Food prices in Malta

Malta food prices can vary a lot, depending the cuisine being served at the particular restaurant, it’s ambience and most definitely the location. The cheapest option will obviously be to buy food and drinks from supermarkets.

Maltese bread for example cost only around €0.50 and you can buy a packet of six 2 liter bottles for less than €2.50.

In take-aways or restaurants, food prices in Malta are more expensive than from a supermarket. One can find various small take-away outlets spread throughout the cities, mainly selling local products as well as imported food and drinks.

Some of the most popular ones are those selling cheesecakes (pastizzi in Maltese), pizza and lamb or chicken kebabs. Cheesecakes are sold for at least €0.35, small squares of pizza for around €0.70 and kebabs in the bread start from €5.50, from such outlets.

Malta restaurant prices (seated) are more expensive. A two course meal (starter and main dish) for 1 person will cost a minimum of €12 and a maximum of €40. One will find a variety of restaurants in Malta, offering Mediterranean, Maltese, French, Italian, Indian and many other different types of cuisines. Just to give you an idea, a whole 12 inch pizza will cost around €8, whilst a beef fillet taken as a main course can cost anything between €15 to €30, depending the restaurant. You will find more information about food in Malta, by using the search box above.

The price of beer in Malta is €1, i.e. for a half pint of local or imported beer. Prices are slightly cheaper when buying in bulk, especially from supermarkets. A pint of beer will cost around €1.50 the most from a bar in a touristic location. As regarding other Malta drinks prices such as alcohol, it’s usually sold for €1 a tot from random bars but cost can go up to even €3 a glass, from the most exclusive night clubs in Malta.

High standards of cuisine were introduced to Malta by the Knights. Food came high on the list of priorities for this supposedly monastic and frugal order. To serve their tastes, chefs were shipped in from abroad, wine flowed in from France and ice was imported from the snowy peak of Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily.

Foreign influences still play a major role in Maltese cuisine. The island’s close proximity to Italy has inevitably determined its favourite dish of pasta; the British left their mark in the form of roast beef, apple pie and fish and chips.

The real local dishes, however, have the unmistakable stamp of the Mediterranean. Essential ingredients are the local herbs and vegetables, such as sun-ripened tomatoes, green peppers, marrows, aubergines and artichokes. Made into bulky Maltese soups, and eaten with the local crusty bread, these make a more than adequate meal.

Fish is abundant and comes steamed, braised or grilled. choose from sea bream, swordfish, grouper, tuna, pilot fish, amberjack, prawns, lobsters – and many more. Autumn brings the lampuka, a fish that breeds near the Nile Delta and swarms around the Maltese coast in September and October. The somewhat enigmatic taste has been compared to cod, mackerel and whitebait! It is perhaps best tasted in the form of lampuka pie, cooked with tomatoes, onions, parsley, peas and cauliflower, then encased in crispy pastry.

Among Malta’s few regional meat dishes is bragioli, similar to beef olives, made with thin slices of beef wrapped round a minced meat, egg and bacon stuffing. Done well it is delicious.

A favourite and long-established Maltese dish is rabbit. This is served in a variety of forms, which you can taste by going out for a traditional fenkate (or ‘rabbit evening’). This stars with spaghetti in rabbit sauce, followed by a fried rabbit or rabbit stew (complete with liver and kidneys); the meal ends with nuts and figs. Ideally you should experience this in a basic country bar full of villagers and wash it down with lots of local wine. The village of Mgarr on Malta is the place to try it.

The majority of Malta’s restaurants serve Italian food and range from basic pasta houses to 4-star restaurants. In addition there are pubs and cafés serving typical British fare, a smattering of ethnic restaurants (particularly in St Julian’s), a small handful of top-notch French restaurants and a multitude of fast-food outlets. Simple local villages bars, often a stone’s throw from the village church, can produce some surprisingly wholesome meals at rock-bottom prices.

Cheese

Gbejna sheep’s milk cheese, served either fresh, half-dried or peppered. A speciality of Gozo, this comes in small rounds and is excellent with the local bread and tomatoes.

Bread

Maltese bread (hobz) is very crusty on the outside and soft inside. According to a national newspaper survey the average daily consumption is a kilo of bread per person! If you taste the real thing, made by traditional methods (as still used in Qormi) you will probably understand why.

Drink

The general rule of thumb is to avoid the very cheapest local wines. Move up a couple of price brackets (which will still work out far cheaper than choosing an imported Italian brand) and you may be pleasantly surprised. The two largest local wine producers are Marsovin and Emmanuel Delicata. Well worth trying are the Marsovin Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot Noir (reds) and their Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and the slightly sweeter Sauvignon Blanc (whites). Delicata also produces Cabernet Sauvignon and some excellent Chardonnay and Trebbiano. Maltese restaurants also offer competitively priced European and New World wines. Be very wary of the strong Gozitian wines – 14° is not uncommon though the alcoholic content is rarely shown on the bottle. Many restaurant owners make their own wine or have it made especially for them. It is certainly worth trying, though you may end up (like some of the locals) adding 7-Up to disguise the taste! Farson’s Blue label and Hopleaf beers, made from British hops and drunk for years by British servicemen, are excellent.