The Ravenala Attitude, Mauritius - Should you go?

Star rating: 4 stars
Actual rating: 3 stars

This past April, we wrapped up a visit to Mauritius by spending a week at The Ravenala Attitude in the north-west. As a family of four, we wanted an all-inclusive hotel that ticked all our boxes: good food, great hospitality, stunning surroundings, and decent entertainment.

On paper, The Ravenala Attitude sounded like a match. The reality, we soon found out, turned out to be fairly disappointing overall. I really shouldn't spill the beans without getting you to scroll all the way down, but if you are doing some hotel research ahead of your next holiday, I want you to come away with some actual insights after reading this.

Some context to begin with

I'm a Mauritian immigrant - I've built my life in the UK, but the visit to Mauritius every year or so is now a ritual that the whole family looks forward to. When choosing our hotel, I tend to optimise for the cultural experience so that I can get the most out of our visit - top up on all the quirks of Mauritian food and culture before we fly back to the northern hemisphere.

We've experienced various resorts over the years, but the Attitude Group is the chain of hotels that had us coming back. That's because they run concept hotels and our favourite is Zilwa (meaning 'islander'). Zilwa offers Mauritius in a nutshell: the bare concrete finish in the hotel rooms, the street food huts on the beach (Taba-J), and the iconic 'savatte dodo'. Every touch is reminiscent of home.

Trouble is, we stayed at Zilwa in 2022 and it was incredible; we went back in 2023 and the service wasn't so great. Inconsistency is always a big red flag for me: so in 2024, we went to Westin Turtle Bay instead, which was impeccable, but it could have been any 5-star resort in Barbados or Bali and you wouldn't have known because it was almost too sanitised. When it was time to book again, I was ready to give the Attitude Group another chance at redemption. I picked The Ravenala because it offered access to the beach as well as the beautiful River Citron, and it promised the same Mauritian touches as Zilwa.

First Impressions

Hotels in Mauritius know that the arrival experience is practically a competitive sport. You pull up, a smiling face hands you a chilled towel and a glass of something tropical, and before you've even located your passport, you're half-convinced you've died and gone to a very well-landscaped heaven.

The Ravenala didn't quite play that game. There was no jaw-dropping vista at the end of the driveway, no lobby that made you audibly gasp and reach for your camera.

What it did offer was a genuinely lush, welcoming space - generous seating, an open feel, and a lovely outlook over the swimming pools and the estate beyond. Not so much of a grand cinematic opening and more along the lines of "oh, this is quite nice, actually." A solid 6.5 out of 10 arrival. Promising, if not exactly love at first sight. (If you want a second opinion before you book, the TripAdvisor reviews are worth a scroll - plenty of guests rate it far more highly than I'm about to.)

Here's Zilwa's view from the lobby, for comparison:

The Estate

On paper, the estate is a tropical dream. The rich greenery, the bars, the River Citron, and the beach are objectively stunning. That said, it's the kind of place that looks a million dollars on Instagram but about fifty quid when you look a little closer.

Okay, mild exaggeration - but I was genuinely unhappy with the state of our bathroom (not to mention the fact that our room was a whole 10 minutes walk away from the main hotel area, and in a wing of the hotel undergoing full refurb!). The bathroom issues seemed to be a case of poor craftsmanship above all else: the whole thing looked as though it had been remodelled in a tearing hurry. The towel rack was peeling away from the wall, the tap was loose, there was plaster residue left in the bathtub, and the tub itself was stained. It had the unmistakable look of one of those "we'll renovate your house in 12 hours" shows - right after the team has packed up and driven off, and well before anyone thought to check their work.

Needless to say, we asked to move the next morning. What followed was an eight-hour ordeal in which we were shown four different rooms, each somehow more dispiriting than the last. It felt like a prank show. Eventually, after a fair bit of escalation, we landed in a poolside room - a vast improvement on the original unit, and mercifully closer than the trek from the lobby the first one had demanded but what a circus to get there.

The Food

Let's talk about the grub. If you're coming to an Attitude hotel, you're expecting that soulful Mauritian spice. Instead, we got a culinary roller coaster that started with a literal workout at The Bistrot. We all ordered steaks, which turned out to be a mistake of jaw-aching proportions. I kid you not, it took us approximately two hours to collectively chew through the meat. After the bathroom issues, you bet I was ready to share my thoughts in the arrival feedback form I'd received earlier on.

Then there was Madame Ming. Oh, Madame Ming. I've had more "authentic" Asian cuisine from a supermarket ready-meal. It was clear the food had been sitting around long enough to start its own pension fund.

The "crispy" spring rolls were as limp as a wet weekend in London.

The lemon chicken tasted like it had been seasoned with floor cleaner.

And in a move that defied both biology and culinary logic, we were served a fish curry that the staff insisted, with total confidence, was duck.

When the BBQ ribs arrived cold and drowning in what tasted like 100% pure Heinz ketchup, we did the only polite thing: we fled.

The Apology Parade

Apparently, our "polite escape" triggered a high-level security alert. As we joined the buffet line, I was intercepted by a literal parade of chefs in increasing levels of seniority. The Sous Chef, the Executive Chef, the Head Chef... they all appeared, seemingly out of the steam vents, to hear my grievances.

To top it all off, Madame Ming's chef personally came to apologise and offered to cook us another lemon chicken. Sir, please. I've already done my time. I felt terrible because I didn't want to be "that" guest, but after the Steak Incident and the bathroom debacle, you might say that I had turned into Mariah Carey levels of diva - but really, I just wanted to receive a quality of service that was up to my standards. By this point the entire resort seemed to be on a one-track mission to pamper us into forgiveness - and while I can't say it wasn't working, I did start to wonder why a hotel this lovely kept needing to apologise.

The Highs

But it wasn't all subpar. When The Ravenala got it right, it really got it right. Find a permanent seat at Kot Nou or O Beach - these are the crown jewels.

Kot Nou is where Mauritian food gets to show off, served tapas-style so you can graze your way across the whole repertoire instead of committing to just one dish. I was completely won over by the potato and watercress soup - a hearty, soul-warming Mauritian classic that's exactly what you want on days when you need some TLC. The beef curry was outstanding, and there was a genuinely inventive bit of fusion going on: poisson salé reimagined as a crispy maki roll, which sounds like it shouldn't work and absolutely does. The food here was incredible, authentic, and actually felt like it was prepared by someone who liked us.

And O Beach deserves its own love letter. We had one of those almost-too-perfect romantic evenings there - table practically on the sand, a sunset doing its absolute most over the water, and a Moroccan-themed menu that actually understood the assignment. We started with a bright little salad studded with pomegranate, and then I demolished a lamb shank the size of my forearm, slow-cooked until it surrendered off the bone, nestled in potatoes and warm Moroccan spice. After that chewy steak at The Bistrot, eating something that didn't fight back was quite a delightful experience.

We also went to O Beach for lunch once. It was where the management's apology campaign reached its crescendo. To make up for the earlier culinary crimes, they sent out a sushi boat, platters of fresh seafood, more steak and a burger. It was hands-down one of my favourite meals of the trip.

Then there's Taba J, the little street food kiosk right on the beach - the spiritual heart of the "islander" concept and proof that Ravenala can do the authentic thing when it wants to. Every day there'd be a different Mauritian special: dholl puri one day (the national treasure it deserves to be), biryani another, dim sum noodles the next. Simple, soulful, and exactly the kind of thing I fly halfway across the world for.

I should also mention the cocktails, which were uniformly excellent. We discovered that our new favourite is the brandy highball - a discovery I consider one of the trip's genuine achievements. And don't sleep on tea time on the beach: my husband was in his element with the parade of fritters, bhajas, and pancakes that appeared each afternoon like clockwork.

Oh, and credit where it's due - there was a genuinely lovely Italian meal on our second night, too. This was right after the Steak Incident, so the restaurant's chef came over to apologise and promptly offered us a T-bone on the house.

Credit Where It's Due

It wasn't just the food that redeemed itself - the estate has real strengths once you look past the shoddy craftsmanship. The sheer scale of the place is impressive - it's massive, with lovely walks all around the grounds, and there are adult-only zones for anyone travelling sans children that looked blissfully peaceful. The watersports are a real highlight too: kayaking on the River Citron was an absolute joy and one of the most fun things I did all week. There's also a health trail looping around the hotel and a genuinely well-equipped gym, so if you're the type who likes to stay active on holiday, Ravenala has you covered.

A quick tip for the sun-loungers: if you fancy a light lunch without trekking back to a restaurant, just order from the pool bar. They do lovely salads, mini burgers, a goat cheese tart, and other bits - exactly the kind of easy, graze-y food you want when the most strenuous thing on your agenda is rotating to even out your tan.

The Service

Here is the irony: the people at The Ravenala are lovely. The staff were proactive and genuinely welcoming. They are the heartbeat of the place, but they're clearly fighting a losing battle against the infrastructure.

Despite their smiles, the logistics were a mess. Rooms were cleaned incredibly late in the day, and no amount of friendly conversation could mask the lingering "eau de drain" scent emanating from the bathroom. You can have the best hosts in the world, but if the plumbing isn't on the guest list, everyone has a bad time.

The Practical Bits

If you're weighing it up for yourself, here's the useful stuff in one place:

• Location: Balaclava, on the north-west coast - roughly 20 minutes from Port Louis and Grand Baie.
• Airport transfer: About 1 hour 15 minutes from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport.
• Style: 4-star, all-suite, all-inclusive, with 272 suites and a nine-restaurant "Culinary Voyage" (seven included in the all-inclusive package).
• Good to know: Since October 2025, Mauritius charges a tourist fee of €3 per person, per night, collected at the hotel (children under 12 exempt).
• Check dates and prices: Booking.com or the official Attitude site.
• More reviews: See the full range of guest opinions on TripAdvisor.

Happy Bellies' Verdict: Would I Go Back?

As a Mauritian, it pains me to say this: It's a soft no.

I love the concept of the Attitude hotels. I want to support the "islander" vibe. And here's the thing - the staff tried. My goodness, they tried. The free meals, the parade of chefs, the T-bone diplomacy - I have never been so thoroughly apologised to in my life. But that's exactly the problem. I don't want a holiday that needs fixing. I don't want to be won back three times before checkout. A truly great resort doesn't have to keep saying sorry, because it doesn't keep giving you reasons to.

If you want that authentic Mauritian magic - sadly, The Ravenala might not be the one. It certainly has the bones of a great resort and a team that clearly cares - but it needs someone to improve the food situation and to fix the actual building so they can stop apologising for their guests' disappointment. Until then, I'll be taking my "ritual" visit elsewhere.

That said, I'd genuinely love to hear if anyone's had a better experience elsewhere on the island. If you've found the one, let me know in the comments - I'm always after my next 'ritual' spot.

About me...I'm Lorna Rose and, by day, I work in the tech industry, but in my heart of hearts, I've always been fascinated by the story that food tells. The magic of a well-cooked meal, the way a simple dish can bring people together, spark conversation, and create lasting memories. On Happy Bellies, I set out to explore and find hidden gems, so that I can indulge in telling stories around food that will make you want to go out and create your own foodie adventures.

Keep reading:

Beyond Beer: A Guide to the Best Wine Bars in Prague

Think Prague is only for beer drinkers? We explore the city’s vinotéky culture. Here is an authentic guide to the best wine bars in Prague for a quiet, affordable glass.

Happy BelliesLorna Rose