The best restaurants Jambiani

Passion Boutique Hotel lives up to its name with spectacular and passionately hearty plates. For starters, the delicious guacamole is served with crunchy cassava chips. What about the grilled octopus with garlic and lime, coconut rice and spicy tomato and onion kachumbari salad, or the pasta with moringa pesto, the energizing African plant? Many vegetarian options. As an appetizer facing the beach just ahead, the restaurant offers a plethora of creative cocktails and mocktails.

This new local restaurant in the village of Jambiani is already a favorite with regulars, who love its low-cost dishes. It has to be said that the cooks have been trained in lodge restaurants and have mastered the art. It's a pleasure to watch them busy themselves in the open kitchen. The sheltered outdoor room is modest, but clean and fresh. The menu of dishes on the slate, copious and served quickly, changes often. We loved the cashew-encrusted seared tuna fillet with mango sauce, and the grilled slipper lobster at a bargain price.

If you want to eat local and of an indisputable freshness, this restaurant makes the unanimity. In this small and unpretentious house, the tables are laid with coloured kanga cloth tablecloths, it is original. The atmosphere is simple and friendly, the plates are royal. Here the Swahili flavours are authentic and spiced up with island spices, the plates are overflowing with lobsters, cicadas and shellfish served in gargantuan quantities and at more than reasonable prices. Particular attention is paid to the presentation of the plates.

The Zanzistar restaurant is renowned in Jambiani for its refined, original cuisine and the warm welcome of its manager, Peter. The setting is most pleasant, amidst the lodge's beautiful vegetation, under subdued lights in the evening. Starters include a delicious tuna-mango-avocado tartare, chicken tikka with tomato and peanut sauce, served with manioc and coconut sauce, grilled fish with sesame seeds, lime and coconut, and perfectly seared and spicy tuna tataki. Lunch on the beach, dinner at the hotel in the village.

This is the restaurant of the new Seconda Stella Zanzibar luxury hotel in Jambiani, dedicated primarily to couples. At the time of our visit, the restaurant had not yet opened, but it will be the first "Surf & Turf" restaurant on the southeast coast. In other words, the seafood and meat combos popular across the Atlantic. One of Bulgaria's top chefs (a Master Chef award winner) is due to come in specially to take charge of the kitchens.

This restaurant located in Mbuyuni, a very quiet village isolated between Pajé and Jambiani, serves more than 40 pizzas, crispy and tasty, reputed to be the best in the area. The homemade seafood pasta dishes are also a good choice, because here we don't mess around with Italian specialties. And if you prefer to try a Swahili dish, the plates are just as tasty, especially the octopus curry-coconut. We love the romantic candlelit atmosphere in the evening, and its location directly on the beach.

Mohammed, a young man from Jambiani, decided to open this small local restaurant, which now serves authentic food in a renovated, more pleasant dining room. The only constraint is that you have to book in advance so that the cooks can make arrangements with the fishermen and you don't have to wait for hours! Grilled seafood and fish, including lobster and cicadas, are a gargantuan treat! Or the octopus and fish dish with tomato and curry, with chapati, rice, vegetables... All juices and dishes are made with filtered water.

He says it himself in his (not misleading) ad, "You eat until you say Hassan: please don't kill me with your food." His wife concocts the dishes in large pots (the seafood and coconut fish are delicious). In addition to the dish, you have a soup, an appetizer, a vegetable, nans (Indian breads), homemade juice in a big bottle that he constantly fills... And the cooking could not be more authentic, full of spices, high in flavors. If you are not very patient, we advise you to book.

In this local family restaurant, Kim is in the dining room, her mother in the kitchen, and the food and service are all the more authentic. The real Swahili taste cooked in pots according to family recipes is served to the customers, many of whom are regulars. We love the mama's creations like the coconut-crusted tuna and her classic recipe for octopus with island curry, which are divine. The large braised fish with lime are perfectly cooked. The atmosphere is musical and relaxed, the welcome very warm.

On the beach, in front of the Sharazad Boutique Hotel, a new little Vietnamese restaurant has opened with its feet in the sand. A change of scenery within a change of scenery. Here, the finesse of Kim's Vietnamese cuisine - digestible, light and generous in vegetables and flavours - is combined with the postcard landscape of Jambiani beach. Glass noodle, spring rolls, pho soup, bo bun...: the cuisine blends local ingredients with Vietnamese flavours. A true delight.

The restaurant of this boutique hotel is directly on the sand in front of the beach, a nice setting for a lunch break, a cocktail or dinner. For starters, you can try the delicious samosas. For the main course, it's hard to choose between a delicious grilled lobster with mango guacamole and an octopus slowly simmered in a curry-coconut sauce and served with jasmine rice. Also on the menu are sandwiches (handy for going on a walk), a handful of veggie dishes, plenty of healthy options including fresh fruit juices.

This is a very nice micro-structure, right on the beach, run by the friendly Italian owners Claudia and Arnaldo who look after their pots. Everything is prepared with patience and care, in the Italian style, but with a range of healthy dishes, including beautiful salads. We like the intimate atmosphere and the large corner sofa with its pretty cushions to spend a convivial moment. The address also has a few small rooms for rent.