Seafood restaurants in Africa
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Chef Khalil
Popular fish restaurant, just along from the train station, serving very fresh fish from Lake Nasser and the Red Sea, charged by weight, grilled, baked or fried to your choice and served with salad and rice or French fries. It’s a small place, but worth the wait if it’s full.
reviewed
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Beach Cafe
Durbs’ hot beach hang-out. Soak up the sun in a deck chair or sun lounge, or chill out with a cocktail on the restaurant deck, overlooking the beach and life guards.
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Cargo Hold
A seafood encounter of the most novel kind. On the Phantom Ship in uShaka Marina, your dining companions are fish with very large teeth – the glass tank forms one of the walls to a shark aquarium. Well-known for casting some high-quality fish dishes with international flavours.
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Le Dauphin
It might have an uninspiring exterior, but the French dining room and lovely garden give this restaurant one of the nicest dining settings in town. The menu is continental, with some good meat and fish dishes. Alcohol is served.
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Lagon I
In this expensive restaurant the nautical theme is consistently pursued, from cruise-ship décor and cabin-style toilets to the terrace suspended on stilts in the ocean and scrumptious platters of seafood.
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Heartbreak Restaurant
A popular haunt, with a menu featuring everything from Lebanese appetisers to seafood, pasta and burgers, a Sunday lunch buffet and music and dancing on Wednesday and Saturday evenings.
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G
Snack Amine
Tucked between the chicken rotisseries by the Marché Central, Snack Amine serves up big plates of simple but tasty fried fish, and platters of the freshest seafood.
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Mat'am Obaya
This is the sort of place that Lonely Planet authors hesitate to include in a book for fear that they can't get a table next time they visit. It's small with no pretensions to luxury, but there's no finer seafood in Libya and all of it is home-cooked by the amiable Mohammed Obaya, who represents all that is good about old-style Libyan warmth and hospitality. The stuffed calamari is Mohammed's own creation, not to mention the tastiest restaurant dish you'll find in Libya.
The shola or faruj fish with sauce and couscous are not far behind.
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I
Tamarind Restaurant
Perhaps the finest of the various Tamarind ventures, eating on the terrace of this grand Moorish building overlooking the water is a romantic splurge you can't afford to miss. Seafood is the focus here, but meat eaters won't go hungry and vegetarians even get their own menu. The only bum note is the rather cheesy keyboard music, which takes a few dawas (vodka, lime and honey cocktails) to drown out. There's a casino upstairs - just remember you'll need some money for the taxi back to town.
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J
Hood Gondol Seafood
When Alexandrians need a quick fix of delicious, fresh and ridiculously cheap seafood, they make a beeline for this local favourite near the Bibliotheca Alexandria. A massive plate of mixed seafood, including prawns, calamari, spicy clams and fried fish. There's no menu and little English is spoken here, just turn up, point to the trays of fresh fish lining the downstairs display and find yourself a seat. It's located down an unmarked alley; ask for directions as everyone knows it by name.
reviewed
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Fish Market
Well-heeled locals will argue that this is the best place to eat in town, and who are we to argue with local knowledge? It's definitely the most upmarket fish restaurant in Alexandria, with prime views over the Eastern Harbour and flashy silver service where you can pick your own seafood and have it cooked to perfection in the way you desire. The same owners run the Tikka Grill, on the floor below, which offers a similar dining experience for the meat-atarians among you.
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Restaurant du Port de Pêche
This authentic and rustic seafood restaurant in the middle of the fishing harbour is packed to the gills at lunch and dinner as happy diners tuck into fish freshly whipped from the sea and cooked to perfection. The fish and tangy paella are some of the best in town. The decor is very 1970s with red-and-white gingham tablecloths. Service is professional and swift. Book ahead as this place is very popular with Casablancais from all walks of life.
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Qadoura
This is one of Alexandria’s most authentic fish restaurants. Pick your fish from a huge ice-packed selection, which usually includes sea bass, red and grey mullet, bluefish, sole, squid, crab and prawns, and often a lot more. Food is served at tables in the narrow street. A selection of mezze is served with all orders (don’t hope for a menu). Most fish is around E£40 to E£80 per kilo, prawns E£180 per kilo.
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Le Magelan
There’s a line of fish restaurants along the Rampe de la Pêcherie, the passage that leads from beside Djemaa el-Djedid to the port (or used to until the lower gate was blocked during the 1990s). All have the same sort of product and prices: choose a fish from the display and say whether you want it grilled or fried. Le Magelan (formerly the Sirène de Mer) also does a fine fish soup, but no alcohol is available.
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Sunshine Restaurant & Bar
Chez Maggie's thatched-roof restaurant, with fabulous sunset views of the Mozambique Channel, offers a rotating daily menu of fresh-caught fish and seafood, delicious cheese and lots of fresh fruits and veggies. Barbecue jumbo shrimp, and anything with crab, are the house specialities. The bar has a wide selection of scotch, whiskey and delicious homemade coco rum. It's a good place to settle in for a night of drinking.
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Samakmak
Shielded from a noisy street by a phalanx of shrubbery, a few tables with blue-checked cloths set a cheery note in a garden at the Cairo branch of the respected Alexandrian fish restaurant. There’s no menu – just pick from mullet, crabs, squid and more (priced per kilo) in the iced-up display, then specify how you want it prepared. It arrives at the table accompanied by salads and rice. No alcohol.
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Barakoda Restaurant
The most pleasant places to eat are Barakoda Restaurant will grill the fish you've just bought at the fish market and serve it with great salads. It's wildly popular with Libyans, travellers and expats and you may have to wait for a table if you arrive late. If you're going there under your own steam, ask the taxi driver for the 'Marsa' or 'Al-Hufra' area; it's opposite the turn-off to Sharia 11 June.
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Dar El Ghalia
Eat on the terrace or in the salon at this lovely guesthouse. Choose from the set menus or à la carte: there are salads, excellent harira, grills, fresh fish, tajines and couscous. Order in advance if you'd like to try pigeon trid (baked dough stuffed with meat) or mechoui (roast lamb). Wines and spirits are available. A 10% tip is added to the bill.
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Cercle Nautique
Probably the most famous spot in Bujumbura, the Cercle is one of those colonial-era clubs that remains resolutely popular with expats and locals alike. Set on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, this is a great place to sip a cold beer and watch the sun go down. There is also a good restaurant here serving fresh lake fish and other continental classics. A must when passing through Buj.
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La Cuevita
Tucked into a natural cave beside the port, where plants dangle from the ceiling and low lighting creates a cosy atmosphere, La Cuevita serves fresh local seafood, such as tuna, vieja (parrot fish), lapas (limpets), chocos (cuttlefish), along with grilled meats, all served with papas arrugadas (wrinkly potatoes) and a tangy red mojo.
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Alex's
From under the palm trees you have a wonderful view west over Man of War Bay at what is easily Freetown's loveliest dining room. Seafood is the speciality, but the large global menu includes enchiladas, lasagne, shepherds pie, jollof rice (rice and vegetables with meat and fish), falafel and Cajun chicken. The adjacent sports bar has a wide-screen TV and a pool table.
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Al-Shatt Restaurant
Al-Shatt Restaurant will grill the fish you've just bought at the fish market and serve it with great salads. It's wildly popular with Libyans, travellers and expats and you may have to wait for a table if you arrive late. If you're going there under your own steam, ask the taxi driver for the 'Marsa' or 'Al-Hufra' area; it's opposite the turn-off to Sharia 11 June.
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S
Tamarind Restaurant
Kenya's most prestigious restaurant chain runs Nairobi's best seafood restaurant. The splendid menu offers all manner of exotic flavours, and the lavish dining room is laid out in a sumptuous modern Arabic-Moorish style. Smart dress is expected and you'll need to budget for the full works, particularly if you want wine or cocktails and lobster.
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Restaurant Bouayad
Just inside Bab Bou Jeloud, this restaurant is more popular with tourists than locals, but still turns out a good range of Moroccan dishes – the fish tajine is particularly good. The interior is nicely cool in the hot summer months, although staff build up enough of a sweat, as the small kitchen can get overwhelmed when the place is packed out.
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Yacht Club Restaurant
Also known as Restaurant du Port, the fish couldn’t be fresher at this modernist waterfront restaurant situated inside the commercial fishing port. The lighting and decor are plain, but the food, particularly the freshly fried and grilled catch of the day and calamari, is reliable and the service hassle-free. There’s a terrace for warm days.
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