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Aberdeen Grill
This stately restaurant has the interior of an old boys' club; plenty of dark wood, brass, mock antique seating and wide bay windows. The food is similarly conservative, but it's done well. European-influenced chicken, steak and seafood are the predominant stars of the carnivorous menu. Lunch is a three-course set menu (around F$25 ).
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Ashiyana
For an Indian feast in more refined surrounds, Ashiyana is a step up in atmosphere and style from the curry houses and serves good thali and tandoori dishes. The spicy curries here are legendary - even the taxi drivers consider them hot.
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Bad Dog Cafe
This trendy drinking hole serves tasty bar snacks and crowd-pleasing mains. Cajun chicken, Thai curries, burgers, squid rings and potato wedges accompany your beverage of choice and you can scoff it at a booth or window table.
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Cafe Tivoli
The café of the moment, Tivoli serves salsa-and-cheese stuffed croissants, mammoth bagels and toasted focaccias, eggs any style you like and dense quiches. Tables are scattered beneath a breezy outdoor pagoda and there are delicious sweet treats if you still have room.
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Cakes 2000
This café-cum-bakery-cum-cake shop dishes up hearty breakfasts and the best sausage rolls and pies in town. Tuck into overstuffed sandwiches or Fijian faves such as palusami stuffed with fish and roast lamb neck for lunch, or just gorge on a tiramisu and baileys or choc-orange-chip cheesecake.
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Capital Palace
It seems half of Suva converges here for the excellent Sunday yum cha but the regular menu also sites authentic delights including shark-fin soup and fried squid with chilli and salt plus infusions such as sesame chicken with dalo. Mouth-watering smells and a happy din surround diners.
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Curry House
This industrious curry house serves excellent lamb, chicken, fish and vegetarian curries in a canteen-style setting. The pakoras, samosas and other sides are hefty and fresh and a good option if you're on the run. It gets busy so the earlier you eat lunch the shorter the table wait.
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Daikoku Restaurant
The acrobatic culinary skills of Daikoku's chefs are reason enough to spend an evening here, and the seafood, chicken and beef seared on the sizzling teppanyaki plates would hold up to any Tokyo restaurant. Sushi and sashimi is also on the menu and a happy chatter fills the room. Bookings are recommended - it's one of Suva's finest and is often full.
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Dolphin Plaza Foodcourt
Dolphin Plaza Foodcourt. Has a variety of takeaway-food outlets, including pizza, pasta, Chinese, curries and Fijian dishes.
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Downtown Boulevard Shopping Centre Foodcourt
Downtown Boulevard Shopping Centre Foodcourt has a variety of takeaway-food outlets, including pizza, pasta, Chinese, curries and Fijian
Read more about Downtown Boulevard Shopping Centre Foodcourt
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Focaccia Café
This bustling city eatery serves fresh burgers, wraps, rolls, kebabs and focaccias at counter-seating or tables in the arcade lobby (it sounds incongruous but it works). The breakfasts are hot and filling and staff supremely friendly.
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Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant
Saris and families dominate the patronage at this vegetarian restaurant, which is a good indication of the authenticity of the food. The array of thalis is impressive but you should definitely leave room for the delicious Indian sweets on display. Indian tunes fill the background.
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Harbour Centre Foodcourt
Harbour Centre Foodcourt is upstairs and has a variety of takeaway-food outlets, including pizza, pasta, Chinese, curries and Fijian.
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Headworks
Overlooking Suva's main drag, this is a great pit stop if the hustle is tiring you. The wicker seating on the balcony catches plenty of breeze and although lunch options (omelettes, sandwiches and rolls) are limited, the smoothies are a meal unto themselves.
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Hot Bread Kitchen
Pick up fresh cheese-and-onion loaves and coconut rolls.
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JJ's on the Park
Dishing up good Western-style food and blessed with terrific harbour views from the 180-degree glass frontage, JJ's is an atmospheric place to dine. Salads, burgers, enchiladas, steak and fresh seafood dishes are served in generous quantities and the wine list is impressive. The surrounds are glossy and polished, service is attentive and a Fijian Belafonte often taps the ivory in the background.
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Korea House
The interior of this restaurant may lose its oomph once you pass the grand entrance flanked by a Korean mural but the food does not. Pungent kimchi (pickled vegetables) and sticky Korean barbecue dishes are served as well as authentic squid, pork, tofu, prawn and chicken. There's an around F$10 lunch special and many dishes attract a 10% discount at night.
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L'Opera
Decadent to the extreme, L'Opera is a luscious slice of Italy from the ornate fabrics gracing the walls and high-backed chairs to the lovingly made gnocchi and ravioli. Authentic tuna, veal and lobster dishes are also on offer and the antipasto and wine list are excellent. Pure romance.
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Lantern Palace
Dimly lit and suitably oriental in its décor, this long-standing institution offers a fairly predictable Chinese-Western menu with a few left-field gems thrown in such as garlic bêche-de-mer in chilli sauce. The banquets here are good value.
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Malt House Brewery & Restaurant
Never short of a happy crowd, this bar-restaurant entertains patrons with delicious home-brew and even better food. Wood-fired pizzas go down well with the ales and lagers made on the premises but you can also treat your tastebuds to some of the most refined and creative seafood and meat dishes in Fiji. It's a bit of a trek from the centre and often filled with a boisterous din, but leaving Suva without a night here would be a crime.
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Old Mill Cottage
Housed (as the name suggests) in a gracious old timber cottage, this Suva institution is the city's best spot for adventurous gastronomes to dabble in authentic Fijian fare. Exotic dishes including palusami (meat, onion and lolo wrapped in dalo leaves and baked in a lovo), curried shellfish, and seaweed or fish stewed in lolo assemble themselves underneath the front counter alongside Indian curries and vegetarian dishes. You can also dig into a traditional roast.
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Palm Court
Another popular city café, Palm Court keeps tourists and office workers full and happy with tasty cooked breakfasts, toasted sandwiches, curries and chicken and chips. Plastic tables are arranged beneath umbrellas to shield the sun and meals are dirt cheap.
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Pizza Hut
Inventive pizzas served in huge quantities. Takeaway is available.
