Some of South Pacific's best dining experiences can be found spread across the islands from your bungalow dining hut or if you're in town, your resort restaurant to the many cafes and casual eat outs including pubs and bars in Port Vila and Luganville Santo, dotted across the main streets.
Restauranteurs in Vanuatu take their food seriously from fresh seafood, fresh fruits, the tender local beef there's even escargot, foie gras and a selection of mouth-watering desserts. It's not just French food on offer, there's American, Australian, Italian, Indian, and Asian restaurants with Chinese and Japanese a top choice of modern Asian-fusion dishes.
For a Vanuatu experience, grab a hot plate from one of the many local cooks cooking in the Port Vila markets.
You must try our delicious seafood including catch of the day, fresh lobster, and the succulent Vanuatu beef featured extensively on menus throughout restaurants, and has a world-class reputation.
You can eat very well here, from market plates and village laplap to resort dining and international restaurants in Port Vila and Luganville. Fresh seafood, tropical fruit, and well-regarded Vanuatu beef appear on many menus. French, Asian, and Pacific influences sit alongside Melanesian cooking. The range is widest in town; on outer islands the pleasure is simpler, local food.
Very easy in Port Vila and Luganville, where markets, roadside cooks, and casual cafés serve laplap, simboro, tuluk, and grilled fish. Ask for the day’s local plate rather than only the tourist menu. On outer islands, your bungalow kitchen is often the best place to eat island food. Markets remain the most direct way to taste what people actually cook.
Town dining includes restaurants, cafés, and market food with choice at most hours of the day. Rural and outer-island meals are usually set by your hosts, built around root crops, coconut, and the day’s catch or garden. Menus are shorter, and dietary requests need to be made early. Both can be excellent; they simply work on different clocks.