THE DEFINITIVE(LY) GOOD GUIDE TO RESTAURANTS IN MALTA & GOZO – RESTAURANTS AWARDS CEREMONY – 2026 AWARDS
de Mondion top survey rated BEST OVERALL Restaurant in Malta
Awards ceremony held on 8th December 2025
The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants Awards Ceremony supported by the Malta Tourism Authority, Global Payments and Malta Food Agency held its annual Restaurant Awards Ceremony on Monday 8th December at The Grand Hotel Excelsior. The awards celebrated the outstanding achievement of Malta & Gozo’s top rated restaurants as voted by diners out who participated in the Malta & Gozo Restaurant survey online at www.restaurantsmalta.com in September. Based on diner voting, only 150 restaurants make it to be included free in the The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta & Gozo and on its official portal www.restaurantsmalta.com each year.
Congratulations go to the team at de Mondion who were rated Top Overall restaurant for 2026.
The Honourable Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Tourism & Foreign Affairs, Ian Borg addressed the guests and the results were revealed by Lisa Grech, Managing Director of the Definitive(ly) Good Guide Co and presented by various dignataries and sponsors. The beatiful award plates presented to the top 40 restaurants were supplied by Continental Purchasing on behalf of Schonwald, Germany.
This year’s Malta & Gozo Restaurant Survey conducted in September 2025 once again had a large number of respondents, with 3703 participants who dined out on average one to two times a week, equivalent to a total of 288,834 dining experiences in a year! The latest 2026 edition of the guide sees 45 new restaurants in the The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta & Gozo which was launched on the evening. The information in the guide is also included in its portal www.restaurantsmalta.com.
The Top 40 Award winning restaurants were taken from the highest rated restaurants taking into account their overall rating, the number of people rating, comments and other data from the survey. The top 40 restaurants winning award plates in order from most highly rated were:
- de Mondion
- Sole by Tarragon
- Ion Harbour
- Venus
- Muża
- Trattoria da Manuele
- OyOy
- Opa!
- Minoa
- Galea’s Kitchen
- Buonbon Café
- Adura
- Toro Toro
- Caviar & Bull
- Palio’s
- Scala
- Trattoria AD 1530
- Step 15
- Noni
- Ta’ Tona
- Lovage
- da Luigi
- Casa Gringo
- Don Royale
- Lubelli
- Chophouse
- Terrone
- Village Fork
- Ventuno
- Root 81
- Obi
- Bastion
- Bahia
- Mamachi
- Chatterbox
- The Golden Fork
- Tal-Familja
- Trattoria ix-Xatba
- Chiaro B’Kara
- Paranga
Additional Awards in different categories were presented:
- Best Food (sponsored by American Express) – de Mondion
- Best Ambience (sponsored by Bookia & Tableo) – Bahia
- Best Service – Sole by Tarragon
- Restaurant Most Dedicated to Supporting Local, Best Local Fish Restaurant & Best Local Wine List (sponsored by Malta Food Agency)– Il-Kartell, Sole by Tarragon and Country Terrace respectively
- Best Restaurant in Gozo (sponsored by The Ministry for Gozo) – Ta’ Tona
- The Best Chef Award (sponsored by Pentole Agnelli represented exclusively by The Catering Centre) – Sandro Vella
- Best Newcomer (sponsored by Zamco) – Trattoria da Manuele
- Most children-friendly restaurant (sponsored by the Malta Baby & Kids Directory) – Don Royale
- Best Maltese restaurant (sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority) – Gululu
- Restaurant most popular for business entertainment (sponsored by Rummo represented by J Calleja Import & Export Ltd– Caviar & Bull
- Restaurant most popular for romantic dining (sponsored by Victor Azzopardi Jewellers) – Caviar & Bull
- Best value for money restaurant (sponsored by Horeca) – Village Fork
- Favourite Café (sponsored by Buondi represented by Nestle Malta) – Busy Bee Mriehel
- Most promising young chef of the year – Kimberley Ellul
- Most promising F&B Maitre of the year – Hosea Tabone
- The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants People’s Choice Wine List (from the results of the survey) – Country Terrace
The results of the restaurant survey can be found in the 2026 edition of The Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta and Gozo which is now available to purchase online for 8 Euros.
