Zerof Restaurant

About Zerof Restaurant

Zerof Restaurant is the Creole kitchen attached to the Zerof Guesthouse at Anse Réunion on La Digue, the small bicycle-and-ox-cart island in the Seychelles inner group. It has fed island guests and day-trippers for years on a simple promise: fresh local fish cooked the Creole way, served without ceremony, with a buffet laid on three nights a week. The kitchen leans on the day's catch and Seychellois staples — grilled fish, octopus curry, prawns and calamari — alongside a few continental dishes for guests who want them.

For the rest of La Digue's small dining scene, compare the family Creole cooking at Chez Jules, the waterside deck at Fish Trap or the long-running Le Repaire. For the wider category, see our seafood guide.

The Kitchen

The cooking is honest island Creole rather than fine dining. À la carte, the menu runs through salads (tuna, octopus, smoked fish), seafood plates of prawns, calamari and octopus, and a long list of fish — grilled, curried, as kebabs, or as fish and chips — plus chicken dishes for non-fish eaters. The set-piece is the buffet on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings, when the kitchen lays out grilled fresh fish, roast chicken and a spread of Creole sides, adapted just enough for international palates without losing the chilli, garlic and coconut that define the style. Prices sit in the mid range for the island, and the buffet is the better-value way in.

The Room

The room is relaxed and unfussy — a guesthouse dining terrace rather than a destination restaurant, with simple tables, ceiling fans and an easy come-as-you-are dress code that suits a day spent on La Digue's beaches. On buffet nights local musicians play, and the evening turns convivial and loud rather than hushed; it is a place to linger over a Seybrew beer with sand still on your feet. Tables are first-come on quieter nights, but the buffet evenings fill, so it is worth letting the guesthouse know you are coming.