Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
When it comes to dining in Moorea you'll be spoiled with choices, but you won't have to break the bank. There are some expensive French restaurants, but there are also quite a few mobile roulottes (caravans selling hot food and traditional poisson cru) and pizza and hamburger joints, Chinese restaurants, and restaurants with live music several times a week. Resort hotels have lovely lagoon front restaurants and usually stage one Polynesian buffet a week followed by a traditional dance show. In an attempt to appease various palates, some resort meals can be quite bland. If you like variety in your dining life, eat at independent restaurants and don't buy the resort meal packages. Most restaurants will pick you up for free, a few may ask for a small transport charge. You'll find most restaurants around the Cook's Bay-Maharepa and Hauru Point districts.
"The Golden Unicorn" is a charming little spot that wouldn't be out of place in a French village. The tables are immaculately set for dinner with fine glassware and apricot colored tablecloths, while lunch is more casual. The specialty dish is an intriguing mixture of tempura tuna, shrimps, rice, and ginger sauce, while lighter fare includes smoked salmon and crème fraiche and poisson cru "a la Chinois" (Chinese style).
Lobster ravioli is the specialty dish at this restaurant, considered one the best on the island, right next to the Hotel Hibiscus. Other seafood dishes with a twist are raw tuna sashimi with ginger and garlic sauce and scallops with Calvados, an apple brandy. Traditional French fare such as beef fillet with foie gras is a hearty choice and might best be followed with a light dessert such as lemon sorbet with vodka, or the local innovation—a half-frozen coconut!
Try the legendary parrot fish stuffed with crabmeat, the mussels or ask the owner, Rudy, who's often tending the bar, for his suggestions. Steak lovers have plenty of choices too or they might prefer the stuffed boneless duck with port wine sauce or the lamb. It's a happy place with music. You can't miss it—it's an all-white adobe style building on the mountainside of the main road, not far from the Pearl Resort. It offers free hotel transfers.
Sign up for Travel Tips & News
Thank you for your interest!
