There is a very good choice of restaurants and cafes from deluxe to fast food (hamburgers and fish & chips), including Chinese, fish and beachside bars. Table service is normal, but many bars and cafes have table and/or counter service. Local dishes include lampuki pie, bragoli and fenek (rabbit cooked in wine). Pork and fish dishes are recommended and vegetables are excellent. The best Maltese fruits are oranges and grapes; also delicious are strawberries, melons, mulberries, tangerines, pomegranates and figs.
Maltese beer is excellent, and foreign beers are also available. There is a wide variety of good and inexpensive Maltese wine and foreign wines and spirits. Licensing hours of bars, restaurants and cafes are usually 0900-0100 and beyond. Most hotel bars close between 1300 and 1600 and then reopen after 1800.
Nightlife
There are several discos, bars and nightclubs. Roulette, baccarat, blackjack and boule can be played at the ‘Dragonara’ casino, St Julian’s or at the Casino de Venezia in Vittoriosa. The Manoel Theater is one of the oldest in Europe. Cinemas show mainly English and American films.
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