A fair answer, including where the island will overcharge you and where it very much will not.
Short answer: less than Italy, less than most of Western Europe, and much less than the tourist strip will suggest if that is all you see.
The longer answer is that Malta has two pricing worlds sitting about three minutes' walk apart.
Where the money goes
A seafront table anywhere in St Julian's or Sliema is paying for the seafront, and the food is often ordinary. Step inland and the same money buys considerably better cooking. The restaurants aimed at people who live here cannot charge holiday prices, because their regulars would simply stop coming.
A traditional Maltese main — rabbit, bragoli, a fish off the morning boat — should not be an extravagance, and at our tables it is not. Our reviews tend to say the portions are larger than the price suggested, which is the review we would have chosen if we were allowed to write it ourselves.
Malta is not an expensive place to eat. Parts of it are an expensive place to sit.
Short answer: less than Italy, less than most of Western Europe, and much less than the tourist strip will suggest if that is all you see.
The longer answer is that Malta has two pricing worlds sitting about three minutes' walk apart.
Where the money goes
A seafront table anywhere in St Julian's or Sliema is paying for the seafront, and the food is often ordinary. Step inland and the same money buys considerably better cooking. The restaurants aimed at people who live here cannot charge holiday prices, because their regulars would simply stop coming.
A traditional Maltese main — rabbit, bragoli, a fish off the morning boat — should not be an extravagance, and at our tables it is not. Our reviews tend to say the portions are larger than the price suggested, which is the review we would have chosen if we were allowed to write it ourselves.
Malta is not an expensive place to eat. Parts of it are an expensive place to sit.
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