The Best Pizza Spots in Malta: My Ultimate Guide
Finding pizza in Malta isn’t exactly an endurance sport. Throw a stone in almost any direction and there’s a reasonable chance it’ll land somewhere selling a Margherita. Finding the best pizza in Malta, however, requires slightly more discernment — and preferably less throwing of stones.
The island has everything from proper Neapolitan pizzerias and Roman pinsa specialists to tiny neighbourhood operations, waterfront restaurants and, because Malta rarely does anything entirely conventionally, an Italian artisan pizza truck parked beside the sea.
Some are institutions. Others have arrived relatively recently and made themselves very difficult to ignore. Between them you’ll find blistered Neapolitan crusts, Roman-style pinsa, sourdoughs and enough pistachio to suggest Sicily has been quietly annexing us.
This isn’t an attempt to catalogue every pizzeria on the island. It’s a regularly updated shortlist of the places genuinely worth knowing about — whether you’re after a Margherita done properly, something considerably less traditional, or simply trying to settle the surprisingly contentious question of where to find really good pizza in Malta.
A necessary disclaimer before somebody starts a diplomatic incident in the comments: these are in no particular order. Pizza inspires enough strong opinions without introducing a league table.
Sally Port Pizzeria, Valletta
There’s a slightly Lady and the Tramp quality to Sally Port, although admittedly with considerably less spaghetti. The tomato-red façade, checked tablecloths and pavement tables bring a touch of old-school Italian-American trattoria theatre to Valletta’s limestone, while the pizza gives you a very good reason to stay.
The dough is made in-house and fermented for 48 hours, producing thin bases with a proper blister and enough structure to survive their toppings without collapsing halfway between plate and mouth. Sometimes the classics don’t need an intervention.
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Salumeria Gardens, St Julian’s
Salumeria Gardens has main-character energy. Run by Pablo and Max, the duo who don’t take themselves nearly as seriously as they take their dough, it’s been one of my personal go-tos since opening. The garden setting, slightly unhinged sense of humour and very good cocktails make it as much a night out as somewhere to eat pizza.
The pizza has since acquired rather serious credentials of its own: Salumeria placed #90 in the 2026 Best Pizza Awards’ Top 100 Pizzerias in the World. Chilli Crunch piles Shichimi Togarashi, crispy guanciale, artichoke and black sesame onto a light tomato base; Pistachio Pesto Burrata goes in the opposite direction with San Marzano tomato, burrata, Parma ham and homemade pistachio-basil pesto. And if you know about the off-menu mortadella version, you know.
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DATO’S Trattoria & Pizzeria, Marsaxlokk
DATO’S is what happens when an excellent Italian food deli decides selling you the ingredients is no longer enough.
Giovanni Dato’s Marsaxlokk trattoria takes the same quality Italian produce that built DATO’S reputation and puts it where it arguably always wanted to be: on pizza. The result is proper Sicilian-Italian cooking without unnecessary theatre, with artisanal pizzas sitting around the €8–€12 mark and fresh pasta alongside them. I visited shortly after opening; suffice to say, having direct access to very good Italian produce turns out to be quite a useful advantage for a pizzeria.
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Prosciutteria, Gzira
Prosciutteria occupies its own little corner of The Strand in Gzira, combining Roman pinsa with salumi, wine and the sort of waterfront terrace that makes an after-work pizza dangerously easy to justify. The Carbonara is the one that converted even my fairly sceptical attitude towards carbonara on pizza — mozzarella, egg, guanciale and Pecorino Romano, rich, unapologetic and genuinely one of the best versions I’ve had. The Mortazza Supreme brings mortadella, burrata and pistachio. Gluten-free dough is available too, and crucially doesn’t feel like a punishment.
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Il Pirata, Various Locations
Il Pirata has been part of Malta’s Italian restaurant landscape for years, with locations across the island, including its recently returned St Julian’s restaurant. The latter reopened in Paceville this summer after a five-year absence (review), bringing the brand back to where it originally started.
I went along after the St Julian’s reopening, and while Il Pirata’s menu wanders happily through Mediterranean territory, the pizza deserves its place here in its own right. The St Julian’s kitchen uses a log-fired oven, and sometimes that combination of dough, fire and restraint is considerably more persuasive than another pizza involving twelve toppings and a manifesto.
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The Pizza Box, Kirkop
This one comes via a recommendation from someone whose pizza judgement I trust. A small, unassuming spot in Kirkop, The Pizza Box is doing wood-fired pizzas with properly blistered, charred crusts and a menu that moves from the classics into considerably more interesting territory.
There’s a Carbonara with guanciale, egg yolk and pecorino; a Pistacchiosa with mortadella, burrata and pistachio pesto; and the rather committed Meat Feast, involving minced beef, Maltese sausage, guanciale and spianata calabrese. Prices mostly sit between €7.50 and €14.50, making it one of the more reasonably priced names on this list too.
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Marrobbio, Sliema
Marrobbio has been sitting on Tower Road long enough to qualify as part of Sliema’s furniture — albeit furniture with a pizza oven.
The interesting part is the dough. Alongside the classics, Marrobbio has built a small flour multiverse involving wholemeal, gluten-free rice flour, burnt wheat, organic hemp and spelt. For anyone who has ever stared at a pizza menu and thought, yes, but what if the base had more administrative options?, this is your place. There are now additional Marrobbio locations in Naxxar and Bugibba, but Sliema remains the original reference point.
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Pulcinella, Various Locations
Pulcinella is the dependable one. The pizza you order when somebody suddenly announces the office deserves a treat, dinner planning has failed spectacularly, or Naples simply feels geographically inconvenient.
The operation has expanded across Malta, but the proposition has remained reassuringly straightforward: proper Neapolitan pizza, generous toppings and the sort of consistency that explains why actual Neapolitans recommend it. Pizzaiolo Vincenzo knows what he’s doing. The pistachio tiramisu also has an irritating habit of turning a pizza order into a considerably larger life decision.
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Made in Sud, St Paul’s Bay
Tiny, unpretentious and deeply Neapolitan, Made in Sud is the sort of place that makes an elaborate interior feel rather unnecessary. The room is simple; the pizza is not.
Soft, airy dough, proper char and an Italian approach to toppings have given this little St Paul’s Bay operation a following considerably larger than the premises. Even the vegan pizza gets repeatedly singled out — an achievement considering vegan cheese has historically done its best work as an argument against vegan cheese.
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Sotto, Various Locations
If Naples has dominated the conversation so far, Sotto arrives to remind everyone that Rome would like a word.
Part of the Zero Sei family, Sotto specialises in Roman pinsa across locations including Valletta, St Julian’s, Marsaskala and Sliema, with Casa Sotto in Valletta and the Gżira operation adding further variations on the theme. The bases are lighter and more elongated than Neapolitan pizza, with toppings running from the reassuringly traditional to Carbonara, Amatriciana, porchetta and burrata with Parma ham. Basically Rome, minus the Vespa nearly taking you out at a pedestrian crossing.
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Al Legna, Marsaskala
Al Legna takes wood-fired pizza sufficiently seriously to have caught the attention of 50 Top Pizza, which included the Marsaskala restaurant among its Excellent Pizzerias in the 2025 European guide. That’s a rather more useful credential than somebody’s cousin declaring it “the best pizza ever” on Facebook.
The style is contemporary Neapolitan: well-leavened dough, an airy pronounced cornicione and a wood-fired finish, with classics sitting alongside combinations involving salsiccia and friarielli, porchetta, bresaola and the occasional pizza architecture project involving stars and stuffed points.
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Thoretto’s Pizza, Xemxija
A pizza truck parked on the Xemxija waterfront shouldn’t necessarily be one of the places that comes up in a serious conversation about the best street food trucks and pizza in Malta, but here we are.
Thoretto’s is an Italian artisan operation on wheels, with a compact menu, proper ingredients and a pizzaiolo whose enthusiasm has developed something of its own online following. The Diavolina handles the heat, the Maialina deals with the porkier end of proceedings, and there’s a Nutella pizza for anyone who believes dinner should end with absolutely no nutritional ambiguity.
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Nom Nom, Valletta
Nom Nom is for people who look at a chef’s carefully considered pizza combination and think, yes, but I have notes.
The build-your-own format lets you get deeply involved in proceedings, but its Roman pinsa deserves attention without the DIY element too. Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, porchetta, truffle and Salsiccia Bianca all make appearances. The danger is not that there isn’t enough choice. The danger is discovering just how quickly “I’ll add one thing” becomes an edible architectural project.
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Thirteen names, several competing Italian regional identities and enough flour to cause a small incident at customs. Malta’s pizza scene is doing just fine.
And, as always, this list isn’t carved into a pizza stone. I’ll keep updating it as new contenders arrive and old favourites continue to earn their place.
