a tray of imqarrun il-forn or a loaf of bread was carried to the local baker’s wood-fired oven to cook overnight in the residual heat, a practice that shaped how large and how hearty these baked dishes became. That same wood-fired baking tradition is what Qormi’s Bread Festival, mentioned below, still celebrates every September.
What are Maltese dining customs?
Meals in Malta tend to run longer and later than a quick lunch elsewhere in Europe, especially on Sundays, when a multi-course family meal, soup through to dessert, is still common. As a majority Catholic country, a short prayer before eating remains normal in many households, and a guest is expected to wait to be served rather than help themselves at someone’s table. Placing your knife and fork parallel across the plate is the usual signal that you’ve finished eating.
Are there food festivals in Malta?
Yes, several. The Malta International Food Festival runs for about a week each July in Valletta’s Pjazza Tritoni and brings in cuisine from dozens of countries alongside the local stalls; the Valletta Local Food Festival each October focuses specifically on Maltese dishes like pastizzi and ftira; and Qormi’s Bread Festival each September celebrates the country’s traditional wood-fired baking. Dates shift year to year, so check the current calendar before building a trip around one.
A guided food walk is the fastest way to taste several Maltese dishes in one afternoon without having to track down a different bakery or market for each one. It’s worth building around a wider visit to Malta, since most of these dishes are easiest to find in and around Valletta, Marsaxlokk and the towns most first-time itineraries already cover.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
The 4 tips below come from checking these dishes against Maltese sources rather than against the English-language food lists that copy one another.
- Check the date before you order lampuki pie. Lampuki migrate past Malta between mid-August and the end of December, and that’s the only window when the pie is made with fresh local fish. A counter selling torta tal-lampuki in April is working with frozen stock or a different white fish altogether.
- Book a fenkata as an evening, not as a main course. It’s two courses built around one rabbit: spaghetti in the dark sauce the meat has cooked in, then the rabbit itself, stewed as stuffat tal-fenek or fried as fenek moqli. It’s meant to be long, shared and unhurried, which is why a village festa is the setting Maltese people would choose for it.
- Ask for bigilla on the side, not for salsa verde or gremolata. Those two are Italian and skordalia is Greek, yet all three get listed as Maltese accompaniments across the internet. Bigilla, the garlicky broad bean dip, is the one that actually belongs beside pastizzi and Maltese bread, and it’s vegan without any substitution.
- Take the Marsaxlokk fish market on a Sunday. That’s when the boats sell straight off the quay, and the waterfront restaurants behind the stalls cook the same fish that day, which is the shortest route to aljotta and to lampuki in season.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Malta for independent travellers, including the food, tours and hotels worth booking, updating this page as dishes, festivals and seasonal availability change.
