Escale Créole

Escale Créole occupies one of the finest surviving colonial houses in Port Louis, a two-storey building near the Champ de Mars that has been restored sympathetically — wide verandas, timber louvres, ceiling fans — and turned into a restaurant that is simultaneously a cultural statement and a very good place to eat. The menu is a survey of traditional Mauritian Creole cooking: mine bouilli (boiled noodles) with herbs and ground shrimp, rougaille de morue (salt cod in tomato sauce), cari giraumon (pumpkin curry), boulette (fish dumplings in a light broth), and an excellent slow-braised venison daube for those who arrive hungry. The dholl puri is made to order — freshly rolled, stuffed with split pea paste and chilli, served with rougaille and pickled cucumber — and is the best version available in the capital. The rum selection covers both the island's premium agricultural rums (Pink Pigeon, Chamarel, Takamaka) and the cheaper local varieties, served at the bar in a room lined with vintage Mauritius advertising posters. Escale Créole draws a lunchtime crowd of government workers and business professionals alongside tourists who've been correctly advised that the best Creole cooking in the capital is here. The veranda tables upstairs, overlooking the street below, are the tables to request.