Pillar 04 · Food & Where to Eat

Pastizzerias and Traditional Bakeries in Żejtun

A pastizz done well is one of the great things to eat in Malta. Done badly, it’s greasy disappointment. The difference is whether the pastizzeria makes them itself, several times a day, or buys them in.

This article is a stub. We’ll keep adding bakeries and pastizzerias as we walk them off — and remove any that change hands and stop being good.

What to look for

The pastizz is a small filo pastry, served hot, traditionally filled with either ricotta or mushy peas. The pastry should be light, layered, and faintly oily; the filling hot enough to want to wait a minute before biting in. The same kitchens often make qassatat — round, short-pastry savoury pastries with similar fillings — and a handful of sweet pastries for breakfast. The signs of a good pastizzeria: trays going in and out of the oven through the morning; a queue of locals at 10am and again at 4pm; the smell of fresh ricotta from the back; a counter that’s almost always nearly empty and being constantly replenished.

The traditional Maltese bakery — the furnar — bakes ftira and country bread on a wood- or gas-fired stone oven, often early in the morning. A few of these still operate around Żejtun. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to list 2–3 pastizzerias with location and approximate baking times, and 1–2 traditional bakeries with first-baking times.]

How to eat a pastizz properly

A pastizz is a hand food, eaten from the paper it’s wrapped in, ideally within five minutes of leaving the oven. Take it outside if the pastizzeria has a counter rather than a sit-down room. The first bite should be cautious — the filling will be hot enough to burn the roof of your mouth — and the rest can be at speed. A coffee at a corner bar afterward is the natural follow-up. Two pastizzi is a snack; four is a small lunch. Eating one off a plate with a knife and fork is a common visitor mistake; locals don’t do it.

What this article will cover

  • 2–3 named pastizzerias with baking times
  • 1–2 traditional furnar bakeries
  • What’s worth eating at each: pastizzi, qassatat, ftira, sweet pastries
  • How to order in basic Maltese
  • Festa-week opening — extended hours, longer queues
  • Where to take pastizzi to eat them properly

Read more on this pillar

Part of our Food & Where to Eat pillar. Pair with coffee in Żejtun, breakfast in Żejtun, and traditional Maltese food.

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.