Tonga, foodie heaven

Tonga, foodie heaven

The entire waterfront in Ni’afu is lined with restaurants and as we discovered, they are very good.  Our first meal was Alan’s birthday dinner of lobster at the Beach House.  Tucked under the main hotel, it has it’s own dingy dock.  Alan did not even have to put on shoes to go to dinner!  Happy hour, a different special every day, Lobster for $30, free wifi.

The Bounty Bar is mostly a bar with dangerously delicious rum punch and the coldest beer in the South Pacific.  Food service is erratic here.  Sometimes there is food and sometimes not, depending on the owner’s mood.  But when there is food it is delicious.  We had New Orleans  Po’Boy sandwiches, rosy beef and jerk pork.  And this is the only place in town that has crusty bread.  He had to teach the baker how to make it.  If you are quick and lucky, the bakery sometimes has extra loves in the morning.

We almost missed the Bella Vista because they charge for wifi but they announced a lobster ravioli special on our last day and we could not resist.  Fabulous!  Turns out the owner is from Italy.  I never found out how he ended upon Tonga but the entire menu is delicious.  Besides the ravoil we had seafood pasta and toccata

Another surprise was the Basque Tapas Bar.  Who would expect a tapas bar in Tongs.  Nothing over 10 pa’anga ($5)  wonderful fried potatoes with aioli, stuffed mussels, etc. and free wifi

Aquarium is the cruisers hang out.  It has a dingy dock and is the close to the mooring.  And it has a place to dump trash, sadly missing in most of Tonga.Free wifi, live music and speakers several times a month.  The pizza was so good we never got around to trying anything else

The last place we tried was a new Fijian restaurant tucked in behind the customs docks; curries, fish and chips, sweet and sour fish and more at rock bottom prices.

We ate out more in Tonga than we did anyplace else but we are online boat.  As hurricane season draws closer the cruisers leave.  The tourists come for the whale swims but that season has also drawn to a close.  Soon the down will be empty until next season.  It is still a puzzle how they all stay in business But I am very glad that they do.