Malta's hotspots

The newest restaurants, bars and cafes in Malta and Gozo.

It's always great to find a new bar, restaurant or coffee shop.
Whether you are just looking for the perfect capuccino, the tastiest take-out or want to surprise your partner with a romantic dinner,
I aim to provide you with the info on what's out there and how to get there.

Opening soon:

Pizza Hut at PAVI supermarket.

ITALIAN pizza and pasta restaurant at Malta International Airport.

Please note that you can search this blog to find all of the types of venue or the town you are looking for, eg 'wine bar' 'outdoor' 'Wi-Fi'.

There is also a Google Map Search gadget further down to help you locate featured places. Search for 'Town' 'Malta'.

If you have details of a new bar, restaurant or cafe, please send them to me at: zillahbugeja@gmail.com

Why not bookmark this site so you can return easily?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trattoria di Carmelo da Croce Bonaci

New restaurant / trattoria in Merchant's Street, Valletta, in vicinity of Dorothy Perkins. Pasta, salads, meat, antipasti, burgers, wraps and Maltese dishes. Seats 32 people.
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 8.30 - 15.30; Saturday evening 19.30 - 23.00.
Tel: 2702 0702, 7904 8664, 9906 3069.

Brunch n More

New self-service coffee shop, bakery and snack bar in Merchant's Street. In the vicinity of BHS and Camilleri sweet shop. Hot and cold snacks, baguettes, noodles and more. Standing room downstairs, tables upstairs.
Opening hours 8.30 - 15.45.
43 Merchant's Street, Valletta.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Fountain Grill

Beer festival food
Dine by the Fountain at the Farsons Great Beer Festival with Island Caterers Limited. A la carte items as well as a set BBQ grill menu for €20 per person. Regular restaurant seating and free parking for group bookings of 20 and over. A jazz trio will be entertaining throughout the evenings.
National Park, Ta' Qali, Malta. Tel: 2375 1944.
Mon - Sun: 19.00 - 22:30, Friday, 24th July to Sunday, 2nd August.

Vanille

Birzebugia cafeteria, gelateria and creperie.
Corner premises near the bus terminus.
More details to come.

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Rocks

Snoopy's rocks by the beach
New summer venue at the Preluna Beach Club, Sliema launched by Snoopy’s bar and restaurant, brings dining, fashion, music and entertainment together.
Tower Road, Sliema. Open from Monday to Sunday from 17.00.
Upcoming events: 19th July ‘Just a Cocktail’, Kevin Reville and Von Brock; Angels of Malta; serving sushi and original cocktails from 17.00 to 23.00.
Tel: 7934 5466 snoopys.therocks@gmail.com

De Malte

San Gwann coffee shop
New cafeteria, pizzeria, restaurant. Baguettes, wraps, salads, pasta, pizza, grills, home-made dishes and desserts.
Open daily from 9.00 – 23.00.
Triq Misrah Lourdes, San Gwann, next to parish church.
Tel: 2137 3859.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lotus Bar

Breakfast at the Lotus
Situated within the new Tigne Lido. Lotus bar is offering a fun and different menu, from smoothies, pancakes and eggs for breakfast, to cocktails, home-made burgers, dips, cakes and more served throughout the day. Seating at the bar is on comfortable sofas, armchairs, stools and tables with magazines and books available to browse through. Open 7.00am till 1.00am every day. Outdoors, on the top level.
Situated between Pebbles and Plevna, Qui Si Sana. Tel: 2133 4321.
No entrance fee for bar patrons.

How this blog originated

Why would I want to write about new restaurants in Malta? It seems like Malta is overrun by restaurants. I remember when my family opened the Al Fresco in Birzebugia 1984 and we were immediately packed out, with people sitting on the walls eating their food. They were hungry, not simply literally, for new places to go.

Times have changed and the competition is fierce. I can recall the days when burger buns didn’t exist, a burger was served on toasted sliced bread. The first pizza, that famous semi-freddo dessert in Valletta...ah, such good memories. Those were the days when going to the cinema was an exciting event too, even though the cinemas were full of sweet wrappers, for some reason we often had to queue outside, there was a limited choice of sweets, those awful home-made crisps that had salt in separate plastic bags. And people smoked inside the cinema! But for some reason it was great fun. Whether you watched the film or not, you know what I mean…

Something drove me to want to provide information on the newest places to eat and drink. I can't explain it, but I decided to give it a try. Imagine my shock and horror when it seemed like almost everyone I spoke to about the idea, either had had the same idea or someone in their family wanted to do it. Should I take the risk of losing friends, or worse still, not do it and possibly neither of us would? I decided to give it a shot, just to see how it would go.

It takes a lot of work, like everything worth doing. I am learning about the internet and search engine optimisation and you name it, along the way.

What is fascinating about the restaurant and coffee shop scene is that it is being inundated by the Italians. They are opening places here because they can easily, quickly and cheaply import their ingredients, and because our restaurant prices are generally higher than in bella Italia, they stand to make more profit. That is what I have been told. So now we have coffee shops and restaurants which really do make you feel like you are in Italy. While competition is always a good thing, local catering places may need to pull their socks up and I do feel it is regretful that local producers' goods aren't being bought. Thoughts about our carbon footprint are yet to be considered.

Even though we are a tiny island, you can eat Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Greek, Chinese, Turkish fast food, Bulgarian and Russian. Let me know if there are any I have left out.

Maltese food is making a come-back at wine bars, serving the de rigeur platter of pickles, goat’s cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and olives with crackers and delicious Maltese bread. This is not how we eat at home though, it is more like an advert for Maltese food for the foreigners, more like appetizers than a meal.

I would like to see more creativity using local produce and the creation of a new Maltese cuisine, where chefs use local ingredients in innovative ways. I have always thought that sweet pastizzi would work well – pastizzi are ricotta-filled pies made from flaky pastry. And I feel we still have a long way to go towards the appreciation of healthy food. Never mind. We’ll get there.

For visitors to the islands, there is an enormous choice of places to eat. I would recommend the ‘workers’ places, the heaving lunch-time restaurants where you choose from what’s available, prices are good, service is quick. Andrew’s Bar in Birkirkara and Mgarr Farmers Bar in Zebbiegh are my favourites. That is as far as I will go with recommending places, because there are so many great restaurants, especially in the five star hotels. But also, Murphy’s Law where anything that can go wrong, will, is part and parcel of the catering world. That is why this is just an informative blog on the newest restaurants, bars and cafes. I feel it is only fair.

Malta's hotspots

The newest restaurants, bars and cafes in Malta and Gozo.

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trattoria di Carmelo da Croce Bonaci

Brunch n More

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Fountain Grill

Vanille

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Rocks

De Malte

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lotus Bar

How this blog originated

The newest restaurants, bars and cafes in Malta and Gozo.

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

How this blog originated