We always ate at the hotel for breakfast since it was complimentary and helped us save some money to spend on other meals. Note: not everyone receives complimentary breakfast. Typically if you booked an extensive stay with the hotel, you will receive more incentives.
Breakfast was always good. They call it a continental American breakfast with Asian influence throughout the options. One thing is you need to learn to order your eggs the way the egg cook will understand. I usually had to tell them flipped. If you say over easy or over medium, they cook them like cooking up eggs. There was always an assortment of bread, sweet breads, Tahitian prepared fish, yogurts, cereals and breakfast meats.
Lunch
We ventured out once for lunch. Typically we were at the pool at lunch time and ordered off their menu. The pool menu offered Happy Hour throughout the day which was nice since they offered different food then the main dining area.
We went to Snack Mahana the day we decided to venture out. It was about a quarter of a mile walk from our hotel each way. It is a local favorite and good eats for an afternoon snack.
When we arrived, we realized we did not bring enough money as we would have been comfortable having and the place did not take cards. We had $48 which seems like a lot for lunch, but it covered the check to the penny exactly.
There was a lot of confusion about how to be seated and how to order. No one talked to us or told us anything yet spoke with people who arrived after us. We made the educated decision to seat ourselves. We had someone arrive to take our order about ten minutes later. Jon ordered fresh squeezed pineapple juice to drink and I ordered a local beer. The nice thing with all the restaurants in Tahiti is that they give you bread and butter as part of your meal. No matter what you are eating, you will get bread and butter.
Jon ordered a cheeseburger and I ordered a tuna steak sandwich. The food was good, nothing spectacular. This could be due to not having enough money to order anything too expensive.
Went to pay after the meal and it was $48 exactly and tipping is not customary in Tahiti so we did not have to worry about not having enough money to tip.
Dinner
We always went out to eat for dinner typically. Pretty much all the restaurants and the hotels had agreements for shuttle service to pick up and drop off hotel guests. All you had to do was go to the concierge and tell them what you are looking for and for what night and they will book you the reservation.
Le Mayflower
This restaurant is considered the fanciest restaurant to go dine at on the island. We saved it for our last dinner in Mo'Orea. This is the only restaurant that you have to pay for the shuttle service. It was like $5 a person I believe. We had made some friends earlier that week and they surprised us at dinner by crashing our reservation, which we were perfectly fine with! We really enjoyed their company and have created a friendship.
We had bread and butter, like every restaurant, pineapple wine, Jon ordered a steak entree and Mary ordered their famous lobster ravioli. Though the food was delicious, we believe the hype was too high for the restaurant and the food did not blow our minds per-say. We, of course, ordered dessert which was delicious as well. Mary ordered a pineapple ice cream sundae and we are hazy to what Jon ordered haha.
Overall, the food was delicious and the company was great. Would not rank it as high as the concierge and travel books would, but definitely worth checking out.
Les Tipaniers
This was the first place we ventured out for dinner. It came recommended by our travel book and by the concierge. Shuttle pick up was free and they took you back to the hotel promptly after your meal.
They are an Italian restaurant with a small hotel attached. We cannot pinpoint exactly what we had to eat here. It was average Italian food, nothing too delicious to remember it by.
Coco d'Isle
Though we did not know it at the time, this place was our most favorite restaurant to eat at! We ate here before Le Mayflower because it was not as "upscale" as Le Mayflower, but definitely had the best food options with the most delicious food.
We ordered pineapple wine and received bread and butter, like usual. Jon ordered a pizza and Mary ordered off the tourist menu. The food did not disappoint at all!
Jon thoroughly enjoyed his pizza and even took some back to the hotel. The Tourist menu included a three course meal. Mary chose the raw tuna appetizer, the steak entree and a bananas foster dessert. The appetizer and entree were so delicious and decadent, you did not even need the dessert to top off the experience.
This is the number one restaurant we always tell people about whenever they ask us about what we really enjoyed eating in Mo'Orea.
Tahitian Village Dinner Show
We booked this evening as an excursion when we booked our honeymoon. It was a fun and cultural evening out.
We were picked up by a shuttle at the hotel that transferred us to the village. We checked in and were taken to a refreshment area where they had an alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage waiting for us. This area had a beautiful view of the ocean during the sunset. We waited here until all guests had arrived and we started our tour through the village. We learned about their heritage, cultural, traditions and how they were founded. We were then led to the area where they had our dinner cooking in the ground and shared the history about cooking under ground.
After the tour through the town, we headed to the dining area. We were seated in groups and were able to go fill up our plates. Drinks were not included in this package. As we made our way to the buffet line, we noticed how different the villagers eat compared to what we had been eating all week. Everything was mayonnaise based and contained lots of fish in which we were not accustomed to their preparation. The smoked pig was good, just a bit fatty and no sauce to go with it.
After dinner, two of the villagers put on a show on how many ways men and women can wear a sarong. This portion lasted a lot longer than it should have. The total show was about 45 minutes of watching a sarong transformed into different outfits.
Once the sarong show was over, we made our way to the seating area for a show. The villagers started us off with some humor by pulling a man from the audience to try and open a coconut according to the way they had just showed us. Then they pulled all the women on stage to hula dance.
Once the show started, the villagers focused on their wedding traditions and their fire dancing. The villagers put on a magnificent show and provided us with a meet and greet after. It was a fun evening to do something out of the norm.
