The island with a choice
Where to eat on Mahé
Victoria, Beau Vallon and the south coast, with the widest food in the country and the only real answer to a strict vegetarian week.
Mahé in short.
Mahé has more restaurants than the other islands put together, and it is the only island where a family keeping a vegetarian or Jain kitchen has genuine choice rather than a plan. Victoria has Indian restaurants and Indian groceries because there has been an Indian community on this island for a century and a half.
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 Mahé.
From the listings on our own directory, credited to the people who took them.
Photographs: Kafe Kreol Cafe & Restaurant The Boat House Restaurant La Plage restaurant Зоран Златановић Muammar Slamdien Christian Jung
Victoria at lunchtime
The market in Victoria is where to start, and lunchtime is when. Fish laid out on the slabs, fruit and spices upstairs, and a set of small kitchens around it doing takeaway Creole for the people who work in town. It is inexpensive, it is what the island actually eats, and it is over by two.
Around the market are the Indian and Chinese restaurants that have been in Victoria for decades, and the supermarkets that carry rice, dal, atta, ghee, paneer and Indian spice brands. If you are self-catering anywhere on Mahé, this is where the shopping is done.
Beau Vallon in the evening
The north-west strip is where most visitors eat dinner, because most visitors stay there. It runs from beach shacks to hotel dining rooms along a kilometre of road, and on Wednesday and Saturday evenings there is a street market at the north end with grilled fish, Creole takeaway and a queue.
It is the easiest evening on the island: you can walk to it, there is a choice, and something is open.
The south, and driving to dinner
The best-regarded kitchens on Mahé are not in Victoria or Beau Vallon. They are scattered down the west and south coasts at Baie Lazare, Anse à la Mouche and Anse Royale, in places with eight tables and a view, and they are worth the drive.
Book them. They are small, they fill, and several of them close on the day of the week you were planning to go.
The 12 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.
Kafe Kreol Cafe & Restaurant
Boat House Café
La Plage
Jardin du Roi
Baobab Pizzeria
La Perle Noire
La Gaulette Food and Bar
Marie- Antoinette Restaurant
Bravo Restaurant
Maria's Rock Cafe
Green House Restaurant
Maison Marengo
Photographs: Felix Zimmermann Зоран Златановић La Plage restaurant ofer agiv Mélanie Marques Haszan Sandrine LEPINE Bravo Restaurant Bernd Köhler Green House Bar, Cafe, Restaurant Maison Marengo
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 Mahé?
Our own directory lists 36 on Mahé 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 Mahé?
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.