Malta 12 Wine & Food — Restaurant in Livorno

A must try for seafood lovers! After reading the great reviews, I decided to give this place a try as it was conveniently located just around the corner from my hotel. While my first attempt to walk in on a busy Saturday night around 8:30 pm didn’t work out (fully booked!), I was lucky enough to get a table on Sunday at 7 pm – and it was definitely worth the wait!

The highlight of my meal was discovering nephrops, a delicate crustacean from the lobster family with an incredible taste of the sea. If you've never had them before, I recommend getting Google Translate ready, especially if you don't speak Italian, and asking the very helpful waiter how to enjoy them properly. They were served with a drizzle of truffle oil – a bit pricey, but absolutely worth it for a unique seafood experience.

The rest of the meal was equally delightful. I had spaghetti with fresh clams followed by grilled squid and jumbo prawns, all perfectly cooked and full of flavor. To finish off, I enjoyed a fresh mandarin sorbet paired with Grand Marnier – a refreshing and delicious end to the meal. The house wine complemented the food beautifully, and the espresso rounded things off nicely.

The service was warm and personal, with the owner/waiter going above and beyond, aided by Google Translate on both sides! All in all, the rave reviews are well-deserved. If you're a seafood lover, this restaurant...

Disappointing Experience with Poor Service and Questionable Attitude

We visited this restaurant today, and unfortunately, it was a pretty bad experience from start to finish. We only ordered pasta, but things went downhill quickly. They brought us a “compliment” from the chef and some water, but later added both to our bill without informing us beforehand.

The worst part was the painfully slow service when we were trying to get the bill. We had a small child with us who began crying due to the long wait, but the staff showed no urgency or consideration. It felt like they just didn’t care.

To make matters worse, we witnessed a very unpleasant incident. A young Asian couple was spoken to rudely by a waiter who shouted at them for supposedly not speaking English. From what we could tell, they were speaking English just fine—just with an accent. It came off as unprofessional and frankly, quite racist.

Portion sizes were small, though the pasta was reasonably tasty. But the combination of poor service, unexpected charges, and a questionable attitude toward customers made this experience terrible.

Would definitely...

Stumbled across this restaurant and it has been the culinary highlight of our trip. Accomodating from the time we arrived, the menu has a large variety of delicious meals and an extra bonus they had so many GLUTEN FREE options to choose from including swapping a lot of the pastas for gluten free.

We had the Aubergine starter which is a must have! Shelled seafood spaghetti dish with Gluten free spaghetti, the truffle ravioli was not gluten free but delicious. Chocolate Soufflé gluten free and a great end to the meal.

The wine was perfect too with a Tuscany rose Santa Christina at a great price and great taste.

Our meals were so good and the service was good, we would happily eat here again and again if we were staying longer A small business which should be...