Quick Facts

How We Ended Up at the Bora Bora Yacht Club

We did not plan to eat at the Bora Bora Yacht Club. We did not even know much about it before we walked in. We had just come off the overnight ferry from Tahiti, running on almost no sleep, and the morning was already a small comedy of errors.

There was confusion over where our rental car was, a mix-up that landed us at the wrong dock, and a two mile walk to the store and back. On top of that, we had moved up our arrival at the last minute, so our Airbnb hosts needed a few hours to get the place ready for us. Check in was not until three, and we had time to kill and nowhere to be.

So we did what tired, hungry travelers do. We looked for somewhere with a good view, cold drinks, and lunch, a place that could quietly eat up two or three hours while our room got ready. A friend of ours, Bobby, had eaten at the Yacht Club a few nights earlier and knew the food was solid, so that made the decision easy.

We dropped the pin in Google Maps, and since there is really only one main road around the island, you cannot get lost. A few minutes later we were parked, sitting by the water, ordering our first round of Mai Tais and exhaling for the first time all day.

That first lunch turned into three visits, including the Tuesday and Saturday Polynesian dinner show. This review is everything we learned across all of them.

Where the Bora Bora Yacht Club Is and How to Find It

The Bora Bora Yacht Club sits right on the main island perimeter road, the single road that circles Bora Bora, a short drive from Vaitape on the northwest side. You will not get lost finding it. Drop “Bora Bora Yacht Club” into Google Maps and it takes you straight there, and because there is only one major road, navigation is about as simple as it gets in French Polynesia.

There is parking on site, which matters more than you would think on an island where many spots have nowhere to leave a car. We had an Avis rental for our stay, so we drove ourselves and parked easily each time we came. If you are renting a car on Bora Bora, this is one of the easier restaurants to reach on your own.

The Setting: Reef, Sand, and the Best Seat Over the Pass

The reason to come here is the setting. The Yacht Club looks out over the pass, the main channel where the boats come through, so you sit and watch the cruise ship tenders, the ferries, and the sailboats move in and out of the lagoon.

There are mooring balls right out front, which is why so many boaters tie up and come in to eat. On our dinner visit, three or four tables were sailors and cruisers who had pulled in just for the show.

Seating is almost entirely outdoor, and the best of it is built out over the water. The main patio is a large platform that runs from the shore out over the limestone shelf, so you are sitting roughly 30 feet from the beach with the reef and coral right below you while you eat.

Most tables are covered, some are open patio seating exposed to the breeze, and the ones out over the water are the seats to ask for. There is also a small sand area and showers, which gives it a beach club feel and an easy place to get in the water.

We are not covering the snorkeling in depth here, because the Yacht Club reef is one of the stops in our shore snorkeling guide, but know that the water is right there if you want it. You can also take a look at our ranking on the best snorkeling spots in Bora Bora to better plan out your fun.

It is also one of the better sunset spots on the main island. The evening we did the show, the sky went a deep orange, sailboats drifted across the channel, and outrigger canoe paddlers slid by just offshore. If you only do one thing here, time it for sunset.

The Bora Bora Yacht Club Menu and What We Ordered

The menu leans heavily on fish, which makes sense given where you are sitting. The food is good. We knew that going in, since we had eaten lunch here twice before we ever came back for dinner.

On our first lunch we ordered a seared tuna filet coated in sesame seeds and served on a burger bun, a kids cheeseburger (both came with fries), a tuna poke bowl that came with rice, and poisson cru. Portions are hearty, which is worth knowing before you over order. A couple of Mai Tais rounded it out, served in tiki glasses and finished with flowers.

Here is the honest framing. This is very good average island fare, a notch below true fine dining like La Villa Mahana, which is a different kind of evening and a different kind of bill. The Yacht Club is the relaxed beach club option: come as you are, enjoy the view, eat well, and do not stress about it.

Lunch vs Dinner at the Bora Bora Yacht Club

One useful thing to know is that the lunch and dinner menus are essentially the same. The difference is the timing and, depending on where you are in the world, the price, which runs a little lower at lunch.

We came to prefer lunch. It is far more low key. Every time we were there midday, it was either just us or maybe three tables total, so you can walk in, grab a table right by the water with no trouble, and take your time. Dinner is a different scene, especially on show nights, which we will get to.

Drinks and Happy Hour

The drinks are good and generous. On Polynesian show night they dress them up even more, with flowers and little green leaf accents as garnish.

Happy hour runs from 4 to 6 PM, right before dinner, and it is a real deal. The cocktails on the happy hour list are half price during that window, normally 2,000 XPF and dropped to 1,000 XPF, which is about $10. We ended up stacking happy hour straight into our dinner one evening, which is an easy and cheap way to settle in and watch the sunset.

The half price happy hour cocktails include the Pina Colada, the Yacht Club, the Gin Fizz, the Sex on the Beach, the Fenua, the Cherry Love, and the Sunset Club.

The Polynesian Dinner Show

This is the part most people do not know about, and it is the reason to plan a visit rather than just stumble in. Every Tuesday and Saturday, weather permitting, the Bora Bora Yacht Club puts on a full Polynesian dinner show that ends with a fire show on the sand. It is the best kept secret on this side of the island.

The Dinner Show Menu and Prices

The dinner show is a set menu, and the pricing is simple.

The Show Itself: Dancing, Drums, and Fire

The show starts once the sun is fully down, which during our visit was around 6:30 to 7 PM. By then the restaurant was packed, the busiest we ever saw it, with a big crowd of diners and boaters who had come in just for this.

The crew is large, somewhere around fifteen to twenty dancers plus a band of four or five musicians on drums off to the side. They open with a dance, then pull guests in, men and women who volunteer to get up and dance with them.

There is no real stage. It all happens right on the restaurant floor, which is part of what makes it feel so close. Then everyone gets up and moves out to the sand area for the fire show, which runs about fifteen to twenty minutes. The crowd forms a circle around the performers, and afterward the dancers take photos with guests.

If you have been to a luau in Hawaii, the vibe is familiar, skirts, coconut tops, flower crowns, and leis. The difference is how close you are to it. A lot of Hawaiian shows put the performers up on a stage so everyone can see, which works, but it keeps you at a distance. Here you feel everything: the movement, the drums, the heat off the fire, the energy. It is more intimate and more in your face, and that is the whole appeal.