Eating cheaply in Malta is easy if you eat like a local and expensive if you eat where the view is. The gap between the two is larger here than in most places. It has almost nothing to do with quality.
The habits that save the most
Walk three streets inland
This is the one that matters more than any other. You get the same meal, often from a better kitchen, at a fraction of the seafront price.
It works in Sliema, St Julian’s, Valletta and every harbour town on both islands.
Where to eatBook a food tour
Use the bakeries
Pastizzi (savoury pastries) cost well under a euro each and two or three is a genuine lunch. A ftira (Maltese flatbread) from a bakery is a few euro and large enough to defeat most people.
Doing this for one meal a day rather than sitting down for all three changes the weekly total completely.
The pastizzerija test
Set plates at midday
Many kitchens run a set lunch plate for a fraction of the evening price for the same food. It is the best value in Maltese eating and hardly any visitors use it.
Drink the local lager and the local wine while you are at it. Both are cheap here and marked up everywhere else.
Maltese drinks
Typical prices away from the seafront
- Pastizzi
- Well under a euro each. Two or three is a genuine lunch for pocket change.
- Ftira from a bakery
- A few euro, and large enough to defeat most people.
- Pizza inland
- Noticeably less than the same pizza on the water, and usually better.
- A village bar coffee
- A fraction of the seafront price, served without ceremony.
- Fresh fish
- The one expensive item, because it is sold by weight. Ask the price of the whole fish first.
Service is not automatically included and is not automatically expected. Where a service charge has been added it will be on the bill. Where it has not, rounding up is normal and a large tip is not.