Mauritius has a lot of great street foods and the list keeps growing. These are our top 10 street foods to try in Mauritius.
It is important to note that most Mauritian street food is not spicy but you can add chilli if you like it hot. Also the Mauritian food industry has high standards of health and safety and everyone selling food has to have a food handlers certificate. These are inspected regularly. We have never gotten sick from street food and have eaten in some pretty dodgy locations 🙂
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Index
10 - Halim
Halim (pronounced ah-leem) is a hearty stew with cracked wheat and spices topped with lemon, coriander and chilli for the brave.
It is often cooked with meat such as mutton or goat (bones are left in) but sometimes there is a vegetarian version.
You can get some baguette bread on the side. Riki’s favourite is to dip onion bhajis into the halim. The lemon notes really make it special. The best we have found is at the blue hut in Poudre D’or, he does a mutton halim that is perfect.
You buy it in a large or small bowl and eat it on the spot and then hand your bowl back for washing. On average the price is about Rs50 for a small bowl with bread.
9 - Boulette
Boulette (pronounced boo-let) are Mauritian dumplings. The most common are chou chou, fish, chicken and lamb.
You pick how many and what type you want and then they are served in a bowl with a broth.
This is then topped with spring onion. The garlic and chilli sauce will be available for you to help yourself.
Most boulette are bought in and then steamed at the restaurant. The secret to a good place is in the home made broth. These can be chicken, fish or veg based so check with the owner. Some places do home make their boulette – look out for those they are usually fantastic.
Boulette is sold per piece and is around Rs15-40 a piece. You can also commonly get it as a topper on boiled noodles.
8 - Roti
Roti is a flat bread found everywhere in Mauritius. Most commonly, you buy it from a guy on a motorbike or at a small street food stand.
For the purposes of this list, we are treating roti as the standard veg roti that is sold from motorbikes.
There are some variations but mostly the fresh roti gets a bean curry, tomato rougaille sauce and some chilli added to it before it is loosely folded over and wrapped in a paper. They will ask if you want the chilli or not. Some sellers have onions and potatoes in their roti filling.
Roti is about Rs15 for 1 and makes a decent filling breakfast. If you are hungry, get 2.
7 - Noodles
Ok there are 2 types of noodles boiled and fried and they should both get a mention. I love boiled noodles and Riki loves fried noodles.
Fried noodles is know as mine frite (pronounced meen freet) Boiled noodles is mine bouille (pronounced meen bwee)
Boiled noodles come with a broth and a choice of pre-made toppings that are spooned on top. Fried noodles are wok fried fresh to order with your choice of chicken, lamb, veg typically.
There has been a recent trend in Mauritius restaurants to create spectacular boiled noodle dishes and I hope it continues. Check out the video below to see some incredible prawn noodles.
The street food versions are simpler and usually it is the fried noodles that are mostly available. I suppose the boiled noodles are a bit messy for a street food. You get chilli sauce and a garlic water to add (the garlic is not strong).
Fried noodles come in huge portions and are between Rs100-Rs180.
6 - Fruit
Mauritius has a fantastic selection of seasonal fruits and the best way to enjoy these is to find a fruit cup seller.
They will have a range of fruits with pineapple, mango, white cucumber (it works) and many others to choose from.
Once you have your fruit in a cup, the seller will ask if you want tamarind, chilli sauce and chilli with it. The tamarind is lovely, slightly sweet and sour – highly recommend. I love both the chilli sauce and chilli salt but for Riki the salt only. The addition of the tamarind and salty chilli is what makes the Mauritian fruit cup.
Fruit varies in price according to the prestige of the location but usually between Rs50 – Rs200 per cup.
5 - Dhal puri
Yes I know!!! The national dish of Mauritius is only at number 5. Sure, but hear me out.
Dhal puri when fresh hot and flaky is absolutely amazing but it is so hit and miss. Most of the stands on the streets sell dhal puri that are virtually indistinguishable from roti (just a bit yellow)
Dhal puri (pronounced dull pu-ree) interestingly is of Indian origin yet no longer exists in India. It has been retained in Trinidad and Tobago though.
When you try a freshly made dhal puri (the best we have found is with Madvhi at Triolet market) you then understand the beauty of the dish. Crumby dhal in between layers of thin almost pancakes. They always come in pairs so you end up with multiple layers of this deliciousness, my mouth is watering.
Dhal puri’s are filled with white bean curry, tomato rougaille and optional chilli and coriander. Some add potato and green veg but generally that is frowned upon. They cost about Rs20-Rs30 for a pair.
4 - Briyani
Briyani is available everywhere in Mauritius, you will know the briyani seller by their massive pot (deg).
You can get chicken, veg, fish briyani commonly. There are places that do beef and I have even heard that there is a lady in Goodlands doing pork briyani!
Under the mountain of rice in the deg, there will be delicious potatoes and pieces of meat. Some are definitely better than others so my tip is either look for the queues or get from the seller who is almost sold out.
Briyani is served in a takeaway cardboard container and is always a huge portion. You will usually get a packet of salad, tamarind sauce and chilli on the side. Prices range from Rs150-Rs300 depending on the meat and location.
3 - Grill
Meat on the fire! This is mostly only found in the late afternoon or on weekends.
The most common is chicken and it is typically basted in a sweet slightly spicy ‘secret sauce’.
You will see the grills come out or smell the cooking to know where the sellers are.
Besides chicken, you often get lamb also basted in the sticky sauce. We have seen seafood sometimes but never beef or pork (opportunity for someone in the correct areas)
A note about the sausages on offer. They are always chicken Vienna.
Grilled street foods are typically served with a baguette (sometimes garlic bread) and a side salad. If you are not a fan of very sweet food, say no to the homemade mayonnaise that they will offer to drizzle all over the meats.
A grilled street food meal starts at about Rs120 upwards depending on your meats and portion size. 🙂
2 - Bhajis
You will find these on every street and they go by many different names.
Bhajis (pronounced bar jeez) or gato sale (pronounced gato sa-lay), translates as salty cakes, oil cakes and many others but whatever they are called, they are a guilty pleasure.
The most classic Mauritian bhaji is the gato pima. It is ground up split peas formed into a paste and deep fried. Despite the name there is usually no pima (chilli) in the gato itself. this is offered as a dip.
The next most common is the deep fried what whats as Riki calls them. Battered and deep fried potato, aubergine, onion, cabbage or my personal favourite baguette. Yes battered deep fried bread.
You buy your deep fried treats in quantities of 3 usually. So it will be 3 for Rs10-15 depending on the location. You can mix and match so you can try 3 different ones. You will be back for more though.
Samoosas are also common to find at an ‘oily cakes’ stands. They are not included in the 3 for Rs10 thing. Generally they are quite small and contain potato, chicken or fish. These are about Rs4-10 each. Similarly there are chana puri (Riki’s favourite) which are like vetkoek or soft yeasty bread with a little chickpea curry inside.
A note on the chilli sauce offered with bhaji’s. Always try a little bit as mostly it is not actually chilli at all but a lovely tomato and coriander dip.
1 - Faratha
No, it’s not quite the same as roti! A faratha is thicker and usually rolled square and stuffed with huge selection of fillings.
This is our number one because it is delicious, meaty, reasonably priced and fairly easy to actually eat on the street.
Beautiful Mauritian curries served wrapped in a flaky soft bread, yeah now your mouth is watering. One of the best we tried is the cerf (deer) curry at Flic en Flac beach for Rs70. It was one of the best things I have ever eaten.
You can find sellers everywhere with a stack of roti / faratha and containers of fillings. Chicken, fish, lamb, liver, beef are all on offer and range from Rs50-Rs150.
As a video
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my street food list. If I have missed one of your favourites, let me know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this street foods of Mauritius vlog, please consider buying us a coffee.
Good day Sir my name is Egshan Meyer I’m coming to Mauritius next year the first week in June. I need to ask you a couple of questions regarding my plans when I get there. Can you please send me your contact number so we can talk. My contact number is +2776 59 72124 you can also get on WhatsApp on this number. I live in Cape Town South Africa. I’m planning on spending two weeks there next year but on business. My e-mail address is Rushaannuraan3@gmail.com if you need to send me information. Thanks
Sure you can ask me some questions. My email is on the contacts page.