Best Places to Eat in Tahiti

Best Places to Eat in Tahiti

One of the newest and trendiest places to eat in Tahiti right now is Hiti Mahana. Located in the Tahiti Radisson Plaza Resort hotel, Hiti Mahana's restaurant is situated both inside and alfresco, or outside.

The restaurant offers fresh Tahitian cuisine from around the island and by extension the traditional Polynesian cuisine from around the other 117 islands in the archipelagos, as well as, Asian delicacies. Add to the food-fare the mesmerizing Tahitian dance shows and what you have is a restaurant that is doing everything to make your dining experience a memorable one.

Auberge du Pacifique is one of the best restaurants, if not the best restaurant on Tahiti and has been rated as one of the tops since 1974, so you can expect that they have making your dining experience down pat. The restaurant is located next to a beautiful lagoon for an even better aesthetic experience. The owner of the restaurant is Master Chef Jean Galopin, and yes he's from France. Chef Galopin blends traditional French style cooking with the Tahitian style of cooking. A prime example of this is his dish fafa, chicken and taro leaves steamed in coconut milk. The restaurant boasts the island's only air-conditioned wine cellar allowing patrons to select from a vey nice selection of excellent French vintages.

One of the most unusual restaurants on Tahiti is Captain Bligh Restaurant and Bar. What makes it so unusual isn't the food, but rather the structure itself. The building has a rather large thatched-roof that looks very much at home on the island. However, the building itself also extends out over the lagoon it skirts. Add to that the fish feeding that goes on at this restaurant, folks feed the swimming fish in the lagoon bread crumbs which they eagerly have come to expect over the years.

Another special attraction of Captain Bligh is the tiny island you access from the main dining area of the restaurant by the wooden pier extending out to it. You choose to eat alfresco out on the tiny island, and the service doesn't suffer since they built the pier out to it for that very reason. One of the house specialties is the Whiskey Shrimp. Just as good, if not better is the Mahi-Mahi topped with a creamed pepper sauce. The restaurant puts on a traditional Tahitian dance show on Friday and Saturday nights.

So you want to pinch a few pennies and find some good food that isn't going to cost you as much as what most full-service restaurants ask for their fare, where do you go? You should then go to the open-air snack bar called Le Cignalon just a few paces away from the Le Meridien Tahiti Resort hotel.

But don't think that you are giving up quality when deciding not to give up as much money to pay for your food. Le Cignalon offers some really great food, such as pizzas from a wood-fired oven, grilled rib-eye steaks, poisson cru, sashimi, and a host of other great selections from the other side of the fast-food styled food counter. This is a great place to stop if you are doing a ‘round Tahiti day trip.