I decided that in order to fight the jet lag, I would book a reservation in the evening on our first night in Malta in order to motivate us to stay up later than we otherwise would have. I mean, when we arrived in Spain in June of 2022, on our first night, we went to bed at 6:30pm and it was a massive struggle to stay up even til then. On this euro-trip, though, we booked dinner reservations at 6:30pm (a little early as far as dining in Valletta goes, most folks eat dinner closer to 7:30 or 8pm) at Aaron’s Kitchen. This was a really great call, because we managed to stay awake and also had an incredible dinner!

Aaron’s Kitchen is located pretty close to the center of Valletta, so it was easy to get to and easy to find. They have an outdoor space, but we opted to eat indoors with the a/c running since we weren’t really used to the humid Valletta evenings yet. The interior of the restaurant was modern, but cozy. I loved the chandeliers and minimalist style.

Because we were the only people eating inside for a while, our service was excellent. When the place started filling up closer to 8pm, our service slowed quite a bit, but it was never bad, and we always received what we ordered in a reasonable amount of time. This was a nice start to the trip, since I was expecting horrendous service since we were in Europe and I had read that service in Malta is some of the worst in Europe! Luckily, we found out that this was absolutely not true!

We started off with some cocktails, and found out this very first evening that there is a Maltese wine producer, Marsovin, that makes a whole line of wines called Caravaggio. Each different varietal has a different Caravaggio painting reproduced on the wine label! How fun is that?! We ordered the 2021 Chenin Blanc, which was bright, had an amazingly fruity nose, and nice acidity. We loved it so much we ended up getting two bottles. I believe the restaurant price was around 22 euro for the bottle, though possibly cheaper. We saw the same wines in a grocery store for around 8-10 euro per bottle.

They provided a really nice bread service and we ordered the seafood plate to share as a started. This seafood plate was totally epic containing a ton of mussels, giant shrimp, fish, octopus and calamari. Even though the three of us split it, it was a huge amount of food, and I was pretty full after this.

We ordered several different main courses. My duck ragout with truffles was amazing. The pasta was very fresh and very al dente, which I loved. The truffles gave it a bit something extra. I could NOT finish though, I was so incredibly stuffed! Anna ordered lamb filets which were tender and flavorful. Brian ordered the fish special which was Lampuki. It is the local version of Mahi Mahi and was only in season for a few more days. There was a side of french fries as well which were amazing – super crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The fries in Malta in general were always super surprisingly good! Everything was amazing, and even though we were all completely stuffed, we still ordered some pistachio gelato and tiramisu for dessert to split, just to make sure we were stuffed and there was absolutely no more room to possibly fit any more food in our bellies.

Aaron’s kitchen has an amazing menu, but they also have a ton of specials every day that you really need to try. It’s worth checking this place out for the mixed seafood grill alone. An excellent value, and fun atmosphere, I would definitely recommend checking out Aaron’s kitchen for dinner in Valletta.