Sotto

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Roman Tradition at the Heart of Malta

Sotto Valletta is the Maltese outpost of the Zero Sei Group, a family of restaurants built around one conviction: that true Roman pizza deserves a home far beyond Rome. The team arrived in Malta after years of experience in the Italian capital, carrying with them the techniques, ingredients, and hospitality that define the city's food culture.

What sets the dough apart is a process that refuses shortcuts. Four different types of flour are blended and left to ferment for up to 72 hours before a single pinsa reaches the oven. The result is a base that is lighter and more digestible than most, with a character shaped by time rather than additives.

The Pinsa Romana

The menu centres on pinsa romana — the oval Roman cousin of pizza, with a crisp exterior and an airy, open crumb. Red pinse range from a classic Marinara through an Amatriciana (guanciale, pecorino, tomato) to a Norma built on aubergine and salted ricotta. White pinse push further: a Carbonara topped with egg yolk, guanciale and black pepper; a Supreme of mortadella, burrata and pistachio; and a Pantheon combining porcini, guanciale and aged cheeses. Starters lean into Roman and Italian pantry staples — burrata with truffle, porchetta, bufala with Parma ham — while rolled pinsa dough (rotolini) filled with combinations like guanciale and provolone or speck and stracchino offer a more informal way in.

Recognition and Roots

Gambero Rosso's Top Italian Restaurants guide, which maps the best Italian tables worldwide, named Sotto among the twelve finest pizzerias on the planet — a list that spans Paris, New York, Tokyo, London and San Francisco. That recognition reflects what the team has been doing quietly in Malta: treating Roman pizza-making as a craft worth preserving precisely, not adapting for convenience.

The philosophy behind the place is stated plainly on their own pages: "La nostra pizza non è più buona delle altre, è semplicemente diversa" — our pizza is not better than others, it is simply different. Tradition, passion and the particular warmth of Roman hospitality are the three pillars the group returns to, and in Valletta's South Street setting they are delivered in a room where the staff aim to make every guest feel part of a large, unhurried family.