Peristyle

Peristyle is a family-run restaurant in Rabat that has been serving homemade food since 1997. It is an unpretentious neighbourhood restaurant with a long menu of pizza, pasta, grills and fish at modest prices and a reputation for pastizzi made with Maltese ġbejna cheese rather than the usual ricotta. For visitors using our Mdina guide to explore the area around the walled city, it is a practical and unfussy place to eat well away from the walled city's higher prices.

What follows covers the menu and opening hours, with extra context for UK travellers who want to know what to order and when to turn up.

A family restaurant with more than twenty-five years behind it

Peristyle opened in 1997 and is a family-run business known for delicious homemade food. With more than twenty-five years of experience, the cooking shows it: a broad menu covering starters, soups, salads, snacks, pasta, meat, fish and pizza, with nothing that tries to be fashionable. The restaurant is open at 09:00 on every day it trades, so it covers a late breakfast, lunch and, on Saturdays, dinner.

Rabat sits directly beside Mdina, and a meal here makes a useful counterpoint to the walled city. The restaurants inside the walls are pricier, and Peristyle is the plainer, cheaper alternative for a plate of pasta or a pizza. If you are still choosing a base, our where to stay in Malta guide compares the main areas.

The pastizzi and the ġbejna ravioli

The dishes that make Peristyle distinctive are the ones built on ġbejna, the small Maltese goat cheese. The pastizzi are one of a kind because they are made with ġbejna, and they can be eaten in the restaurant or bought frozen to cook at home, which is handy if you are staying in self-catering accommodation. Homemade ravioli filled with local goat cheese and served in a Napolitan sauce are €9.50 as a starter or €12.50 as a main course.

Pastizzi are Malta's everyday snack, normally filled with ricotta or peas, so a ġbejna version is a pleasant departure. If you want to turn a snack stop into a full day out, our things to do in Malta page has ideas for the rest of the day.

Starters, soups and salads

Starters are simple and cheap. Garlic bread is €3.50, a classic bruschetta with tomatoes, garlic, olives and mozzarella is €5.50, fresh mushrooms in garlic are €7.50 and a shrimp cocktail is €8.00. For something heavier there are smoked salmon poupettes at €12.50, filled with onions, tomatoes, tuna, olives, shrimps, mayonnaise and egg, and octopus in garlic at €13.50.

Soups are €6.50 for mushroom or cream of chicken and €8.00 for the vegetable soup or aljotta, the Maltese fish soup. Salads include an artichoke salad at €12.50, a tuna salad at €12.50, a grilled chicken salad at €13.00 and a smoked salmon salad at €14.50.

Pizza and pasta

The pizza list runs from a Margherita at €8.50 through funghi and Napoletana at €9.00, pepperoni at €9.40 and a kids' pizza with egg and sausage at €9.50. Mid-priced choices include the quattro stagioni at €10.50, a vegetarian pizza at €11.50, a capricciosa at €11.80 and the Maltese pizza at €12.00, topped with Maltese sausage, caponata, sun-dried tomatoes and goat's cheese. At the top end are the Parma at €12.50, the house Peristyle pizza with chicken, bacon and BBQ sauce at €13.00, a seafood pizza at €13.00 and an Al Salmone at €13.50.

Pasta is offered as a starter or a main. Spaghetti bolognese and penne carbonara are both €9.00 or €11.50, tortellini carbonara is €9.50 or €12.00, fried ravioli is €7.50 or €9.50 and the homemade chicken cannelloni is €13.50 as a main only. These are good-value, generous plates and suit families with young children.

Grills, snacks and fish

Meat dishes begin with a roasted half chicken at €13.00, a grilled chicken breast with garlic and olive oil at €15.50 and a pork loin with mushroom sauce at €15.80. Rabbit, fried in garlic, onions and wine, is €17.80, and it is the Maltese choice on the menu. Further up the list sit a chicken ballotine at €18.50, a homemade veal cordon bleu at €18.50, a fillet cordon bleu at €19.50, BBQ spare ribs at €20.00, a cuberoll steak at €20.00, a ribeye at €26.50 and a fillet steak at €28.50.

The snack list suits younger diners: nuggets and chips at €10.00, a chicken burger or an Angus burger at €11.50, breaded cod at €13.00 and a special Angus burger with egg, bacon, cheese, sausage and onion rings at €14.00.

Fish runs from scampi at €13.80 to a grilled salmon steak at €20.00, grilled dott at €21.00, grilled swordfish at €21.50 and pan-fried octopus in garlic, olives and white wine at €21.50. The chef's speciality is a stuffed swordfish with tuna, shrimps, onions, tomatoes, olives and herbs, served with a grilled king prawn, at €23.80.

What to order for a lunch on a day out

Because the kitchen closes at 15:00 on most days, think of Peristyle as a lunch stop. A sensible order for two is a shared bruschetta at €5.50, one pasta in the main size, such as the homemade ravioli at €12.50, and one pizza to split, perhaps the Maltese at €12.00 so you taste the sausage and goat cheese together. That comes to a filling meal for well under thirty euros before drinks.

Larger groups can take a different route and order several pizzas for the middle of the table, then add grills according to appetite. The rabbit at €17.80 and the stuffed swordfish at €23.80 are the two dishes that most clearly reflect Maltese tastes, so they are the ones to share if you want a sense of the local table.

Eating with children and in groups

The menu is friendly to families. There is a kids' pizza with egg and sausage at €9.50, nuggets and chips at €10.00, and pasta dishes in the starter size at €7.50 to €9.50 that suit smaller appetites. Dishes arrive in generous portions, so sharing is common, and the restaurant's daytime hours mean children are not kept waiting for a late dinner.

For groups, send an enquiry through the form on this page and it goes to Peristyle via VisitMalta.co.uk, so that a table can be set aside, particularly on a Saturday when the kitchen stays open through to the evening. Take-away is available if the weather is hot or the group would rather picnic in one of Rabat's nearby gardens.

Opening hours, take-away and booking

Peristyle is closed on Mondays. From Tuesday to Friday it is open from 09:00 to 15:00, on Saturday from 09:00 to 22:00, and on Sunday from 09:00 to 18:30. There is no weekday dinner service, so plan for lunch unless you are visiting at the weekend. Bookings and take-away orders start with an enquiry: send it through the form on this page and it goes to Peristyle via VisitMalta.co.uk. Prices are subject to change.

Because the hours stop at 15:00 on most days, Peristyle suits a lunch stop on a day out. Pair it with a walk through the walled city and a look at the other places in our directory of restaurants in Rabat. If you would like to stay overnight in the area, browse our selection of hotels in Mdina, or compare hotels in Malta more widely. The capital is an easy day out, covered in our Valletta guide, and our Malta weather guide helps you choose the month. To plan the journey, see flights to Malta and holidays in Malta.