Grand Baie has a reputation for being expensive, and it is - if you only eat on the waterfront. Walk one street back and the prices roughly halve without the food getting any worse. In many cases it gets better.
Street food first
Dholl puri is the benchmark. Two soft split-pea flatbreads filled with gros pois curry, rougaille and chilli, handed over in paper for somewhere around 25 to 40 rupees. It is the best value meal in the country and it is not a compromise you are making for the price.
Alongside it: gateaux piments, chilli and split pea fritters at roughly 20 rupees for a bag of five or six; farata with a curry; and mine frite, the fried noodle plate that feeds most of working Mauritius at lunchtime.
The carts work to their own timetable. Lunchtime is reliable; the best of them sell out and pack up rather than sit on stock.
The rule that works
Look at who is queuing. A stall with a local queue has turnover, and turnover is what keeps street food fresh. An empty stall on the main strip with a laminated English menu is charging you for the location.
Sit-down for under 500
Plenty of small Sino-Mauritian and Creole places around Grand Baie will feed you properly for 250 to 400 rupees a head. Look for handwritten boards, plastic chairs and a short menu. A bol renversé - the "upside-down bowl" of rice, vegetables, meat and a fried egg - is the classic order and lands comfortably inside budget.
Seafood is where budgets die. Fish is priced by weight and lobster is priced for tourists. If you want seafood cheaply, buy it at a market and cook it, or accept that it is a treat rather than a routine dinner.
Drinks
A local beer in a normal bar is a fraction of what the same bottle costs on the beachfront. Rum is excellent and cheap. Imported wine is heavily taxed and rarely worth what it costs.
A day of eating well, cheaply
- Morning: dholl puri and a coffee, well under 100 rupees.
- Lunch: mine frite or a bol renversé, 150 to 300.
- Afternoon: gateaux piments and an alouda, around 60.
- Dinner: a Creole plate somewhere with plastic chairs, 250 to 400.
That is a full day of genuinely good Mauritian food for less than a single main course on the waterfront.
Practical
Carry cash in small notes. Street vendors take nothing else, and neither do many of the smaller sit-down places.
