Food in Zanzibar: Must-Try Dishes and Drinks

By Elem Adventures Travel Experts · 2026-08-21 · 6 min read

Zanzibar's food is the taste of its history: Arab, African, and Indian kitchens stirred together with cloves, coconut, and the ocean a metre away. The spice island's dishes are generous, vivid, and cheap, and eating well here is as important to the trip as any beach. Here is the hungry traveller's shortlist of what to try and what to drink.

Why Zanzibar Tastes Like This

The island's cooking is a record of who traded here.

• Arab influence brought spices, coffee, sweet pastries, and the slow-cooked rice dishes that now read as local
• Indian influence brought the flatbreads, the dal, and the layered rice technique behind the biryani
• Swahili coast cooking brought coconut, fish, and the habit of building a dish around whatever came off the boat
• African influence brought the grains, the street-food formats, and the frying
• The spice trade is the reason all of it landed here in the first place
• Slavery, empire, and shipping are part of the history too, and the food is not separate from it

The result is a cuisine that is recognisably East African and also clearly not: sweeter, more fragrant, and more layered than much of the mainland.

The Must-Try Dishes

• Zanzibar-style biryani: the island's flagship, fragrant rice layered with spices, meat or seafood, and slow-cooked until the flavours fuse; the spice blend is the island's own signature
• Seafood platters: octopus curry, grilled prawns, and red snapper straight from the Indian Ocean; the catch of the day at beach shacks is unbeatable
• Pilau rice: a fragrant, lightly spiced rice served with curries across the island
• Urojo, the Zanzibar mix: a tangy, complex soup of fried potato, cassava, chutneys, and eggs, a legendary Stone Town street-food bowl
• Zanzibar pizzas: a sweet-and-savoury stuffed flatbread griddled at night stalls, filled with meat or banana, chocolate, and cheese; a beloved evening snack
• Seafood and spice curries: the coconut-and-spice curries of the island turn octopus and fish into something unforgettable

The Breakfasts and Snacks

• Maandazi: sweet fried dough, Zanzibar's morning bread, perfect with chai
• Uji: a warm, comforting porridge that starts many local days
• Fresh tropical fruit: mangoes, papayas, and the island's pineapple taste nothing like the supermarket versions; breakfast bowls and juices are peak Zanzibar

Sweets and Small Things

Worth a category of their own, because they are easy to miss.

• Haluwa: the dense, sesame-flecked sweet sold in cubes, often still warm
• Bacchi: Zanzibar's own spiced coffee, served small, strong, and sweet
• Kashata: coconut or peanut brittle, the standard sweet to carry away
• Coconut brittle and sesame bars: common at roadside stalls and easy to pack
• Spiced biscuits and pastries: the Arab bakery tradition is still visible in Stone Town
• Fresh fruit at the end of a meal: often better than any dessert on the menu

The sweet shops of Stone Town are worth a detour on their own, and none of them need a reservation.

The Drinks

• Fresh passion and mango juice: pressed to order, ice-cold, and among the best drinks in Africa
• Spiced tea (chai): sweet, milky, and laced with cloves and cardamom, the island's social lubricant
• Coconut water: straight from the husk on every corner
• Sugar cane juice: icy, sweet, and refreshing after a hot walk through Stone Town

Where to Eat

• Forodhani Gardens and the Stone Town night market: the night market by the old fort is Zanzibar's street-food headline, where the fishing boats and the stalls converge after dark
• Beach shacks: the north and east coasts serve seafood on the sand at sunset prices
• The resorts: fine dining versions of the island's dishes for the full experience
• Spice farm lunches: many spice tours end in a coconut-based feast cooked from the plantation, the best taste of the island's agriculture
• Local restaurants in Stone Town: the everyday places a few streets back from the front, where the menu is shorter and the cooking is plainer

Stone Town vs the Beaches

Two different eating experiences, and worth planning for both.

Stone Town is where the food has history attached to it. The dishes are older, the street-food culture is denser, and the night market is the reason many people come. Eat late, eat standing, and eat more than once.

The beaches are where the seafood comes out of the water in front of you. The menus are simpler — grilled fish, octopus, prawns — and the setting does most of the work.

• Stone Town for variety, and for the dishes you cannot get on the sand
• The beaches for the catch, and for long, slow dinners
• Nungwi and Kendwa in the north are the most developed for dining
• The east coast is quieter, with fewer options and more dependence on your hotel
• Paje and Jambiani mix local places with traveller-oriented cafes
• Wherever you are, the best meal is often the smallest place with the shortest menu

A useful pattern: eat your way through Stone Town at the start or end of the trip, and eat seafood while you are on the coast.

How the Night Market Actually Works

Practical detail, because the first visit can be disorienting.

• It runs after dark, and stalls set up as the light goes
• You walk the row first and choose what looks good rather than sitting and ordering
• Grills and griddles are visible, so what you see is what you get
• Payment is cash, and smaller notes are easier for everyone
• Popular stalls have queues, which is a better guide than any review
• You can eat several small things rather than one large plate, which is the right approach
• It gets busy, and going earlier in the evening is calmer than going at peak

It is a market rather than a restaurant, and treating it as one makes the evening better.

Dietary Notes

• Halal cooking is the norm across the island
• Vegetarian and vegan dishes are common — the vegetable and coconut-based cooking is not an afterthought
• Seafood is everywhere, which matters if you do not eat it
• Ask about stock and ghee if you are strictly vegetarian, since recipes vary
• Allergies need a direct conversation, and a written note in Swahili helps if your tolerance is strict
• Fussy eaters do well here, because rice, bread, fruit, and grilled fish are always available

The island is easy to eat around as long as you say what you need before the cooking starts.

The Practical Eating Notes

Zanzibar's food is a highlight, with the usual tropical precautions: eat where the locals eat, drink sealed water, let the cooking do the work, and your holiday stomach will behave.

• Carry small notes for the stalls, since nobody wants to break a large one at a griddle
• Watch turnover — the busiest stall is the freshest stall
• Eat what is cooked in front of you where you can, which is most of the street food
• Stick to sealed water, including for ice and for brushing your teeth
• Fruit you peel yourself is the safest and usually the best thing you can eat
• Say what you need before it is cooked, not after
• Go back to the same stall on a second night; being a repeat customer changes what arrives

The bottled water rule and the health guidance apply here as anywhere, and nothing about eating in Zanzibar requires a strong stomach — only a normal amount of care.

Conclusion

Zanzibar's food is a spice-laced love letter to three cultures, served on the sand with the ocean still ringing on your plate. Biryani, urojo, octopus curry, and the famous Zanzibar pizza build the list, and the fresh juices and spiced chai wash it all down. Eat at the night stalls, dive into the fruit, and trust the local rhythm. The island's flavour, as the spice tours promise, is best tasted with a fork in hand.