Zanzi Nights Stone Town Food Tour with 14+ Tastings

Stone Town has always welcomed the world by sea. For more than a thousand years, merchants crossed the Indian Ocean carrying spices, rice and recipes between East Africa, Arabia, Persia and India.

Our four-hour evening feast of 14+ tastings explores Stone Town as the heat fades, weaving between centuries-old buildings, bustling markets, hidden local eateries and smoky waterfront food stalls.

Before we get started, our tour reflects the local cuisine and the limitations of traditional eateries mean we unfortunately cannot cater for every dietary restriction. Here's an honest appraisal so nobody is disappointed:


✔ Suitable for halal and no pork diets

⚠ Possible for lactose intolerance, mild nut allergies and no seafood diets, though some tastings will be unsuitable

✖️ Unsuitable for gluten intolerance, coeliac, pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan diets

Our first plate brings together two ingredients at the heart of Zanzibar: seafood and coconut. Tender ngisi wa nazi sees calamari gently simmered in a creamy, aromatic coconut curry, ready to be scooped up with smoky chapatis fresh from the griddle. It's Swahili coastal cooking in a nutshell, or perhaps a coconut shell, with local produce meeting spices and techniques carried here along centuries-old maritime trade routes.


From here, we'll disappear into the colourful maze of Darajani Bazaar, Stone Town's great marketplace. Spices are piled into fragrant pyramids, tropical fruits fill the stalls and traders call out between butchers, fishmongers and vegetable sellers. This isn't a market preserved for visitors; it's where Stone Town still comes to shop.

Stone Town's trading history also has a much darker side. We'll pass the East Africa Slave Trade Exhibition, a powerful reminder of Zanzibar's role in the nineteenth-century slave trade. The same Indian Ocean networks that brought extraordinary wealth, ingredients and cultures to the island were also used to traffic enslaved people from mainland Africa.

From this difficult chapter of the city's history, we'll return to the food traditions that emerged from centuries of cultural exchange. Fragrant beef biryani layers slow-cooked meat with beautifully spiced rice, reflecting the influence of Persia and the Indian subcontinent on Zanzibar's kitchens. Alongside come silky bamia la nazi, okra simmered in coconut, and richly stewed aubergines—the kind of homestyle dishes that rarely make it onto tourist menus.

Next stop: Jaws Corner, Stone Town's unofficial living room.
Locals have long gathered around this little crossroads to drink strong coffee, debate politics, talk football and watch the old town pass by. We'll join the crowd with crisp, flaky samosas and a caffeine hit before following the scent of smoke towards the waterfront. Alongside the Indian Ocean, charcoal grills begin to glow and skewers hiss above the flames.

Weather permitting, we'll swap cobbled streets for the Indian Ocean and board a local boat for the short ride to spectacular Nakupenda Sandbank.

Rising from turquoise water just offshore, this sliver of white sand gives us a rather special setting for our next course. Freshly caught snapper hits the grill over open flames, cooked simply and eaten within sight of the waters it came from. If the timing plays along, we'll be there as the late-afternoon light turns golden across the ocean.

The sandbank visit is weather and sea-condition dependent. If conditions aren't suitable, we'll continue feasting back in Stone Town instead.

Back on dry land, we'll finish where Stone Town really comes alive after sunset: Forodhani Night Food Market. As darkness settles over the waterfront gardens, grills flare beneath the palms and vendors set out their nightly spread. Smoke, spice and the sound of sizzling food fill the air as locals and travellers crowd around the stalls. We'll graze through our final tastings in one of East Africa's great street-food settings.

Stone Town's history wasn't only written by sultans, merchants and explorers. It was cooked by the communities they left behind. Over four hours and 14+ tastings, we'll follow those stories through coconut curries, spice-laden rice, local markets, coffee corners, charcoal grills and the Indian Ocean itself.