November 10 – 20, 2013
The Galley Restaurant: Located at the Royal Suva Yacht Club, this was this season’s winner for our favorite restaurant in Suva. We loved their breakfast burritos, the tacos basket, the tostadas, the fish burgers, and the cappuccinos. In fact everything we tried was terrific. It was a comfortable place to sit and eat inside, but they would also bring food out to the bar area, a real plus during those beautiful evenings when we’d sit at a table overlooking the lawn, Fiji Bitters in hand.
Ashiyana: This little Indian restaurant in downtown Suva had some of the best Indian food in Fiji. We especially loved chicken masala, chicken ragata, dum aloo (a potato dish), the garlic naan (a flat bread cooked with garlic), the rotis (much like a tortilla), and a few other things we got to try. We would love to have gone through the entire menu but we’d pretty much have to live here to do that.
Bati ni Wai: This eatery was located at the upscale Holiday Inn Suva and featured a wood-fired pizza oven in a little shack next to the pool. Unless it was hot or rainy, we most enjoyed this pizza at one of the umbrella-covered poolside tables. From here we had a view of the pool, a line of tall, shore-side palm trees, and a beautiful area of Suva Harbor. It was the most scenic seat in Suva, and the pizza was delicious.
Pizza King: This pizza had a wonderful thick crust and reminded us of a favorite, and long gone, pizza place we had loved in Los Angeles. We haven’t found anything like it since, at least not until now. Finding this was like being reunited with a long-lost loved one, and once we discovered this we came back as often as we reasonably could (although unfortunately we didn’t have much time left in Suva at this point).
(On a sad note: the restaurant has since—we assume–changed hands and the pizza is not the same at all. I guess we just have to be glad to have had pizza like this back in our lives even if only for a short time.)
Icy Drinks: We had two favorite spots for cold refreshing drinks. One was a popular coffee chain from down under, Gloria Jeans. They made ice-blended drinks, our favorite being the Very Vanilla which actually had a nice coffee flavor. Our other favorite spot was Republic of Cappuccino as they had excellent chocolate shakes. What a nice treat these drinks were on a hot afternoon.
Note: Except for Pizza King, these are all still favorites of ours, but of course we’ve added some eateries over subsequent seasons, some favorites being Maya Dhaba, Grace Road Kitchen, Snowy House, Joji’s Noodles for chili chicken and Mamacitas. For a more up-to-date list, see our Suva Guide in our Fiji Information Pages.
I should mention here the Hare Krishna Vegetarian Restaurant.
This wasn’t a favorite of ours and you won’t find it on our map, but I mention it because a few cruisers loved the ice cream here. It is different, sort of gooey and creamy and icy-textured, and I think that’s what people liked about it. We favor a thick, chewier-textured ice cream, but this was interesting to try. Would we recommend it? Well, we won’t be back, but anyone with some time to kill in Suva might want to give it a try as those who loved it, really loved it! –Cyndi
