Côte d'Or, and not much else
Where to eat on Praslin
A short list on a small island, concentrated along one beach road, with the good places filling early.
Praslin in short.
Praslin has perhaps a fifth of Mahé's restaurants and most of them are along the Côte d'Or beach road at Anse Volbert, within walking distance of the hotels. That makes the choice simple and it makes booking necessary, because when the good places are full the alternative is the hotel dining room.
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 Praslin.
From the listings on our own directory, credited to the people who took them.
Photographs: Lobster Bay Restaurant (Praslin) Arash Shaeri David G Jarrod S Stefan Feige Thomas Lang
The Côte d'Or strip
Anse Volbert has the island's restaurants strung along the back of the beach: Creole kitchens, a couple of Italian places, pizza, and hotel dining rooms open to non-guests. Everything is a walk from everything else, which on an island where taxis are expensive after dark is worth more than it sounds.
Grand Anse and the south of the island have a handful of places and Anse Lazio has two, one at each end of the beach, both of which do a lunch worth planning a day around.
Vegetarian on Praslin
There is no Indian restaurant on Praslin and no restaurant on our register here has Indian food named in its own listing. The practical answer on this island is the same one that works everywhere in Seychelles and works better here than most: book self-catering.
Praslin has a great deal of self-catering, the supermarkets at Baie Sainte-Anne and Grand Anse carry the basics, and the Indian staples are worth bringing over from Victoria on the ferry if the requirement is strict.
Booking, and Sunday
Kitchens on Praslin are small and several are family-run. Your hotel will make the call and should, particularly for Anse Lazio at lunch and the Côte d'Or restaurants at the weekend.
Sunday evening is the thin night. Plan the self-catering meal, or eat at the hotel and enjoy it.
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.
Lobster Bay Restaurant
La Goulue Café
Les Rochers
Mabuya Beach Restaurant
Le Chevalier
Capricorn Restaurant
Photographs: Giulia Evangelista Val Leonard Davoux Marie HM Gigi D Iride Pace
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 Praslin?
Our own directory lists 6 on Praslin 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 Praslin?
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.