Small kitchens, early evenings
Where to eat on La Digue
A handful of places around La Passe, most of them within five minutes of the jetty, and everything closed earlier than you expect.
La Digue in short.
La Digue has a few thousand people on it and no traffic, and it eats like a village. There are a dozen places worth a meal, nearly all of them within a bicycle ride of the jetty at La Passe, and the whole island winds down early.
The photograph above: NorbertNagel, CC BY-SA 4.0
Vegetarian and Jain food, honestly
Section two, not section nine. For a great many families reading this it is the question the trip turns on.
The short answer is yes, with planning, and no if you turn up and hope. Seychelles is a small country that imports most of what it eats. There is no vegetarian restaurant of the kind an Indian city takes for granted, and the default plate in a Creole kitchen has fish in it.
What works. Self-catering. It is the single most reliable answer and it is why so many Indian families on this island stay in an apartment with a kitchen rather than a hotel room. The supermarkets in Victoria carry rice, lentils, atta, ghee, paneer, Indian spices and Indian brands, because there is a resident Indian community here buying them.
What also works. Telling a hotel before you arrive, not at breakfast on the first morning. Kitchens here are small and order their supplies weekly, so a request made at booking is a different request from one made at the table. Say vegetarian, and if it is Jain say Jain and say what that means, because the term is not widely known here.
What to watch for. Fish stock in a vegetable soup. Dried fish in a chutney. Shrimp paste in a sauce. Lard is not common but fish is everywhere, and it is not thought of as meat by a cook who has not been told otherwise. Ask specifically rather than asking for something vegetarian.
And the good news. Fruit here is extraordinary and it is everywhere: mango, papaya, passionfruit, banana of four different kinds, jackfruit, custard apple. A breakfast of fruit and bread is not a compromise on this island, it is the correct order.
Eating on La Digue.
From the listings on our own directory, credited to the people who took them.
Photographs: Vanda Chris Ning Gregoire's Pizzeria T. Schürmann Tarosa Restaurant and Takeaway Kitti Harsányi
Around La Passe
The jetty end of the island has the restaurants: Creole kitchens on the front, a pizzeria that has been there for years, hotel dining rooms, and takeaway counters that do the best value food on the island. Everything is five or ten minutes by bicycle.
There are two places on our register here whose own reviews name Indian food, which on an island this size is more than you would expect.
Eat early
Kitchens on La Digue close early even by Seychelles standards. Half past eight is late here, and on a quiet night in the low season a place that says it closes at nine will have stopped cooking at eight.
The other consequence of a small island is that things run out. If the fish of the day is gone at seven, it is gone.
Self-catering, and the shops
Most accommodation on La Digue is guest houses and small self-catering places, and a great many visitors cook at least half their meals. The shops at La Passe carry the basics and not much more, so bring anything specific from Mahé or Praslin.
That is the practical answer for a strict vegetarian or Jain week on this island. It is also, for most families, the more enjoyable one.
The 6 with a record behind them.
Ratings and review counts are Google's, as published on our own directory and checked 2 September 2026. We do not average them, filter them or add one of our own.
Fish Trap Restaurant
Chez Jules Restaurant
Gregoire Pizzeria
Avalunch Restaurant
Tarosa Restaurant
Zerof Restaurant
Photographs: Gabriele Fogli michel jamet Piotr Kolano Manon Brunel Tarosa Restaurant and Takeaway M. PAULI
How eating out works here.
Book, even when it looks quiet
Worth knowingKitchens are small and staff are few. The good places on Praslin and La Digue fill and then simply stop cooking. Your hotel will make the call, and on La Digue that is usually how it is done.
Lunch is the easy meal
Worth knowingTakeaway Creole from a roadside kitchen at midday is the best value food in the country and the way most people here eat. Victoria market at lunchtime is the single best introduction to what the island actually cooks.
Dinner is early
Worth knowingKitchens close earlier than an Indian visitor expects. Nine o'clock is late here and on La Digue plenty of places have stopped by half past eight.
Cash, and cards
Worth knowingCards work in hotels and the larger restaurants. Small kitchens, takeaway counters and the market are cash, in rupees Seychellois. Draw cash before you leave the main island if you are going to Praslin or La Digue.
Sunday is quiet
Worth knowingA lot of family-run places close on Sunday, and on La Digue the choice on a Sunday evening is genuinely small. Plan the self-catering night for then.
Water
Worth knowingTap water on Mahé is treated and generally fine. Bottled is universal and cheap. On the smaller islands, use bottled.
What people ask.
How many restaurants are there on La Digue?
Our own directory lists 7 on La Digue with at least 40 Google reviews behind the rating. There are more kitchens than that on the island. These are the ones with enough of a record behind them to be worth printing a number beside.
Is there vegetarian food on La Digue?
Yes, with planning. Self-catering settles it outright and the supermarkets carry the staples. A hotel kitchen will manage it if it is told at booking rather than at breakfast. What does not work is arriving at a Creole restaurant and hoping, because the base of that cooking is fish.
Do we need to book?
Yes, and more than the quiet streets suggest. Kitchens here are small, staff are few, and the good places fill and then stop cooking. Your hotel will make the call.
What we do arrange.
We do not sell meals. We do sell the car that gets you to the kitchen on the far side of the island, which on Mahé is the whole problem.
Car hire, from €45 a day
Ten cars, no deposit, handed over at the airport, the jetty or your hotel.
Days out and excursions
Island tours, boat days, snorkelling and walks, with real ratings and free cancellation to twenty-four hours.
Airport transfers
A driver who watches your flight number and waits with your name on a board.
The terminal photograph above: Remi Jouan, CC BY-SA 3.0
Travelling with a strict kitchen?
Tell us what the requirement actually is and Meera will put the week together around it: the apartment with the kitchen, the shopping trip, and the restaurants worth the drive.