All-You-Can-Eat in Malta: Unlimited Dishes From Around the World

All you can eat has a branding problem. Say the words and my mind tends to go straight to hotel breakfast and lunch buffets, queuing with a plate like you’re back in a school canteen, and somebody constructing a meal with the structural integrity of a Jenga tower. And when the unlimited option is actually rather good, it’s often sushi, which I’ve already covered in my all-you-can-eat sushi guide.

This list is for the other kind: the restaurants where “unlimited” feels almost slightly out of character. The sort of places with considered food, proper service and surroundings nice enough that you wouldn’t expect the phrase “all you can eat” to appear anywhere near the menu. And yet, for a fixed price, it does.

TORA, Sliema

TORA takes a contemporary approach to Chinese dining, with polished interiors and a menu that gives dim sum considerably more ceremony than the words “eat as much as you like” might initially suggest.

The unlimited selection runs through an assortment of handmade dim sum favourites, including delicate dumplings and steamed buns, so the experience is less giant plate piled high and more a steady procession of bamboo baskets arriving at the table. Much more civilised. Potentially no less destructive.

Price: €30 per person
When: Monday–Thursday, 5:30pm–7:30pm
Website

Hammett’s Mestizo, St Julian’s

Then Sunday arrives and subtlety leaves the building.

Its Churrascaria Sunday turns the restaurant towards unlimited meat cuts, Latin American sides and proper tableside carving. Essentially, the sort of lunch where somebody repeatedly approaches holding meat and your only real responsibility is deciding whether you have the strength to say yes again.

Price: €39 per person
When: Sundays from October, 12pm–4pm
Website

BAP, Valletta

BAP gives Filipino and Korean cooking the kind of precision and presentation more commonly associated with fine dining, without stripping either cuisine of what makes it interesting. The restaurant (full review here) moves comfortably between both, while its Korean barbecue setup is built directly into the tables and comes with all the wrapping, dipping, grilling and banchan-related decision-making that entails.

Its weekday unlimited Korean BBQ includes beef brisket, chicken breast, pork loin and pork belly, served with banchan, miso soup and rice, with everything grilled directly at your table.

Price: €30 per person
When: Monday–Friday, 12pm–4pm, 2-hour table limit
Website

Hammett’s Mestizo, St Julian’s

Hammett’s Mestizo has always taken a broad sweep through Meso-South American cooking, drawing from Central America, the Andes, Amazon and Patagonia, with the sort of kitchen that is perfectly comfortable moving from corn tortillas to large cuts of meat without developing an identity crisis.

Its old Taco Tuesday format has now evolved into free-flowing tacos, with fillings changing regularly and the kitchen working with the likes of short rib, suckling pig, house-made salsas and corn tortillas made from imported Mexican corn.

For other Taco Tuesday offers around Malta, you can find my full guide here.

Price: €29 per person
When: Tuesdays from 6pm, up to 2 hours
Website

S:UN, Valletta

S:UN has taken one of Korea’s great contributions to civilisation and removed the inconvenient concept of a final portion.

Its Thursday setup revolves around Korean fried chicken, including boneless pieces and wings, with sauces such as sweet chilli, garlic soy and garlic mayo, alongside pickles and coleslaw. Spicy buldak has also made its way into the equation.

You get two hours. What happens between you and the chicken during that time is a private matter.

Price: €17.50 per person
When: Every Thursday, 2 hours
Website

Five unlimited offers, four restaurants, and considerably less walking back and forth carrying an increasingly structurally unsound plate.