Zanzibar Food Guide: What to Eat and Where

Zanzibar's cuisine is one of the world's great undiscovered culinary treasures. Here's your definitive guide to eating your way through the Spice Island.

Zanzibar is not just one of the world's most beautiful islands — it is one of the most delicious. Sitting at the crossroads of African, Arab, Indian and Portuguese culinary traditions, the island's food is complex, fragrant, and utterly addictive.

The Spice Foundation

Everything begins with the spices. Zanzibar supplies a significant portion of the world's cloves, and the island also grows cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper and more. These aren't just ingredients — they're the soul of the cuisine.

Must-Try Dishes

Pilau Rice — Zanzibar's pilau is layered with cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and black pepper, cooked with meat broth. It's deeply aromatic and utterly satisfying.

Urojo (Zanzibar Mix) — The island's iconic street food: a turmeric-yellow soup filled with cassava chips, potato fritters, lentil fritters, and boiled eggs, finished with tamarind sauce and chilli. Extraordinary.

Zanzibar Pizza — Nothing like Italian pizza. This street food creation is a thin dough folded around a filling of your choice — eggs, cheese, minced meat, vegetables, chocolate, banana — then pan-fried. Invented at Forodhani, perfected over decades.

Mchuzi wa Samaki — Fish curry Zanzibar style: fresh Indian Ocean fish in a coconut milk and spice sauce. Served with ugali or rice, this is home cooking at its finest.

Coconut Octopus — Octopus braised in coconut cream, chilli and lime. A house speciality at dozens of beach restaurants along the east coast. Order it whenever you see it.

Where to Eat

Forodhani Night Market, Stone Town — Go twice. Once to eat, once to watch. Open from sunset, it's the best street food experience on the island.

The Rock Restaurant, Michanvi Pingwe — Built on a rock outcrop in the ocean, accessible by foot at low tide or boat at high tide. The setting is extraordinary; the seafood is excellent. Book well in advance.

Emerson on Hurumzi Rooftop, Stone Town — The most romantic dinner in Zanzibar. Rooftop dining above the Stone Town skyline, Swahili cooking, live taarab music. A special occasion essential.