Pillar 04 · Food & Where to Eat

Breakfast in Żejtun: Where to Start the Day

Breakfast in Żejtun is a short, practical affair — coffee at a corner bar, a pastizz from a working pastizzeria, or a proper sit-down brunch at one of the newer cafés. Here are the options.

This article is a stub. Specific names and times will follow.

The three styles of breakfast

The local breakfast. Espresso or a cappuccino at a corner bar, with a fresh pastizz from the pastizzeria next door or across the square. Cost: under three euros. Time: ten minutes. This is what most Żejtun residents do on a weekday morning, and it’s the right move if you’re trying to be at the Roman villa when it opens or you’re catching an early bus to Valletta.

The brunch. A handful of newer cafés in or near the parish square run a proper brunch service on weekends — eggs, avocado on toast, brioche, decent coffee. Cost: ten to fifteen euros. Time: an hour. The bakery breakfast. Take-it-home: a fresh ftira from a traditional furnar, with tomato, olive oil, anchovies or tuna, and capers. Eat on a bench in the parish square. Cost: about five euros. Time: as long as you like. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to name 2–3 corner bars, 1–2 brunch cafés, and the nearest traditional furnar with first-baking time.]

Why weekday breakfast in Żejtun is different

Maltese weekday breakfast is short and practical — coffee, a pastizz, sometimes a small biscuit, almost always at a counter rather than a table. The brunch culture that has taken over much of the rest of the island is much smaller in Żejtun, which is one of the things many residents quietly like about living here. Weekend mornings shift slightly: the corner bars stay full longer, and one or two of the newer cafés do a serious sit-down breakfast. If you want the local rhythm, eat at a counter on a Tuesday morning. If you want a leisurely sit-down, come on a Saturday.

What this article will cover

  • Named corner bars for the local breakfast
  • Brunch cafés with menus and weekend hours
  • Traditional bakeries for the ftira move
  • Where to sit and eat outdoors
  • Sunday-morning breakfast culture in Żejtun
  • What to do after breakfast — the natural next stops

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Food & Where to Eat pillar. Pair with coffee in Żejtun, pastizzerias and bakeries, and the half-day plan.

Mattew Cassar

Resident · Writer

Mattew writes zejtun.com from a flat above his grandfather’s old workshop on Triq San Girgor. He has lived in Żejtun for twenty-three of his thirty-one years.