The 8 Best Restaurants in Mombasa 

Mombasa and food are intrinsically linked. Mombasa was once a major port on the spice route. This ancient trading town has been at the epicentre of food culture in Kenya since the 14th century. Restaurants in Mombasa represent a vast arrange of cultures and cooking influences with a heavy emphasis on seafood. Mombasa has been occupied by Omanis, Portuguese, and British over the last 3 centuries. Labourers from India brought their unique style of cooking, and traders brought cumin, coriander, saffron, turmeric and cardamom. These flavours blended with local foods and cooking techniques created a hotchpotch of dishes to appeal to all tastes. 

My love/hate relationship with Mombasa is well documented. I want so much to love this city, with the tiny twisting streets of Mombasa Old Town and the wind-battered walls of its colossal fort. On the face of it, Mombasa has the same azure ocean as my beloved Watamu and white sand beaches that can rival Diani, but I get so overwhelmed with the traffic and smog, heat and sweat, that I find it hard to peer beneath Mombasa’s sweltering veil to see the beauty beneath. Finding the diamond in the rough is all a matter of knowing where to go. The best restaurants in Mombasa, don’t necessarily lie on sandy shores, they lurk in alleyways and up creeks, and in 5-star hotels.  

When I started writing this blog I had imagined it ending up like my Nairobi Best Restaurants blog. In Nairobi, there are almost too many top-end restaurants to choose from. In Mombasa, it seems, we have only one. Tamarind. The list below isn’t a list of 5-star restaurants, it is a list of best-loved restaurants. Some of these places have fabulous beachside views, some do divine cups of coffee and some do a mean curry. I have sifted through all kinds of fairly rubbish-looking establishments to bring you what I hope are the best restaurants in Mombasa. For restaurants and hotels anywhere in Kenya, I strongly suggest you check on TripAdvisor. What you see online, is not necessarily what you get.

The 8 Best Restaurants in Mombasa. 

Best Old Town Restaurant in Mombasa – Forodhani 

Find Forodhani restaurant Mombasa at the twisty end of an old town street. The Mombasa restaurant has a prime location overlooking Mombasa harbour. Mombasa Old Town is located on an island, so the views stretch over the blue Indian Ocean to the mainland on the other side of the channel, an aquamarine snake separating two halves of Mombasa city. Forodhani’s bright yellow exterior is a welcome sight to anyone wandering through the old town. When you pass through the carved doors a vista of sky and sea greets you. I like to look at TripAdvisor reviews even if I’ve been to a place lots of times, and Forodhani’s are mixed. I think people expect high end dining, but Forodhani lacks in décor, and there needs to be more finesse of presentation to its food. Choose from curries, shawarmas, burgers and lots of seafood. The curries are all excellent, this is their speciality, the seafood is cooked well and served with chips, rice or veggies. Burgers are ok, not great. The food is tasty, well cooked but certainly not posh. What Forohani lacks in flair it makes up for in ambience. I haven’t been at night, but I can only imagine the romance of the shore lights flickering over the channel as the muezzin calls in the old town. 

Contact Information

Address: Sir Mbarak Hinawy Road, Mombasa

Tel: 0724 401551

Website: https://www.instagram.com/forodhani.msa/?hl=en

Best Fine Dining Restaurant in Mombasa – Tamarind Mombasa 

On the opposite side of Mombasa Island and Tudor Creek, lies Tamarind Mombasa. Tamarind has been voted the best restaurant in Mombasa many times over. Located on the waterfront in Nyali, the Moorish-style sits snugly on a cliff side. Tamarind Mombasa has white-washed walls and towering arches to make the most of the view and the breeze. At night the tangerine lighting glows gently in contrast to the flickering lights of the city beyond. This Mombasa restaurant is known for its incredible seafood. Tamarind’s most famous dishes include deep-fried crab claws, ginger crab, prawn pili pili, oysters Rockefeller and huge lobsters. The food here is gourmet; African & Asian dishes cooked impeccably and served with visual mastery. Bouillabaisse is given a Swahili twist, oysters are fished from the mangroves in Kilifi, and lobster comes in three different ways. The menu is small, a sign of a few things done well, rather than mass-producing mediocre food. For non-fish lovers, there is a beef fillet, lamb cutlets and chicken as well as some vegetarian dishes. Tamarind group invented the Dawa, that cocktail that all of Kenya now claims as their own, make sure you try one. 

Contact Information 

Address: Cement Silos Road, Nyali 

Tel: 020 5139327

Website: https://tamarind.co.ke/tamarind-mombasa/

Best Traditional Coffee House in Mombasa – Jahazi Coffee House

I once spent a significant amount of time wandering around Mombasa Old Town and never found Jahazi Coffee House, so for this place to eat in Mombasa I’m going off rave reviews and recommendations alone.This tiny Swahili café sells traditional kahawa Turkish coffee, chai and simple food such as biryani, coconut fish, samosa, mandazi, halwa, bhajias, mahmari, and yummy smoothies. They are a bit hit and miss with opening hours, not open till ten, not on Sundays, and sometimes just not open at all. The ambience is very laid back, Swahili / Arabic – pole pole, Rafiki.

Contact information

Address: Ndia Kuu Rd, Mombasa

Tel: 0113 585755

Website: https://www.facebook.com/jahazicoffeehouse/menu/

Best Beach Restaurant in Mombasa – Monsoons

Monsoons Restaurant is slightly out of Mombasa on the gorgeous ocean-fronted Mtwapa beach. All your dreams of an off-the-beaten-path, oceanside, restaurant that serves excellent seafood will come true when arriving at Monsoons. I’d like to say it’s a hidden gem, and as you pass through the dilapidated 14th century Jumba ruins, you certainly feel like an adventurer, but Monsoons is hugely popular. Hey, even Kenyatta visits this place. I digress. The location is as idyllic as it gets, overlooking the white sands of Mtwapa beach, kids can frolic and you can take a satiated stroll along the shoreline afterwards. Monsoon’s restaurant is run by Italians and specializes in seafood, which is bought directly from fishermen who fish off the beach. The pièce de résistance is the seafood platter stacked high with lobster, prawns, snapper, octopus and calamari – dependent on what the fisherman has caught that day. A few personal favourites include; pili pili lobster, salt and pepper calamari and spaghetti marinara. There are non-seafood dishes too, spaghetti bolognese, and arrabbiata, fillet steak, beef kebabs, chicken curry, to mention a few. A decent wine list. The food and views are unbeaten in this part of town. 

Contact Information

Address: Jumba Ruins, Mtwapa

Tel: 0701897540

Website: bandaruins@yahoo.com

Best Italian Restaurant in Mombasa – Roberto’s Italian Restaurant 

Located right in the heart of Mombasa, this Italian restaurant was recommended to me by three separate Italians, and they should know, si? Specialising in Europe and Italian food, Roberto’s pride itself on sourcing the best local ingredients from around Kenya. There are lots of seafood dishes, excellent pizzas and more traditional Italian plates such as filled pasta, beef cheeks and Parmagiana. A fairly unassuming place tucked away in the centre of town. You are missing the views and it can get hot as hell, but the food is definitely worth trying out 

Contact details

Address: Opposite Premiere Hospital, Links Rd, Mombasa

Tel:  0723 223399

Website: https://web.facebook.com/robertoslinksroad/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Best Bamburi Beach Restaurant – Yuls 

I have bever visited Yul’s but lots of people have advised me to add it to this list. Yuls Mombasa restaurant has a respectable four stars on TripAdvisor and an oceanfront location on Bamburi Beach. Here’s a link to a vlog which shows you what the place and food looks like. Yuls Mombasa Vlog. Yuls restaurant in Mombasa, state that their cuisine is International, looking at the menu they sell, steaks, burgers, piazzas, shish kebabs, curries and schnitzels. The food looks good and the reviews recommend it. Yuls Restaurant also has a mean-looking gelateria – no one does ice cream quite as well as the Italians. Consider this to be a typical, ‘not particularly fancy but look at the amazing view,’ Kenyan beachside restaurant. Nice to get out of Mombasa itself and visit Bamburi. Watch out for those ever-so-enthusiastic beach boys.  

Contact Information 

Address: Mkomani, Nyali Rd, Mombasa

Tel: 041 5485950

Website: https://www.aquadrom-yuls.com/

Best Cafe in Mombasa – Caffesserie 

It’s a stretch to call this a Mombasa restaurant, think ‘glamorous café.’ Caffesserie looks as though it should be in a mall in Paris. Faintly art deco in feel, glorious golden orbs of light give this place a cosy ambience. They sell a lot of excellent, really very excellent, pastries and superb coffee, but also sandwiches, salads and a small but perfectly formed menu that includes filet mignon, Hong Kong beef, chili and lemon prawns to mention but a few. If you are in Nyali/ Mtwapa add this to your list of must-have places. Is it worth driving to City Mall to sit in a swanky café? I’m not so sure, there is an LC Waikiki and a big Carrefour in City Mall though, so maybe 

Contact Information

Address: City Mall, Nyali 

Tel: 020 2023769

Website: https://cafesserie.com/

Best Casual Dining in Mombasa – Char Choma

Char Choma has an enviable beachside location on Bamburi Beach. TripAdvisor reviews sit at 3 and a half stars with some fairly shocking (and somewhat humorous) complaints. The location looks fabulous, and the food follows an interesting ‘built by me’ formula. Choose your meat, pick a weight build your own meal. The same with burgers & salads – choose from a variety of toppings to create the meal of your dreams. This looks like a perfect place for sundowner cocktails and to have an informal meal. 

It certainly aint posh, but location, location, location. 

 Contact Information 

Address: Aga Khan Beach Cottages, Mombasa

Tel: 0794 673598

Website: https://web.facebook.com/CharChoma/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Further Reading – Kenyan Coast & Mombasa

Where to Stay in Mombasa

12 Amazing Places to visit in Mombasa

SGR Kenya – Nairobi to Mombasa Train

6 Unbelievable Resort Style Hotels in Diani Beach, Kenya

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