A restaurant in the Ocean

It’s enough to take a look at the picture to realize that we’re in front of a unique and enchanting place, one of those in which we’d love spending every evening (at least from november to april), and where most certainly everybody would like to visit at least once in a lifetime. If we add that above finding itself in the warm Indian Ocean waters it also serves real italian food, the dream is complete. Its name is The Rock, it is situated in the south-eastern part of the island of Zanzibar, in the Michamvi Pingwe hamlet, and it’s been opened in 2010 by three italian youngsters, already owners of a lodge and a hotel in Zanzibar, becoming in few years an icon of the island.

Living in the area, the lads already knew the extraordinary islet, used as shelter for hardware and occasionally from the boys that live on the beach to improvise lunches for tourists. There was a lot of work to do, but the result seems much more than satisfying… For lunch, with low tide, The Rock is approachable by foot, whereas with high tide it becomes a real and proper island an the customers a brought “aboard” with a local small boat. Either arriving by walking or transported by boat, the access to the restaurant takes place through a scenographic wooden ladder that brings to the main hall, built in perfect local style with the roof made of palm tree leaves and that accommodates twelve tables. Obviously, the showpiece is the terrace: sofas and cushions of all particular Zanzibar Island styles (junction of african, indian and middle-eastern culture) complete perfectly the ocean view.

Since The Rock is a restaurant, we seem in duty to speak about the menu. A mixture of italian and swahili cuisine that joins with the most fresh primary resource which can be imagined (fish), the italian wisdom in preparation and professionalism of the managers, that imported wines and champagne to match the dishes and to offer a high quality service. Clearly the prizes are a bit higher than the local average, but the quality of the food and location justify it. Someone could say that “sipping a Mojito (or a Dom Perignon) on an Indian Ocean island has no prize”.