Aloe Cafe | Price: Cheap |
Cuisine: French Pastries
Hours: 6am to 6pm. Closed Sundays.
Location: North of the Vaitape wharf, in Centre Commercial Le Pahia, around the island.
Reservations: Not Needed
Contact: 67.78.88

Review:
I often have breakfast here, for this patisserie bakes very good croissants, tarts, and quiches to go with the strong French coffee. Also on the menu: sandwiches, pizzas by the slice, and a plat du jour at lunch. Order at the counter, at a table inside, or on the shopping-center sidewalk. You can use the computer terminal here to check your e-mail.

Bloody Mary's | Price: Expensive |
Cuisine: Surf & Turf
Hours: N/A
Location: Povai Bay, 1 Kilometer north of Hotel Bora Bora. Around the Island
Reservations: Strongly Recommended
Contact: 67.72.86

Review:
Having a few drinks and a slab of barbecued fish at this charming structure is as much a part of the Bora Bora experience as is taking a lagoon excursion. Ceiling fans, colored spotlights, and stalks of dried bamboo dangle from a large thatched roof over a floor of fine white sand (stash your sandals in a foot locker and dine in your bare feet). The butcher-block tables are made of coconut-palm lumber, and the seats are sections of palm trunks cut into stools. Bloody Mary's is essentially an American-style barbecued fish and steak joint -- a welcome relief after a diet of lard-laden French sauces. You'll be shown the seafood and beef laid out on a bed of ice. (If it's offered, choose the mouthwatering teriyaki-style wahoo.) The chef will charbroil your selection to order and serve it with a salad, vegetables, and your choice of sauce on the side. Open all day, the cozy bar is cut from a beautifully polished litchi tree and is one of my favorite watering holes. The lunch menu consists of burgers, fish and chips, and salads, which are not served at dinner. Bloody Mary's American owner, Dexter Hewitt, shares the profits with the staff; consequently, the service here is some of the best in French Polynesia. You will have an evening of fun, as have the many famous faces posted on a board out by the road.

Chez Ben's | Price: Cheap |
Cuisine: Pizza, Snack Bar
Hours: 8am to 5pm
Location: Matira, between Hotel Bora Bora and Matira Point, Around the Island
Reservations: None
Contact: 67.74.54

Review:
Honeymooners from the nearby Hotel Bora Bora frequently wander to this lean-to across the road from a shady portion of Matira Beach, where Bora Bora-born Ben Teraitepo and his Oklahoma-born wife, Robin, have been serving American-style cooked breakfasts, lunches, and afternoon pick-me-ups since 1988. Ben's fresh tuna-salad sandwiches, pizzas and pastas, unusually spicy poisson cru, tacos, and fajitas are homemade and substantial, although Ben's and Robin's company is the main reason to hang out here. They will shoo the dogs and cats away if they bother you.

La Bounty | Price: Mid-Range |
Cuisine: French & Italian
Hours: 11:30am to 2pm, 6:30pm to 9pm. Closed Mondays
Location: Matira, between Hotel Maitai Polynesia and Bora Bora Beach Resort, Around the Island
Reservations: Recommended
Contact: 67.70.43

Review:
La Bounty is a casual restaurant under a thatched roof that provides some of the island's best pizza and other reasonably priced Italian (and French) fare. A pie makes an ample meal for one person or can be shared as an appetizer. The spaghetti and tagliatelle are tasty, too, with either smoked salmon, carbonara, Alfredo, Neapolitan, blue cheese, or seafood sauce. Steaks and fish are served under French sauces such as mustard or creamy vanilla. Pizzas are dished up quickly here, but everything else is prepared to order and takes longer. Whatever you choose, it will be excellent quality for the price.

La Villa Mahana | Price: Expensive |
Cuisine: International
Hours: N/A
Location: Povai Bay, behind Boutique Gauguin, 1.5km north of Hotel Bora Bora, Around the Island
Reservations: Recommended
Contact: 67.70.43 | damien@villamahana.com

Review:
You will need one night for fun at Bloody Mary's, another for a romantic dinner at this extraordinarily fine little restaurant, the best in all of French Polynesia. Owner Damien Rinaldi Dovio, an accomplished young Corsican-born chef, started my friends and me with tuna tartare exotique, a luscious version of poisson cru with a sharp wasabi-accented sauce. My friends went on to mahimahi perfectly cooked with a subtle version of coconut curry sauce, while I opted for filet mignon with vanilla cream gnocchi. Both were outstanding. The fixed-price menus for four or five courses will save money. The walls of this Mediterranean-style villa are adorned with the works of noted French Polynesian artist Garrick Yrondi, but Damien has only six tables, so consider calling or e-mailing for a reservation well before you get here.

Restaurant Fare Manuia | Price: Mid-Range |
Cuisine: French
Hours: 7am to 10am, 11:30am to 2pm, 7pm to 10pm
Location: Matira, Around the Island
Reservations: Recommended
Contact: 67.68.08

Review:
A thatched roof lends charm to this French restaurant known for large servings, such as huge slabs of prime rib served plain or with a choice of French sauces. The tender beef comes from New Zealand, as do the freshly ground hamburgers served at lunch. Other dinner main courses include mahimahi served on a wood plank with vanilla sauce, rare tuna with wasabi, and a hearty soup with mussels, shrimp, scallops, and fish. In addition to the American-style hamburgers, lunches include fish burgers, salads, pastas, and grilled fish. Breakfast here is strictly continental.

Snack Moi Here | Price: Cheap |
Cuisine: French
Hours: 6am to 9pm.
Location: Matira, between Hotel Bora Bora and Matira Point, Around the Island
Reservations: None
Contact: 67.56.46

Review:
Tree limbs hold up the thatched roof covering this little Tahitian restaurant, which almost hangs over Matira Beach. It's less restaurant than permanent roulotte (food wagon) with a view. The menu offers local fare such as steaks and fish served with french fries, hamburgers, sashimi, chow mein, and poisson cru. My steak was tough, so I always order fish here. Breakfast is continental, while lunch turns to burgers, sandwiches, and omelets. The view is worth more than the price of a meal here.

Snack Matira | Price: Cheap |
Cuisine: Snacks
Hours: 10am to 4pm. Closed Mondays
Location: Matira, between Hotel Bora Bora and Matira Point.
Reservations: none
Contact: 67.77.32

Review:
Right on Matira Beach and within hailing distance of Chez Ben's, this open-air snack bar is a favorite lunch and afternoon retreat of Bora Bora's French-speaking expatriates. It offers a roulotte-style menu of pizzas, salads, omelets, grilled steaks and fish, juicy burgers, and casse-croûte sandwiches, plus ice cream and milkshakes. The company is better at Chez Ben's, but not the lagoon view.