Sunday lunch is the fixed point of the Maltese week.
Families book the same restaurant for years and sit down at one o’clock.
It runs until three or four. Nobody is trying to turn the table and nobody will bring the bill until you ask.
What gets eaten
A traditional Sunday lunch is several courses. Soup or a plate of local cheese and olives, then pasta, then a roast or a stew, then something sweet.
Two dishes turn up most often.
Fenkata, rabbit cooked in wine or garlic, served as two courses from the one animal.
And a fish lunch at Marsaxlokk, which is the other tradition entirely.
In autumn the fish will often be lampuki, in season from late August to November.
Fish is sold by weight in most of those places, so ask the price per kilo before you point at anything.
You have to book
This is the busiest service of the week, all year and not only in summer.
Good village restaurants are full by one. A week ahead is sensible in summer.
For Marsaxlokk on a Sunday, longer. For a fenkata, the kitchen wants a day’s notice anyway.
What is shut
Most shops close on Sunday, and many village restaurants close on Sunday evening because they have just done lunch.
Buses run a Sunday timetable, which is thinner and finishes earlier. Museums and sites mostly open normally.
The full picture is in what is open on a Sunday.
If you want the local version
Go inland rather than to the coast.
The village restaurants in the middle of the island do the full thing for locals at local prices.
Mġarr, Baħrija, Siġġiewi and the villages around them are where to look. In Gozo, Nadur and Xagħra.
Order the set menu if there is one. It is usually cheaper than the same courses ordered separately, and it is the same food the table next to you ordered.
Practical notes
Bring the whole group. Sunday lunch here is built around a table of six or eight, not two.
Children are expected, not tolerated. Most places will find a high chair without being asked.
Do not book anything for late afternoon. You will not make it.
