Zanzibar Food Guide: Urojo, Zanzibar Pizza and Where to Eat

Zanzibar food grows out of six centuries of spice trade: Arab rice dishes, Indian bhajia and chutneys, and Swahili coconut and seafood, all seasoned with the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom the island still grows (cuisine background). This Zanzibar food guide covers the dishes worth ordering, the Forodhani Gardens night market, where to eat in Stone Town and on the beaches, and what each level costs in USD and shillings.

Key Takeaways

• Order urojo first, Zanzibar pizza second, then mshikaki skewers and sugarcane juice.
• Forodhani Gardens runs from about 6pm. A full evening costs TZS 10,000 to 20,000 (USD 4 to 8).
• Lukmaan in Stone Town sets the local benchmark near 5,000 TZS a meal.
• East coast villages do the best octopus in coconut milk. North coast tables charge the view.
• Take a spice tour early in the trip so the seasoning makes sense at dinner.

What should you order first?

Urojo, the Zanzibar mix, is the dish to learn. A spiced broth with onion, garlic, ginger and chilli arrives in a bowl layered with mashed potato, crisp chickpea-flour bhajia, fried potato shavings, boiled egg, red onion and chutneys. The mix of smooth, starchy and crisp in one bowl tastes like nothing else on the Swahili coast, and at about USD 1 to 2 it is also the cheapest education on the island (dish guide). Most stalls let you pick the extras as the bowl is built, so say yes to the coconut chutney and go light on the hot sauce until you know its strength.

Zanzibar pizza comes second. Vendors stretch dough almost translucent, fill it with egg, minced meat, tomato, onion and green pepper, fold it into a square and fry it on a flat griddle. Avocado or cheese versions cost a little more. Eat it in the hand while it is crisp. At USD 1.50 to 3 it suits a second course after urojo rather than a meal on its own.

Rice carries the rest of the cuisine. Pilau cooks with whole cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and star anise from the start, so the grains arrive fragrant without any sauce. Biryani layers spiced coconut-milk rice with chicken or goat and turns up at family restaurants and Friday tables. Order biryani wherever office workers queue at lunch. Mshikaki, spiced meat skewers grilled over charcoal, and samosas fill the gaps between markets and meals. Mandazi, the cardamom doughnut made with coconut milk, plus spiced ginger tea (chai ya tangawizi), covers breakfast for under a dollar from any street vendor.

Seafood peaks with pweza wa nazi, octopus slow-cooked in coconut milk until tender. Grilled octopus appears on every beach menu, but the coconut version holds the flavour better. Fishing villages on the east coast, especially around Jambiani, land much of the island’s octopus, and the small restaurants near the boats cook it best.

Urojo with egg, onion and tomato. Vendors build each bowl to order.

How does the Forodhani Gardens night market work?

Forodhani Gardens sits on the Stone Town seafront in front of the Old Fort, and from about 6pm (some vendors from 5pm) it turns into an open-air kitchen (visitor account). Stalls grill seafood, fry Zanzibar pizza, ladle urojo, press sugarcane juice and split coconuts. Nothing here needs a reservation. Walk the full row first, watch what is cooked to order, then join the longest local queue.

Three rules keep the evening simple. Eat where turnover is high, because a busy grill means fresh fish and hot oil. Carry small shilling notes, since most vendors take no cards and change runs slow. Drink bottled water with an unbroken seal or juice pressed in front of you, and skip tap water entirely. A standard first visit of urojo, Zanzibar pizza, mshikaki and sugarcane juice lands near TZS 10,000 to 20,000 (USD 4 to 8). Arrive by 7pm. The best stalls sell out by 9pm, and the light over the water is better early anyway.

Stone Town repays a morning visit to Darajani Bazaar before the night market, detailed in our Stone Town travel guide. The spice section sells whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and vanilla by weight at better quality than the airport packs. Buy a small bag of cloves and one cinnamon stick. That evening’s pilau will read differently once you have smelled the raw spices.

Lukmaan Restaurant on New Mkuzini Road is the local benchmark for a sit-down Swahili meal: biryani, pilau, fish curry and fresh juice from about 7am to 10pm, with meals near 5,000 TZS (about USD 2). No booking, no tourist pricing, and the room other restaurant owners eat in on their days off. Breadfruit Restaurant at the Neela Boutique Hotel on Shangani Street gives the more formal option for one evening up from street food.

Produce laid out at a Stone Town market. Darajani Bazaar is the morning counterpart to the night market.

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Where do you eat on the beaches?

The east coast has no second Forodhani, so adjust expectations. Paje holds the most choice, with beachfront restaurants serving local dishes near TZS 8,000 to 30,000 and grilled catches above that. Jambiani runs quieter and closer to the boats: small beach restaurants serve octopus and fish at village prices, and late mornings show octopus drying on racks along the road. Michamvi Pingwe sits between the two, with lodge dining and candlelit beach barbecues on request. Ask about beach dinners when booking rather than after arrival, since kitchens buy the catch in the morning.

The north coast around Nungwi and Kendwa cooks for the sunset crowd. Beach bars line the sand with grilled fish, calamari and whole lobster, and late-afternoon dhow cruises leave with snacks from about USD 35 per person. The same samosa can cost twice at a beach table what it costs at a village cafe a street back, so treat the front row as the view tax and eat at least once where the staff eat. Kendwa Rocks runs a monthly full moon party with extended bar hours; fun for a night out, not the place for a serious meal.

Spice farms near Kizimbani and Kidichi, outside Stone Town, supply the context behind all of it. The working farms mostly sit on Pemba, but the Unguja demonstration farms run genuinely informative tours from USD 10 per person (tour prices): cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper on the stem, with tastings of cardamom tea and mango, papaya and jackfruit. Go early in the trip, for example, as our seven days in Zanzibar itinerary does on days one and two. Pilau tastes different once you have held the bark it came from.

Fresh nutmeg split open on a spice farm. The red aril is mace, the seed inside is nutmeg.

What does food cost, from stalls to beach tables?

Setting	Cost per person
Street snack (samosa, mandazi)	USD 0.50 to 1
Forodhani dish (urojo, pizza, skewers)	TZS 2,000 to 5,000 (USD 1 to 2)
Full Forodhani evening with a drink	TZS 10,000 to 20,000 (USD 4 to 8)
Local restaurant meal (Lukmaan style)	About 5,000 TZS (USD 2 to 3)
Sit-down main course in town	USD 4 to 8
Mid-range restaurant	TZS 15,000 to 30,000
Beachfront cafe dinner	USD 10 to 25
Seafood platter for the table	TZS 60,000 to 120,000
Fine dining main course	TZS 40,000 to 100,000

Two practical points shape every bill, detailed in our Zanzibar trip cost guide. First, nearly all local food is halal, and local establishments serve no alcohol; hotels and tourist beach restaurants do, at resort prices. Second, Ramadan closes many daytime kitchens outside hotel compounds for the month. Hotels keep serving guests throughout, and an invitation to iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast, ranks among the most memorable food experiences on the island. Check the dates before booking spring trips.

Eat with the right hand at communal tables and stalls, since the left hand counts as unclean in local etiquette. Travellers with plant-based diets do better here than the seafood reputation suggests: pilau with vegetable stock, coconut curries, chapati, mandazi, cassava and sweet potato dishes are naturally vegan, and menus in Paje and Nungwi now list vegan options directly.

Spend the first full day eating in the order the island explains itself: Darajani Bazaar in the morning, a spice farm in the afternoon, Forodhani Gardens at night. Most visitors do it backwards and taste everything once without context. The market shows the ingredients, the farm shows them growing, and the night market shows what six centuries of cooks did with them.

Judge every beach menu by its octopus price before sitting down. Restaurants that buy from the village boats list pweza plainly and price it near the boats. Menus that hide it behind “seafood mix” at double the village rate are selling location, not catch. Walk to the next table.

For the wider trip around the meals, the Zanzibar hub and the Africa collection set the island in context, with the Moroccan food guide as the closest regional companion for spice-led cooking. Time the visit with the best time guide for Morocco only for season logic, since Zanzibar’s own dry seasons run June to October and December to February. Budget the eating days with the Morocco trip cost breakdown method, then browse all food guides for the next trip.

Frequently asked questions

What is urojo?

Urojo, also called Zanzibar mix, is the island's defining street dish: a spiced broth with mashed potato, chickpea-flour bhajia, potato shavings, boiled egg and chutneys. It costs about USD 1 to 2 at Forodhani Gardens and you eat it standing at a communal table.

What is Zanzibar pizza?

A thin hand-stretched dough filled with egg, minced meat, tomato, onion and optional avocado or cheese, folded and fried on a griddle. It resembles a filled pancake more than an Italian pizza and costs USD 1.50 to 3 at Forodhani Gardens.

Where is the best place to eat street food in Zanzibar?

Forodhani Gardens on the Stone Town seafront, open from about 6pm daily. Vendors cook urojo, Zanzibar pizza, mshikaki skewers, samosas and grilled seafood in front of you. Arrive by 7pm and eat where the queues are longest.

How much does food cost in Zanzibar?

Street dishes TZS 2,000 to 5,000 (USD 1 to 2), a full Forodhani meal TZS 10,000 to 20,000 (USD 4 to 8), local restaurant meals around 5,000 TZS, beachfront dinners USD 10 to 25 per person, and seafood platters TZS 60,000 to 120,000.

Is food in Zanzibar halal?

Almost all food is halal by default, since the island is around 99 percent Muslim. Local restaurants and street stalls serve no pork and no alcohol. Hotels and tourist-facing beach restaurants serve alcohol; check before ordering if it matters to you.

Should you take a spice tour or cooking class?

Yes, early in the trip. Guided spice farm tours near Stone Town cost from USD 10 per person and explain the cloves, cinnamon and vanilla behind the cooking. Combined farm and cooking classes start near USD 15 per person and cover pilau, coconut fish curry and urojo.

Useful links (4)

1. Zanzibar Food: What to Eat, Where, and What It Costs, WildToSea— wildtosea.com
2. Zanzibari cuisine, Wikipedia— en.wikipedia.org
3. Forodhani Night Food Market: Zanzibar's Best Street Food— thirdculturenellie.com
4. Urojo Recipe: Zanzibar Mix Soup, DishNomad— dishnomad.com

Photo credits

Thank you to Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, DonCamillo, No machine-readable author provided. Esculapio assumed (base and Babacrash for sharing these beautiful photographs and helping bring this guide to life.

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY 2.5