The Original Maltese Cafe

This place is a real Sydney dining institution opening in 1952.
The pastizzi’s are the perfect little snack food. Savoury puff pastry parcels filled with flavours such as Chicken and Mushroom, Chicken and Vegetable, Meat Curry. A vegetarian option is also available — Vegetable curry, Ricotta Cheese, Ricotta and Cheese. New flavours since I was here last are Tandoori Chicken and Chilli Con Carne. Sweet Pastizzi’s come in Apple and Sweet Ricotta and Blueberry. One is never enough! The price for a single Pastizzi has gone up to $ 1.50 each.
TIP: Buy 4 for only$ 5!
Feeling like a more substantial meal?
There is a breakfast menu (I’ve never tried a breakfast here), but I’ve sampled their great pasta dishes for both lunch and dinner.
The freshly hand made Raviul dish is delicious. You feel like you have gone home to Mamma’s!
New additions to the menu are now Burgers $ 10, Grilled Chicken $ 10, Chicken Schnitzel $ 12 and all served with chips!
Maybe you’d prefer a seafood option? Grilled Barramundi or Grilled Salmon is now served here with a side serving of salad /​vegetables and chips $ 18.
I use to buy packets of a dozen frozen Pastizzi’s for $ 15 for home parties or work functions. Also a popular item at any function. The café also provides a catering service.
As you can see this place is worth the visit and is great value for money.

Ate here several times while in Sydney always with excellent service and food. The patizzis are quite varied and well made. I also ate here for breakfast and the evening meal. We found the staff to be outstanding. I’ll eat here whenever in Sydney. A popular spot for good, reasonably priced meals.

Hey you know what you can buy for $ 1.20 these days? Pretty much nothing. Like, a plastic fork. One chopstick. Half a red frog.
Or. OR! A pastizzi on Crown St in the middle of the city. Palate pleasing puff pastry parcels of perfection, these little bad boys ain’t just dirt cheap, they’re tasty as all get out (how did that even become a saying? What’s all get out, and who’s eating it?)
And the flavours. Oh lawdy lawdy lawd, such flavours. Ricotta is the staple. Pea is great. Chilli is understandably epic. The sugared apple is tip top. And there are a dozens more, including limited edition flavours, like Goan beef.
PRO TIP: they also do full meals, Kevin the owner is a trained chef and his current specialty is rabbit, using quality ingredients. Get it up ya, tell ya friends.

Omg pastizzi!!! This place is a god send when hungry, drunk, craving a snack, craving carbs, salt and fat. For only $ 1.60 you get a piece of pastizzi which is a golden, flaky pastry with warm gooey yummy filligs such as chicken, bolognaise, peas, cream cheese, tandoori chicken, etc, etc. At any time of the day, even if they only have 5 kinds on display, they can magically pull out any of the many flavours on the blackboard out of thin air!
When you eat the pastizzi, its serioisly heaven. The crunch from the pastry is just deafening and will make your chewing as loud as Lily’s loud chewing from How I Met Your Mother.
If you’re on a budget, I recommend you go to this store as you can get more from your budget constraint here, all other stores charge $ 2 or $ 2.50. Looking at the price differences, you could profit from these price differences by buying from the crown street store and selling the same pastizzis for an amount between 1.61 to 1.99 in front of the oxford Street store. You could do this everday until, they either made the prices the same between stores or they chase you away with an angry maltese grandma with a broom.

Whether it’s first thing in the morning (at 2pm) or later in early evening, this place always has warm pastizzis beckoning in the counter display. A few will perk you up as a quick snack or a half dozen will more than fill you for a meal. The service is friendly and welcoming too, they bring cappuccinos out to the table, and if they’re a bit bored there may even be designs in the foam. Once my boyfriend and I got matching hearts in our matching cappucinos, which was totes adorbz. There’s plenty of tables for eat-​in customers and a comfortable lounge with coffee table for those who want to sit window-​side and people watch along Crown Street.
For those who don’t fancy a pastizzi or two for breakfast (or lunch or dinner) they serve «big breakfast» and similar breakfast foods all day, which are huge portions for cheap prices.
If I had one small criticism or complaint it might be that I’m not always in the mood for their tv channel with music videos playing nonstop, but at least it doesn’t have ads on, and it’s mostly pretty low volume so not too intrusive.

A nice variety of flaky (and let’s face it, a little greasy) pastizzis on offer here for $ 1.60−2 each. They are small, about the size of your palm, but are quite a fair deal as 1 is a hearty snack, and 3 is basically a lunch.
The top dogs in my book are the plain ricotta (salty and delicious), or if you’re after something sweet, the apple pastizzi.
Though the spinach with ricotta may be morally superior since it contains a vegetable and all, it’s not all that much spinach, and I honestly preferred the flavor of the ricotta without that bitter note.
They also have a blueberry ricotta, but here again, not a lot of blueberry or fruity sweetness.
Totally agree with the other reviewer — great idea to grab a dozen, freeze & reheat when you are craving one of these!

Pastizzi’s are great for little on-​the-​go snacks. Here, they’re without frills and they come in different flavors from savory to sweet. Easy to eat, easy to buy, nice and crispy and sometimes warm.

Famous for their pastizzi — like a pie thrown together from last nights left overs. It has humble roots, but makes tasty home made food. The flavours are very European and prices have not been hit with inflation. Experience a cultural gateway to Malta. It is such an interesting country as unlike the rest of Europe it is like time has not changed from the early days — not much has progressed in Malta technologically — things pass by in their own time. It is nice for a breathe away from our usual busy lifestyles to take in this perspective, and be a little introspective. This is very informal dining, more like a lunch time diner, where take away is the usual option. Coffees are good here too.

It was late in the evening and Paper Moose were roaming the streets filming girls on bicycles. Not in a weird way, but in a way that promoted safe nighttime cycling and this campaign happened to feature young women.
The hour arrived when it was high time for something to eat, we had a lot of equipment with us so couldn’t venture far from our shooting location.
Thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of equipment being pushed around the Surry Hills Streets in a large metal industry standard dumb waiter. Pushed around by a five foot eleven, industry standard dumb Seaton.
We came to the Original Maltese Café and after a quick word with management carried in the equipment and planted it in the café. We, the hungry film crew and talent, took up near all of their seating and ordered an array of Pastizzi’s to have there.
Large platters of the Maltese delicacy were brought out and we sat and laughed and talked and pondered as we ate pea pastizzi’s, spinach, curry and ricotta ones. Filling our stomachs and satisfying our taste buds with the delicious, both in flavour and textual, treats.
The Pastizzi is one of those foods that is both appropriate for snacking and for dining and with only a handful of places providing them, the Original Maltese Café is one of the best.

It has taken me 2 years to come here even though I live in the same block as this Maltese eatery. Mainly because it gets overlooked by all the other flashier options on Crown St and this one always seems empty, almost like a suburban milk bar. But I finally took the plunge and went in to order myself some pastizzi’s to go. I’m glad I did because I think its my new indulgent snack!
I say indulgent, because these as some of the greasiest things I’ve eaten… by the time I got to Hyde park to eat them, the paper bag was soaked full of oil. But the pastry was so flaky and delicious that I forgot about how fatty it is. I got the ricotta & spinach, beef curry and a ricotta & blueberry. You can buy a tomato and garlic sauce which you can dip the pastizzi’s in, and complements them well. The savory pastizzi’s were nice but the sweet one was a bit weird. The ricotta was a bit lumpy and cold so didn’t like that one as much. Next time I’ll try the chicken pastizzi’s and the apple one to finish off. I also hear the home made ravioli is quite good too…
It may have taken me a while to get here in the first place, but I’ll be back :)

These guys have been making moreish Maltese finger food — pastizzis — since 1952, so they’ve got it down pat. Flaky golden parcels of pure delight in every flavour imaginable. They’re cheap as chips — $ 17 per dozen or $ 1.60 each — so you can eat ‘em till the cows come home. Stock up on supplies, whack them in your freezer for an endless supply at the ready. Super convenient for those hung over days when you simply can’t leave the house, but need something deliciously naughty to ease the pain. They’re hand made with lost of Maltese love and there’s a pastizzi for every palette… cheese and spinach; pure ricotta cheese; mushy peas; chicken and mushroom; chilli con carne; vegetable curry; tandoori chicken; or curried beef. Round it all off with blueberry and sweetened ricotta cheese, or apple for dessert. When you’re pastizzid out, reach for a deep fried date slice or kanoli filled with sweet ricotta — made to order. There are no frills in this retro-​ish Crown Street institution. It’s quite simply all about the pastizzis… and a MUST for pastry lovers.

S’pretty good. They have these… Things in the window at the counter.
Pastizzis I think they’re called. I came in and asked what they were, and the answer came as «Chicken and mushroom, cheese and spinish, beef curry…», and there were no labels or prices on or near the food itself, so I had to look it up on the menu to find out what its actually called.
«Pastizzi», in various flavours. $ 1.60 each.
Well, I like them. Sort of like… Pastry with a filling, Good on a cold day. As for the rest of the menu, I haven’t tried. Prices range from $ 6 to $ 19, and Maltese food is the theme. I reckon you have to be in the mood for it. Whats this? A deep fried date. Hmm, I’ll save that for next visit.
Anyway, this is the only place I’ve ever seen «pastizzis», so for me it has a point of different. But I’m not foodie, so right now a thousand of you are going «WHAT? You dont know what a pastizzi is? They’re everywhere!!»
Are they? I’m from Perth. I don’t know these things.
Other than that, its just one of many normalish ethnic fast foods. Stop in to look, but don’t come out of your way to get here. It’s a restaurant by volume of chairs, not by feel.

The Original Maltese Café is a landmark of Darlinghurst. The atmosphere is simple but relaxed, but no one goes there for the décor it is all about the food.
The meals are reasonably priced with Ravioli, Lasagne and Rabbit Stew all $ 12, or if you want to spend a whopping $ 18 you can have Garlic Prawns. Also they serve breakfast, sandwiches and salad. But I always have the Pastizzi, at $ 1.60 each, or $ 17 for a dozen you cannot go wrong, with a selection of Ricotta Cheese, Ricotta Cheese & Spinach, Peas, Beef Curry, Chicken & Vegetable, Chilli Con Carne, Vegetable Curry, Tandoori Chicken, and Apple. For $ 2.00 they have Sweet Ricotta and Bluberry.
The Maltese café is one of my favourite haunts when I just want to have a coffee (they make a good cappuccino too) and a snack with a good book.