By Janine Avery
Mauritius cuisine is a melting pot of cultures. Inhabited by the French, Portuguese, English, and Dutch at one point or another, each country has brought unique flavours to this tiny slice of paradise in the Indian Ocean. These are further enhanced by the slave trade of Africa, India, and beyond, with the Mauritian locals, of course, adding their own stir of the ladle and splash of spices to create Creole tastes you won’t find elsewhere in the world.
While the local food is best sampled from a street cart on the beach, we know that when planning your holiday to Mauritius, you’re likely to enjoy most of your meals at the resort where you’re staying. And there’s nothing worse than a week of lousy buffet food with bland tastes dulled down for the tourist market.
That’s why on a recent trip to the island, I journeyed across Mauritius to discover the best of the best resorts where not only could I indulge in lazy days poolside but also sample some of that delicious cuisine for which the island is famous… Here are my top picks:
The Outrigger Beach Resort Mauritius
If it’s an exquisite food experience that you’re after, then be sure that you book yourself into a Junior Suite at the Outrigger Beach Resort in Mauritius. Here you’ll get free access to the resort’s very own Plantation Club, an exclusive club where you can enjoy modern Mauritian Cuisine, and a host of complimentary extras. These include traditional afternoon tea, served with cakes, cookies, and selected pastries, a cocktail happy hour with inclusive alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and the option to have a delicious a la carte breakfast with complimentary sparkling wine!
You can also indulge in lobster dinners and curated private rum tastings, while in the cellar of Mercado Market Restaurant, you can be treated to a taste sensation of different tapas from around the world, paired with the best French, Italian, and South African wines selected from the walls around you.
Once a week, the resort also holds a special Mauritian buffet with traditional Creole cuisine. On arrival for the evening, you are greeted with traditional Sega dancing and complimentary rum, which makes for a great evening of food and fun. Here I sampled one of the best fish vindaloo curries I have ever tasted, and speaking with the chef, it turns out that it is this mother’s recipe!
C Mauritius
If you, like me, prefer to nibble on small bites all day, or you have growing kids in tow, rather than indulge in one or two big meals, then C Mauritius is where you need to be. The resort offers a completely unique feature on the island in the form of an all-day deli. Here you simply grab a beach bag or bento box on your way in, and you can pick from a delicious selection of fresh salads and sandwiches or build your own cheese and charcuterie platter. If you’re feeling decidedly less healthy, you can also order burgers, pitas, or deep-fried chicken, while around teatime, you’ll find fresh pancakes made to order and a myriad of tasty ice creams on offer. But perhaps the best part is that you can also help yourself to cool drinks, beers, wine, and even a glass of Prosecco before heading off to find yourself a spot on the beach, or anywhere you want really, to enjoy your picnic.
Of course, C Mauritius also has a main buffet-style restaurant whose poolside BBQ lunch is not to be missed and an a la carte serving more refined Asian-style dishes.
Four Seasons Mauritius at Anahita
During our stay, we tasted cuisines from around the globe, travelling from Mauritius to France, Italy, Asia, and back to Mauritius, all while never leaving the Four Seasons Mauritius at Anahita resort complex itself. On our first night, we dined at Bambou, where we were treated to a Mauritian-themed buffet with live cooking stations and a local Sega dance and band. This restaurant is also where we also headed each morning for a delicious buffet breakfast with everything from homemade breads and pastries with honey taken fresh off the comb to pancakes with chocolate sauce, poached eggs with salmon, and even juices blended to order with fruits of our choice.
Another dining experience we enjoyed was at Acquapazza – the resort’s Italian restaurant situated right on the water. Here we indulged in delicious homemade pasta, wood-fired pizza, and a Tiramisu that tasted as if it came straight out of Italy! We also tried Umi.Zaka, which serves up the most amazing Asian cuisine and sushi paired with tantalizing cocktails.
And when we felt like a break, we were whisked away in the resort’s speedboat to a nearby island, and a private beach where we indulged in possibly the best tuna burger known to man paired with delicious cocktails served to us on swinging bar stools.
Anantara IKO Mauritius
Anantara IKO Mauritius is located just ten minutes from the Mauritius international airport, making it the ideal destination for food and beach-hungry travellers that don’t want to waste any time of their holiday in the car. The highlight of the food experience here comes in the complimentary experiences offered for guests. Each day brings a different itinerary of things to see and do, including the usual snorkelling and glass-bottom boat trips and walks and cycling tours through a nearby forest. But for foodies, the most exciting thing on these lists is the private rum tastings, smoothie-making class, and cooking class. Learning how to make Mauritian delicacies or sipping on something exquisite that I had a hand in making was the highlight of my stay here.
That and dining at the resort’s beautiful Sea. Fire. Salt restaurant where salts from around the world draw out the flavours of the dishes. These are, in turn, cooked on an open flame in an open kitchen just outside the restaurant’s doors so you can see your meal being prepared live and in person.
Constance Belle Mare Plage
Constance Belle Mare Plage is a great spot to spend your holiday if you hate eating in the same place every night. The resort offers seven different restaurants – that’s a different one for every day of the week! These include the buffet-style La Citronelle Restaurant, which has virtually every type of cuisine you can think of on offer. There’s an Italian corner where you can build your own pasta, a fresh seafood grill, an Indian curry corner, and even a kid’s zone with specialty offerings just for the kids.
Then there’s the beachfront Lakaze serving salads and sandwiches for lunch, the Indigo restaurant for poolside dining on pizzas and sushi, and the Deer hunter restaurant where you can stop for a meal halfway through your golf game or retreat to for a peaceful continental breakfast. One of the highlights of the dining experience at Constance Belle Mare Plage however has to be the Blue Penny Cellar where you can treat yourself to a decadently gourmet fine-dining meal that rivals some of the best restaurants in the world, all set to the backdrop of more than 35,000 bottles of wine from over 2,300 wineries worldwide.
