Round up your family and friends and sit down for a scrumptious lunch at one of these popular restaurants.
This field-to-fork restaurant champions fresh local produce and traditional Maltese recipes learnt in the kitchen of the family matriarch, grandmother Manan, who would gather the whole family at her table after Sunday mass for her famous lunch. The restaurant uses produce grown on its own estate, which is a mere 200 metres away. The front part of the restaurant is a deli shop featuring their own delicious home made jams and pickles and a small selection of their wonderful fruit and vegetables. Make room for generous portions of hearty Maltese favourites such as timpana, homemade ravioli stuffed with the estate’s own sheep’s milk cheeselets or spaghetti with rabbit. And that’s only the starters!
This one is for the consummate carnivores. Choose the cut of meat from the butcher’s counter and the chef will prepare it to perfection for you for a €6 surcharge. Or take it home to cook it in your own way. With five generations of butchers behind the brand, you can reasonably assume that the meat has been expertly selected. Complementing all this meat is a sinful variety of delectable cheeses and, of course, the perfectly paired wine list.
The seafood one: Carmen’s Bar, Ghar Lapsi l/o Siggiewi
It’s little more than a hole in the wall, or rather in the rock face to be precise, but this little gem of a restaurant serves up some of the best seafood on the island right by the water’s edge. If you don’t have access to a car it’s pretty off the beaten track, but well worth the effort and extra cost of a taxi if you don’t fancy walking from the bus stop in the late summer heat. Ghar Lapsi is a delightful little swimming area which is a local secret, so pack a swimsuit for a post-prandial dip. The fresh seafood at Carmen’s attracts not only hungry people but also several greedy cats, which can be pretty persistent! The fresh local king prawns are my personal favourite.
The fishing village favourite: Terrone, Marsaxlokk
You’ve heard of the iconic Sunday market in the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. After browsing the stalls, cross the road to sample the fresh fish landed by local fishermen. With a strong emphasis on seasonal, local and organic produce cooked with a thoroughly Mediterranean and specifically Italian flair, the concise restaurant menu is always fresh and new. Dive into the antipasti designed to be shared with your group of friends or relatives before heading for the main course. While fish is the order of the day, local pork, beef and of course rabbit are also very popular.
Yes, you read that right. It’s a band club. As in brass band. And one of the finest on the island too. Originally founded in 1874 under a different name, it received it’s current regal title directly from Kind Edward VII in 1901. The club made history in 1934 when it became the first local philharmonic band to perform the national anthem in public on the occasion of Victory Day on 8th September. The restaurant is on the ground floor of the club’s headquarters and serves up a right royal treat prepared by head chef Roberta Preca, who hails from one of Malta’s most successful restaurateur families.