4 Best Restaurants in Mauritius

On a private peninsula, just 15 minutes from the airport and across from the historical village of Mahébourg, the Preskil Beach Resort shelters one of the island’s best steakhouses. Their high-quality meats are imported from South Africa, and the fish and seafood come from the day’s catch. Complement your meal with a traditional Ti' Punch, or choose from a number of South Africa's finest wines. Outdoor seating on the beach is offered. Inside, the atmosphere is refined and romantic with a contemporary décor in warm tones and African motifs.

With stunning vistas of Le Morne, the Black River Gorges, and a string of beaches, this attractive spot is where you come for food with a view. The indoor-outdoor restaurant is perched on a wooded hill and has a thatched roof and a verandah suspended over the valley. Named after the nearby village of some 700 people, Le Chamarel is the ideal lunch stop when exploring the beautiful southwestern corner of Mauritius. Dishes include such island specialties as salmi de cerf (venison casserole) and octopus curry, and more traditional French fare like filet de boeuf sace poivre (beet fillet with pepper sauce). The dessert menu includes caramelized bananas, chocolate mousse, and coconut flan.

Le Courtyard has transformed a colonial building with its rusty-looking brick façade into the capital’s trendiest address. Set in a small interior courtyard, the charming eatery often attracts local high-profile politicians, businessmen, and foreign ambassadors looking for sophisticated French cuisine and discretion while seated among the palms, ferns, and other tropical plants. Most of the time, these people go back to work only after they've eaten the restaurant's renowned home-made fruit sorbet. The staff here is always helpful and quite efficient.

Here's a chance to dine in a wonderful old colonial home, once the residence of sugarcane plantation owners. Built in 1819 from the timber of demolished ships, the house was taken apart by its owners in 1970 who moved it, bit by bit, a few hundred meters away from the noisy mill. It was lavishly restored in the 1990s, and today it's a lovely restaurant with a wide verandah, resplendent with black and white tiles and white wicker furniture, and interior rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, serving authentic cuisine using local farm produce. Forming part of a greater complex containing a boutique hotel, vanilla and rum distilleries, and a working tea plantation, the restaurant is a relaxing place to dine after walking around the grounds and gardens. Favorite dishes include smoked-marlin salad, and Creole chicken flavored with vanilla and spices. For dessert there are tempting sorbets in many flavors. The complex is just north of Souillac on the island's south coast.