Pillar 04 · Food & Where to Eat

Sunday Lunch in Żejtun: The Meal of the Week

Sunday lunch is the most important meal of the week in most Maltese families, and it shows up in restaurant kitchens accordingly. This is where to eat it well in Żejtun.

This article is a stub. Specific restaurants and current Sunday menus will follow.

The shape of the meal

A proper Maltese Sunday lunch begins around 12.30pm and ends when it ends — three hours later isn’t unusual. Restaurants that take Sunday seriously bring out a longer menu than they run on weekdays: roasted things, slow-braised things, bigger fish, more shared starters. The wine list opens up too. The expectation is that you’ve come for the afternoon, not for a quick plate. Book ahead in summer; the restaurants that do this well are full from June through September. Avoid arriving at 1.30pm without a reservation and expecting a table.

What to order: a short table of mixed Maltese starters (kapunata, marinated anchovies, fresh cheeselets) followed by something slow-cooked — bragioli, lampuki when in season, or a roasted lamb. A bottle of Maltese red, water, then dessert and coffee. Some restaurants run a fenkata as their Sunday set lunch; if so, that’s the choice. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to confirm 3 restaurants currently doing Sunday lunch well, with reservation details.]

After-lunch logistics

A long Sunday lunch ends naturally somewhere between three and four in the afternoon. The right thing to do next is to walk it off slowly — through the parish square, down a couple of the alleys, perhaps as far as St Gregory’s — rather than to drive anywhere. Most family-run businesses are closed on Sunday afternoons, so the town goes quiet, which is the point. By six or seven the air cools, the corner bars start filling up again, and an evening coffee or aperitivo is the natural close to the day. Do not plan to do anything important after Sunday lunch.

What this article will cover

  • Named Sunday-lunch restaurants with current menus
  • Reservation timing and how far ahead to book
  • What to wear (smarter than a weekday)
  • Where to walk afterward to walk it off
  • The fenkata Sunday — a special case
  • How to plan the rest of the day around a long lunch

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Food & Where to Eat pillar. Pair with best restaurants, traditional Maltese food, and Maltese wine in Żejtun.

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.