Nine Lives — Restaurant in Saint Paul's Bay

Food Poisoning – Customers Dine at Own Risk

We visited Nine Lives in Qawra on the 16th of June 2025 at 9pm while on holiday from Australia. We ordered a bowl of chips, Chocolate Fondant, tea, coffee and shared a shisha. What started as a relaxed evening ended in an alarming and distressing experience. By around 11pm, both my husband and I were suddenly hit with severe abdominal pain and began vomiting almost simultaneously. It was immediately clear to us that we had experienced food poisoning. The staff on site could clearly see how unwell we were — we even took photos to document what had happened. Initially, the staff were sympathetic. They acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and even mentioned the possibility of a refund. However, our primary concern was not the money — it was the clear issue with food handling and safety, and the risk this posed to others. As someone of Maltese background returning to the island after 12 years, I was shocked and saddened to see how much the standards around food quality, cleanliness, and hygiene have declined. Unfortunately, the manager was not present at the time. When contacted by phone, he showed no concern for our health or wellbeing. He dismissed our experience entirely, refusing a refund and suggesting that we may have gotten sick elsewhere — despite the fact that we had only eaten a fresh home-cooked meal earlier that day. He advised us to email the restaurant, which we did. The response we received was disappointing and dismissive — denying responsibility, offering no compensation, and instead inviting us to dine there again. Let me be clear: I am not someone who usually leaves negative reviews, but I felt compelled to share this experience to help protect other travellers and locals. Our stomachs remained unsettled for over two weeks following that night. It put a dark cloud over our Maltese holiday. My honest advice — especially to tourists — is to be cautious where you dine. Support locally owned and operated Maltese restaurants, where quality, hygiene and food safety are still upheld. Unfortunately, places like Nine Lives do not reflect the Malta I once...

Me and a group of friends went on a week long trip to Malta, and another friend of ours recommended Nine Lives to us.

We visited in the first few days and had an amazing time - drinks were tasty and great priced (even better at happy hour), food was delicious (probably the best octopus I've ever had). Overall worth a full 5 star review.

However, on our last day, we decided to come back and bring one of our friends there for their first time at Nine Lives as he had missed his return flight and was having a pretty bad day, unfortunately, the experience wasn't as great as the first time we came - in fact it was even worse to our friend. When we noticed it had been over an hour since we ordered, we informed the waiting staff our friend had a flight to catch very soon and asked how long it would take for the food. We were told 5 minutes, and then 10 minutes later we were told 5 minutes again. We ordered our friend's food for takeaway and rectified he had a flight to catch, any longer delay he would have to leave without his food so he would not miss his second flight. Unsurprisingly, the food didn't arrive in time and he had to leave. Around 10 minutes after he left, the food started to arrive (first the takeaway and then the rest of our food).

As expected, we were told we would not have to pay for food from our friend and we would get a free round of drinks. However, we had no say on our drinks order and received glasses of soft drinks (instead of offering to remove our first drinks order from our bill), also, our friend had already left, us not paying for the burger didn't feel like a compensation for the delay and simply just an obligation by the restaurant as we didn't eat his food at all.

After a long discussion with the manager, we received a 10% discount on top of our bill which although appreciated, still fell short on my standards and expectations (especially as I work is in hospitality).

Nevertheless, I would still return to Nine Lives. Hopefully we won't have this issue again (although there seems to be a pattern with the 1* reviews being about...

I would like to state I work in hospitality and understand the pressures and difficulties that arise with the industry. HOWEVER, this was possibly one of the worst experiences I have had at a restaurant. After being promptly greeted and seated we ordered our food and drinks.Then the waiting began. 40 mins went by and we were given no updates on where our food was or how long it would be. We managed to grab one of the floorstaff to ask how long our food would be, he said he would go and check for us. Another 10 mins went by and we asked the man again how long would our food be. He replied “not long the burger takes a long time because it is well done”. We watched as several tables sat down after us received their food and we couldn’t wait any longer. We were cold, tired and hungry. We got up to tell the waiter we were going and we will pay for our drinks to which he replied “no no i will get your food now”. Reluctantly we waited a further 5 mins and finally our food arrived. What a let down.. the burger bun was burnt, the cheese was cemented to the dry patty and the chips were overdone. The gluten free pasta was okay but definitely not worth an hour wait or €16. We told the waiter and he acknowledged all of our complaints and promptly gave us our food and drinks for free which we thanked him for and left swiftly leaving the burger untouched. Overall, O would 100% recommend this place to those who want a boogie with a cocktail with a beautiful sea view and maybe some sushi nibbles but to those who want anything other than that I urge you to look elsewhere and not waste your...