Valletta's Culinary & Cultural Secrets: A Walking Tour

Come hungry! You will be eating delicious Maltese food throughout the tour. Marisa was exceptionally good as our guide!

Such a great tour! Come hungry as you do get well fed! Great information and history presented to us throughout. The headphones was a great idea and I wish more other tours I’ve been on follow suit as it’s a great idea to have this so you can hear the tour guide throughout your time. I also liked how the tour wasn’t too long. Was about 3 and a half hours which is perfect and you get to enjoy the rest of the day in Valetta doing whatever you like afterwards. Definitely a must to go for this tour!

Everywhere we travel, we always go on a food tour, it is an important part of any holiday, and we always try to get them booked in at the start of the holiday so that we can revisit some of our favourite places that the guide has shown us, later on our holiday. To say that this trip was a disappointment was an understatement. The tour was three hours, and we met outside the new Parliament building at the City gate entrance. I would get used to this area, as despite the whole of the wonderful city of Valetta being before us, we spent an hour, or one third of the total tour time, within 50 metres of the Parliament building. We were first told we were going to be trying some “Street Food” and we were directed OUTSIDE the city walls to the square. Our host then proceeded to visit a commercial unit with Frozen Pastizzi that were heated in a steam oven. Our host asked us who wanted cheese, and who wanted pizza filling in their Pastizzi. She then proceeded to see who had them (as there were several units all selling frozen). This was surprising as on every other tour I have ever been on, they have agreements with their favourite shops and restaurants to have a certain number of products available at a certain time. She then proceeded to hand out the most incredibly greasy and flavourless snacks I have ever encountered, the flakiness of these produced a flock of pigeons which the host said the Maltese were “quite fond of” quite an unusual take I think. These greasy snacks produced as the first food to try ensured that everyone’s face had a greasy film over it, which made us look plastic. Other tourists probably thought we were on a Botox recovery outing. The next stop, the host described something that was made with flour, water, and yeast (or to everyone else in the world, bread). She explained that you could put a filling in between two slices of this food, and change it to your preferences depending on what time of day it is (or as the rest of the world calls it, a sandwich) We then sat down for our next treat of three tuna fish sandwiches cut into quarters for ten of us. At this stage there were four of us hanging extremely far back when we were walking to see if we could peel off and exit the tour early. However, we gave each other emotional support and vowed, no matter what, we would make it to the end of the tour as a team. Our host the recognised that our faces were looking less shiny, so in order to rectify this, she proceeded to enter a bakers shop and procured what can only be described as garibaldi biscuits fried in duck lard. We then proceeded to the top of Valetta to eat these delicacies, whilst the host pointed out some olive trees that had no olives on them. Out of politeness, we all feigned interest, however, I suspect with the extra layer of grease on our faces and our intent middle distance stares, other tourists could have mistaken us for a Milenia Trump lookalike convention. We then made our way to a sit-down restaurant, this restaurant looked very nice inside with an art deco style bar and interior. On the table were appetisers that consisted of rock-hard quarters of beef tomato that had definitely been grown in a polytunnel in the Netherlands, two roundels of the most bland ricotta type cheese imaginable, and a few olives and capers. They face that there were three tomatoes, and six tiny bits of cheese between ten of us, and there was plenty left at the end speaks volumes. We were then presented with the main course. A rabbit stew. The sauce was very nice, but I only got a meat-stripped ribcage on my plate, so I cannot comment on what the meat was like. Us with the rabbit looked enviously at the three that had chosen two tiny raviolis as their lunch. All in all, the most disappointing tour I have been on ever. Surely Malta and particularly Valetta has more to offer than this? I wanted to stand up after lunch and just say “ders more to Malta, den dis” You would probably get better food by throwing a dart at a map of restaurants and cafes in Valetta and visiting those instead.

A combination of information about the food and the history of Malta. Marisa was an excellent guide and made it come to life with tales of her own family. 3 hours was perfect for this tour as it did involve stopping and eating!!

If you’re looking for a perfect mix of food, history, and local charm, this Valletta food tour with Nadine is an absolute must! From the moment we met her at the entrance by the New Parliament Building, she made everyone feel welcome and excited for the day ahead. We were in a group of 13 and were presented with headphones so we could easily hear Nadine. We started with a warm, flaky pastizz, Malta’s most iconic street snack, simple yet bursting with flavour. We were given the option of a filling of ricotta or peas. As we strolled through the streets Nadine shared fascinating stories about Valletta’s past, bringing the city’s streets and landmarks to life. Next came a stop to taste Maltese spiced coffee paired with mqaret, a sweet pastry filled with dates, cinnamon, and orange blossom water. From there, we made our way to Merchant Street, where we tried the ftira, a flatbread stuffed with fresh Mediterranean ingredients, perfectly complemented by a glass of Kinnie, Malta’s bittersweet soda. It was the ideal pick-me-up as we continued exploring the city’s lively streets and markets. The tour ended in a cozy local restaurant where we enjoyed a platter of Maltese tapas and a Cisk lager, followed by a traditional main dish of hearty rabbit stew. If you love food and want to discover Valletta through the eyes of a local, don’t miss this tour. Come hungry, you’ll leave full, happy, and with a deeper appreciation for Maltese culture.

A brilliant morning with Natalie. She was knowledgeable and friendly. The food was fantastic, I would highly recommend it as a experience

This tour with Marisa was amazing ! She was so engaging, knowledgeable and the food stops were so good . We would definitely repeat and recommend

Great tour. Our guide was knowledgeable and interesting. We learned a lot and had great food. What is the name of the place where we had ftira? We want to go back.

The food was very good--and plentiful. We always try to take a food tour on the first day of a trip to help give us an orientation to the area and the local foods. We did not count on how crowded Valletta is with cruise tourists, which makes it hard to stroll along with a group of 15 people, thus there seemed to be a lot of zigzagging. It took us a couple of days to figure out which streets we took to get us to our stops. I would have loved a follow up message with the places we stopped and some recommendations for those who were staying in town for extra days.

Wonderful tour. Our guide Maribel was an absolute wealth of knowledge about the history and architecture of Malta as well as all the regional foods and drinks we had. She answered all our questions completely and accurately and was a real joy to be with