The best restaurants in Valletta, and what to order in them

Valletta is tiny, but at the table it plays in a different league. It has 74 restaurants licensed by the Malta Tourism Authority, fewer than St Paul’s Bay, yet fifteen of the Maltese addresses in the Michelin Guide are here. If good food is part of your trip, the capital is where it’s easiest to find. For the rest of the islands, where to eat in Malta is the guide to read.

What Michelin makes of the capital

The 2026 edition gives Valletta the country’s only two-star restaurant, ION Harbour by Simon Rogan. The Malta Tourism Authority singles out its carefully balanced modern cooking and its farm-to-table approach. There are also two one-star places, Noni and Under Grain, and two Bib Gourmands, Grain Street and Rubino.

Behind them come ten recommended restaurants without a distinction, among them Legligin, 59 Republic, The Harbour Club, La Pira, Kaiseki and Guzé. With that many to choose from, I think it’s daft to eat in Valletta blind. All you need to do is glance at the list before you go out.

Where do you go for proper Maltese cooking?

My order is clear here. Rubino, on Old Bakery Street near the co-cathedral, has been going since the early 1900s, first as a Sicilian restaurant and pastry shop, according to its Michelin entry. It keeps its period interior and has fenek moqli on the menu, rabbit braised in red wine with a sweet and sour edge. If you want to understand why rabbit is Malta’s dish, start here. I explain the dish in my guide to Maltese rabbit stew.

My second stop would be Legligin, on St Lucy Street. The guide says the name means a place to have a drink and describes brick walls, wine racks and wooden tables. It recommends the aljotta, the traditional fish soup, if it’s on, and the linguine with rabbit.

A Bib Gourmand for an ordinary night

Grain Street is on Merchants Street, which the guide calls the main pedestrian street of the centre, full of bars and eateries. It’s a bistro with a terrace, serving simple Mediterranean food, and it belongs to the Rosselli hotel. The Bib Gourmand is Michelin’s award for good cooking at moderate prices, and in Valletta it’s the most sensible way to eat well without overspending.

That’s why I’d book it for a normal evening and keep the stars for a special occasion. If that occasion comes, Noni and Under Grain seem more reasonable to me than ION Harbour, which sits in the guide’s top price band.

A quick bite between sights

Valletta has 162 licensed snack bars, more than any other town in Malta. Between the Grandmaster’s Palace and St John’s Co-Cathedral, a couple of pastizzi or a ftira will see you through lunch without losing the afternoon. No official source gives prices, so I won’t either. What to order is in my guide to pastizzi.

Dinner, then an easy trip home

The Valletta Ferry Services crossing to Sliema runs a night service from 19:30, at €3.50 for a single. It’s the nicest way back if you’re staying across the harbour. I’d check the time of the last sailing on the operator’s website first and, if you’re planning a late dinner, think about staying inside the walls. Areas and prices are in my guide to hotels in Valletta.