Mauritius Unlocked

Eating Your Way Around Mauritius: What to Order, Where, and What a Vegetarian Actually Eats

What to eat in Mauritius and where, from a Mauritian: dholl puri, boulettes, the best seafood shack, the restaurants worth the detour — and what a vegetarian actually eats.

Mine bouilli

This post contains affiliate links, marked (ad). Every stall, snack house and restaurant here is one I've eaten at, usually because a relative insisted.

You cannot understand Mauritius from a hotel buffet. Our food is the island's history on a plate — India, China, France, Africa and Madagascar arriving, adapting, and refusing to leave — and it's how we celebrate, apologise, welcome and gossip. I grew up waiting on the pavement for dholl puri wrapped in paper, sneaking pink napolitaines before dinner, and being told my mother's were better than the shop's (they were).

This is how to eat like a Mauritian for a week. It's also, now that half my household doesn't eat meat, a guide to something the resort brochures never mention: Mauritian food is one of the easiest cuisines in the world to eat without meat, if you know what to order.

The short answer

Moment	Order this	Where	Marker
Your first morning	Dholl puri, two, with everything	Any stall with a queue; Port Louis market	🌱
Mid-afternoon	Gato piment and gato arouille	Royal Road, Moka — the stall that's been there for decades	🌱
Lunch by the sea	Grilled fish or lobster, weighed first	King Snack Seafood Corner, Flic en Flac	🐟
Late night	Mine frire or mine bouilli	Coastal Road stalls, west coast	🌱/🍗
Something hot and soothing	Boulettes in broth	Chinese snack houses, Port Louis and Rose Hill	🐟/🌱
The big night out	Seafood pasta in the courtyard	Wapalapam, Port Louis	🐟
Feet in the sand	Barbecue on the islet	Gran Zil, Zilwa Attitude (ad)	🐟🍗🌱
Sweet	Napolitaines, gateaux zinli, macatia coco, alouda	Bakeries, Chinatown, the market	🌱

Street food and everyday eating

Dholl puri 🌱

Soft flatbreads made from yellow split peas, rolled around curries, chutneys and a dash of chilli. If Mauritius has a national dish, this is it: cheap, messy, and unforgettable. It's also, by accident of history, vegetarian — which means my daughter can eat the most Mauritian thing there is without a single substitution. It's the food I miss most when I leave. If the queue is super long, you know you found a good one.

Fritters on Royal Road, Moka 🌱

There's a woman who has had the same roadside stall for decades. Pakoras, gato piment (chilli fritters), gato arouille (taro fritters), all hot, all crunchy, all better with chilli sauce and a buttered baguette or a slice of pain maison. This is Mauritian food at its most honest. Truth be told, you'll likely find similar stalls dotted around the island – I like to think that the older and wiser the chef, the greater the food will be.

Riz frit spécial 🍗🐟

Mauritian fried rice, smoky from the wok, with egg, prawns and Chinese sausage. Every cook has a secret sauce ratio and every Mauritian has an opinion about whose is best. It's the safe order when you can't decide, and it's better eaten on a beach. Vegetarian version: ask for it without sausage and prawns — most stalls will.

Mine frire and mine bouilli 🌱/🍗

Wok-fried noodles with soy and vegetables, or boiled noodles in a light broth. Late-night food, humble and perfect. My favourite stall on that beach is Gloria on the Coastal Road, west coast — see Where to Stay for why I'd never book full board on that coast. Vegetarian version: mine frire with vegetables and egg is the default at most stalls.

Boulettes 🐟/🌱

Small steamed dumplings — fish, or chayote for the vegetarians — in a light broth with garlic sauce and chilli, from the Chinese snack houses of Port Louis and Rose Hill. This is the first thing I go looking for when I land. Comfort in a bowl.

Bol renversé 🍗🐟

Literally "upside-down bowl": stir-fried chicken, vegetables and a fried egg cooked in soy, then flipped dramatically over rice. Prawn, beef and pork versions exist. It's the dish I make in England when I need to feel like I'm home, and it's the one I've started making two ways — it's easily adaptable, tofu for the veggies and chicken for the meat eaters or prawns for the pescatarian.

Food courts and low-budget gems

Tribeca Food Hall, Ebène. The answer to a family that wants four different things. I go for the Thai dim sum and curries; the rest of my lot go for burgers. Nobody argues. 🌱🐟🍗

Jumbo Phoenix food court. No frills, cheap, and where locals eat when nobody feels like cooking. 🌱🐟🍗

Restaurants worth the detour

La Falaise Rouge, south coast. On a red cliff over the sea; the view does half the work. Make it your first or last meal, on the way to or from the airport. 🐟🍗🌱

King Snack Seafood Corner, Flic en Flac. Ignore the name. You pick your fish or lobster, they weigh it, you choose how it's grilled and what comes with it. It cannot be fresher, because it was swimming this morning. 🐟

Beach Grill, The Westin Turtle Bay (ad). A proper steakhouse with the sea in front of you and, some evenings, dolphins going past. For the meat-eaters in the family, this is the night they've been waiting for. 🍗

Kangan, The Westin Turtle Bay (ad). Upscale Indian cooking, bold and refined, with the kind of hospitality that makes you sit up straighter. I'd rank it above Asha's in Birmingham, and I don't say that lightly. Excellent for vegetarians. 🌱🍗

Wapalapam, Port Louis. Modern Mauritian, vivid and generous; the seafood pasta is the order. The courtyard at dusk is one of the loveliest outdoor seating areas on the island, and it's a five-minute walk from the Caudan marina. 🐟🌱

The barbecues

On a catamaran. A day of sailing, swimming and snorkelling that ends with grilled (ad) chicken, fish and salads off the deck. It's about the whole day, not the food — but tell them when you book if someone doesn't eat meat, and ask what goes on the grill for them. 🐟🍗🌱

Gran Zil, Zilwa Attitude's islet (ad). A barbecue on the hotel's own islet, feet in the sand, lagoon on three sides. One of the happiest meals we've had as a family. 🐟🍗🌱

Sweet things 🌱

Napolitaines. Pink, jam-filled shortbread biscuits that taste like being seven. Mine were sneaked before dinner; my mother's were better than any bakery's and still are.

Alouda. Cold, sweet, milky, full of basil seeds, sold at the Port Louis market. The drink of a hot afternoon.

Alouda Pillay stall, Port Louis, Central Market

Gateaux zinli. Golden sesame balls, crisp outside, sticky and warm inside, from glutinous rice flour. Chinese-Mauritian heritage in a paper bag; the best ones are in Port Louis's Chinatown. Habit-forming.

Macatia coco. Pillowy buns filled with grated coconut, warm from the bakery if you're lucky. My children's favourite thing on the island, and I'm not far behind.

If you don't eat meat

This is the section I'd have wanted before our last trip.

Mauritian food is built on lentils, vegetables, rice, bread, fish and chilli, with meat as a treat rather than the centre of the plate. That makes it easy: dholl puri, the fritters, vegetable curries, boulettes with chayote, mine frire with egg, all the sweets. For pescatarians add fish vindaye, octopus curry, grilled fish with rougaille, boulettes and everything at King Snack. The hard part is not the island; it's the resorts. International buffets treat vegetarians as an afterthought, and the way round it is to book hotels with a Mauritian restaurant on site (Kot Nou at Ravenala Attitude (ad) was the only place we ate well without meat — see the review) or to book half-board and eat out. Which, given everything above, you should be doing anyway.

Guided or on your own?

On your own, mostly. This isn't a cuisine that needs decoding — point, pay, eat. If you'd like someone to walk you through the market and Chinatown on day one, a street-food tour of Port Louis is a good way to spend a morning (ad) and calibrate your chilli tolerance.

Mauritius Unlocked

Don't only eat in the hotel. Our food is the story of who arrived, what they brought, and how they made it their own. Go and taste it. Then tell me what I've missed.

I'm Lorna — Mauritian appetite, Midlands postcode, and a habit of planning holidays around lunch. I write about the food that got me here and the food worth travelling for.