House of Spices — Zanzibari Spice Cuisine, Stone Town
House of Spices offers a delightful menu infused with Zanzibar’s famous spice produce, with seafood curries and spiced grilled meats being particularly noteworthy. The restaurant takes the spice island’s agricultural heritage — the clove plantations, the cinnamon groves, the black pepper vines — as its cooking’s foundation and demonstrates what Indian Ocean cooking looks like when it uses the ingredients that the island itself provides rather than importing them.
The seafood curries at House of Spices reflect the depth of the Zanzibari spice tradition: the coconut-enriched preparations, the tamarind-soured dishes, and the dry spice rubs that the island’s clove and cinnamon have been contributing to the East African cooking tradition for a millennium.
The drinks programme includes the spiced teas and fresh fruit juices that the island’s tropical produce provides, alongside the South African wines and cold beers that the international visitor expects.
House of Spices is the Stone Town restaurant for those who want to experience the spice island’s culinary heritage in its most direct expression: the spices grown on the island, applied to the fish and meat of the Indian Ocean coast.
Best Occasion: First Date
Zanzibar’s famous spice produce, seafood curries of genuine quality, and the cultural specificity of a kitchen that takes the island’s agricultural heritage seriously: House of Spices is a first-date venue of culinary and historical distinctiveness.
Best Occasion: Birthday
The island’s spices at their most expressive, seafood curries of genuine quality, and the cultural richness of the Zanzibari cooking tradition: House of Spices provides a birthday dinner that celebrates the spice island in edible form.