The Edit: This review covers Restaurant Tama’a Maitai, the beachfront lunch spot at Hotel Maitai Polynesia in Bora Bora, on the east-facing windward side of the island. We sat in the sand under a tree, ordered the fisherman spaghetti and a cheeseburger with two rum cocktails for around 9,100 XPF, and shared the place with three property dogs and one other table. This post breaks down the menu, the parking trick across the street at La Plage Excursions, the setting under the traditional pandanus leaf roof, and who this lunch is actually right for.

Quick Facts

Restaurant	Restaurant Tama’a Maitai
Location	Hotel Maitai Polynesia, east side of Bora Bora
Cuisine	French Polynesian, Italian (pasta and pizza), burgers, fresh seafood, salads
Seating	Open-air under a traditional pandanus leaf roof, beachfront tables in the sand
Best For	Lunch with fewer crowds, feet-in-the-sand vibe, a stop before or after a La Plage Excursions skiff rental
Price Range	Burgers 2,050 to 3,250 XPF, pastas 1,950 to 2,950 XPF, pizzas 1,900 to 3,000 XPF, mains 2,900 to 3,650 XPF, grilled lobster 7,900 XPF
Kid’s Menu	2,200 XPF (pasta, grilled fish, or burger + ice cream + drink, under 12)
Two-Person Lunch Total	~9,100 XPF / ~$80 USD (two mains + two cocktails)
Payment	Card accepted
Reservations	Walk-in worked for us, low occupancy
Parking	Across the street at La Plage Excursions (informal, no issues for us)
Restrooms	On-site, clean
Kids	Casual enough, kid’s menu available, dogs on the property may be a plus or minus

A Quiet Lunch on the Windward Side of Bora Bora

We hit Restaurant Tama’a Maitai around 11:30 AM, walked in, and the host pointed us to whatever table we wanted. There are really two seating zones to choose from. Under the big open-air pandanus leaf roof you’re on tile, fully covered, protected from rain and sun.

Step out from under the roof and you’re on the sand, essentially outside, no overhead protection at all. If it’s raining or the sun is hammering, the covered tile section is where you go. Otherwise the sand tables are the move.

We picked a two-top right next to the water under a small tree for shade. It was windy that day. Bora Bora’s east-facing side catches the trade winds, and Hotel Maitai Polynesia sits right in that pocket, so the breeze was constant. Probably 10 to 15 miles an hour with stronger gusts. Hat on, napkins under the drinks, the kind of wind that’s pleasant when you’re full and lazy and brutal when you’re trying to keep papers on a table.

We were the only people at the restaurant. One other table seated way on the other side of a tree, basically invisible. One staff member out front, a couple in the kitchen, and three property dogs that came to investigate. After two months on Bora Bora at this point, we’ve eaten at most of the main island spots worth eating at, and Tama’a Maitai is the quietest by a wide margin. That’s either a feature or a problem depending on what you came for.

Where to Park (the La Plage Excursions Trick)

Hotel Maitai Polynesia doesn’t have a dedicated lot for restaurant guests. The property is spread out, with the front desk and main building further up the road and the restaurant tucked around toward the south end of the property. We parked across the street at La Plage Excursions, the lagoon tour and skiff rental outfit. Pulled in, parked off to the side, walked across the road, and ate. Nobody said anything to us on the way in or out.

That’s an informal workaround, not an official arrangement. If La Plage Excursions is busy or you don’t want to risk it, walk up to the Hotel Maitai Polynesia front desk and ask where they’d like restaurant guests to park. It’s their restaurant, they’ll point you somewhere.

If you’re already renting a skiff or doing a lagoon tour with La Plage Excursions that day, this is essentially the perfect lunch stop. Drop the boat off, walk across the street, eat, walk back. We covered La Plage Excursions in our Bora Bora snorkeling guide, where they show up as one of the operators we recommend for accessing the better snorkel spots without your own boat.

What’s Actually on the Menu

The menu reads as bigger than the setting would suggest. This isn’t a snack shack with three sandwiches and a salad. The food card runs across French Polynesian specialties, Italian pastas and pizzas, salads, fresh fish, beef and chicken mains, burgers, and grilled lobster at the top end. Prices are in Pacific Francs and all taxes are included.

The Headline Items

The Polynesian specialty section is where this menu earns its identity. Poisson cru au lait de coco (raw ahi tuna in coconut milk) runs 2,050 XPF as a starter or 3,450 XPF as a main. Tuna tartare is 1,900 / 3,200 XPF. Sashimi de thon rouge is 2,050 / 3,150 XPF. There’s also a Polynesian trilogy plate that combines tartare, sashimi, and poisson cru for 3,700 XPF, which is the move if you can’t decide.

From the sea, the standout is the poisson selon la pêche sauce vanille (catch of the day with vanilla sauce) at 3,650 XPF. Mahi mahi with lemongrass cream is the same price. Tuna à la plancha with provençal sauce runs 3,350 XPF, and there’s an offshore fish skewer at 3,250 XPF.

The langouste grillée (grilled lobster) is 7,900 XPF and would have been the play if we weren’t in pasta-and-burger mode. We’ve eaten a lot of Baja lobster over the years and the langouste here looked competitive, plated whole, charred edges visible from a couple tables away. Next trip.

Italian, Pizzas, and Burgers

The Italian section is solid. Tagliatelle pesto and parmesan is the cheapest pasta at 1,950 XPF. Tagliatelle carbonara is 2,350 XPF, smoked salmon tagliatelle is 2,950 XPF, spaghetti bolognese is 2,250 XPF, and spaghetti pescatora (fisherman spaghetti, what I ordered) is 2,750 XPF.

Pizzas run from a 1,900 XPF margherita up to a 3,000 XPF Norvégienne with smoked salmon, cream, and onion. The Maitai pizza is worth flagging for the curious, it’s a house pie with tuna, onion, mushrooms, anchovy, olives, and mozzarella at 2,300 XPF.

The burger section is deeper than you’d expect. Hamburger at 2,250 XPF, cheeseburger at 2,350 XPF (Amanda’s order), bacon cheeseburger at 2,450 XPF, double cheeseburger at 3,250 XPF, fish burger at 2,500 XPF. Chicken burger variants run slightly cheaper across the board.

Kids and Dessert

The kid’s menu is a flat 2,200 XPF for kids under 12 and includes a main (pasta, grilled fish, or hamburger), two scoops of ice cream, and a drink. That’s a solid deal by Bora Bora standards, where kid pricing often barely moves off adult pricing.

Dessert hits where you’d want it to. Chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream at 1,800 XPF, mango tiramisu at 1,800 XPF, coconut crème brûlée at 1,600 XPF, and a three-scoop ice cream and sorbet assortment at 1,350 XPF. We didn’t order dessert. Should have.

What We Ordered and How It Was

We kept it simple. Amanda got the cheeseburger with fries (2,350 XPF). I got the spaghetti pescatora (2,750 XPF). Two cocktails off the house list, Le Maitai and Le Bora Bora, both 2,000 XPF.

The Drinks

The cocktails came out before the food. Both run on Manutea white and dark rum, which is the local Tahitian distillate, with triple sec, lime, cane syrup, and orgeat in Le Maitai, and banana liqueur, orange and pineapple juice, and grenadine in Le Bora Bora. They were stronger than expected and built well.

Flavors blended cleanly, not the syrupy rum punch you get at a lot of resort bars where one ingredient bulldozes the rest. The garnishes were a nice touch, an orange slice with what looked like a tropical flower on one of them. Bora Bora bartenders do this kind of citrus and flower presentation across the island, and Tama’a Maitai held the standard.

The Food

The cheeseburger was a cheeseburger. Solid, properly cooked, served with fries and mayonnaise on the side, which is the French Polynesian standard for fries. We’ve eaten a cheeseburger at almost every restaurant on the main island at this point, and Tama’a Maitai’s is right in the pack. Not the best, not the worst. Honest food.

The spaghetti pescatora was the heavier order. Shrimp and chicken in a red sauce over spaghetti. The portion was big, the protein was generous, and I got full faster than I expected. By the time I’d worked through half the bowl I was looking at the rest like a project.

Good problem to have, but worth flagging if you’re ordering two pastas and a starter for two people, you’re going to be tapping out early. The chicken’s a little unconventional for a dish that translates to “fisherman spaghetti,” but it’s the chef’s interpretation of a recipe that’s thousands of miles from where it was born. The way I see it, it’s a dish meant to feed a hungry fisherman. It did the job, and some.

Water was brought out without us asking, which is standard at most sit-down restaurants in French Polynesia.

What We Skipped

We didn’t order a starter, didn’t order dessert, didn’t order a second round of drinks. Lunch was tight and quick by intention, mostly because we were there working, taking photos, scouting the property, and pacing ourselves.

If you’re coming in fresh off a snorkel or a beach morning and you actually want to settle in for two hours, this menu can absolutely carry that. Two cocktails, a poisson cru starter to share, two mains, and a coconut crème brûlée at the end would land you around 12,000 to 14,000 XPF for two people and you’d leave very, very satisfied.

The Setting (and the Three Dogs)

The view from the sand tables is not the postcard Bora Bora view. There’s no Mount Otemanu in the background, no dramatic peaks framing the lagoon. Tama’a Maitai sits on the east-facing side of the island, so what you’re looking at is the open lagoon, the outer reef line in the distance, and a small cluster of Hotel Maitai Polynesia’s overwater bungalows off to one side. It’s pretty, but it’s a quieter kind of pretty than the views from the west-side resorts.

The overwater bungalow situation is worth flagging. The bungalows sit close enough that if guests are out sunbathing on their decks, you can see them from the restaurant. There’s a small wall in the sightline that breaks it up partially, and the bungalows face away from the restaurant rather than toward it, but if you’re sensitive about staring at other people’s vacation tan-time mid-lunch, it’s something to know. Realistically nobody cares. Everyone’s in their own world.

The Dogs

About ten minutes after we sat down, the dogs showed up. Three of them. Two younger, one older. These aren’t street dogs. They’re well-fed, well-groomed, clearly cared for, and they both had identification tattoos in their ears, which is a common French Polynesian marking practice for resort and property animals. They live at Hotel Maitai Polynesia.

They were friendly. Not pushy, not aggressive, no growling, no begging at the table. The older dog just wanted to dig a cool spot in the sand and lie in it. The two younger ones wanted to play with him, so they kept bothering him until he gave up and trotted off.

Then the younger two settled near our table and watched us eat. They were entertaining more than anything else. If you’re sensitive to dogs around food, this is a heads-up. If you like dogs, they’re a feature.

The Wind

The east-side wind kept blowing the whole meal. Not strong enough to be an issue, but constant. It kept the temperature comfortable in the sun, kept the bugs away, and added a low background sound under the conversation.

Bora Bora’s west side is the calm-water postcard side. The east side is where the breeze lives. If you’re trading off between a glassy lagoon view and a comfortable temperature on a hot afternoon, this side wins on temperature every time.

Service, Pace, and Paying Out

Service at Tama’a Maitai is the kind you want at a quiet beachfront lunch. The staff was small that day, two servers out front and a couple of cooks in the back, and the pace matched. Nobody was hovering, nobody was rushing us, and nobody was ignoring us either.

We got menus on arrival, drinks within ten minutes, food a reasonable stretch after that, and a check whenever we asked for it. That’s how French Polynesian service generally runs across the island, slower than American restaurants, never anxious about turning tables, and respectful of your time at the table being your time.

Our server was a local Tahitian woman, warm and easy to talk to. We didn’t catch where she was originally from, whether she lives on Bora Bora full time or commutes from another island, but she was the kind of front-of-house presence that makes a small restaurant work.

What It Cost

For two mains, two cocktails, and the drink and tap waters they brought out unprompted, our total came out to roughly 9,100 XPF, or about $80 USD at recent exchange rates. That’s lunch for two without dessert, without a starter, and without a second round. For Bora Bora, that’s a fair price. The food was honest, the drinks were strong, and the setting was something most beachfront restaurants on the island can’t match without charging double.

A Note on Tipping

There’s no tipping culture in French Polynesia the way there is in the States. Service is paid into the menu pricing, and the staff isn’t relying on a 20% gratuity to make their week. Some restaurants on Bora Bora have started adding a small 5% service charge to the bill, but Tama’a Maitai didn’t, at least not on our visit. We added a small tip in cash on our way out because the service was really good and the place was empty. Tip or don’t, it’s not expected either way.

We paid at the bar on the way out, not at the table. That’s standard at smaller Bora Bora restaurants and a useful thing to know if you’re used to American-style table service.

Who Tama’a Maitai Is Right For

This restaurant is right for you if you want a quiet lunch with your feet in the sand, you’re already on the east side of the island doing a lagoon tour or skiff rental at La Plage Excursions, you’re traveling with kids and want a kid’s menu under 2,500 XPF, or you’re staying at Hotel Maitai Polynesia and walking over from your room. It’s also right for you if you’ve been hitting the busier Bora Bora restaurants and want something slower for a change of pace.

This restaurant is not right for you if you want a postcard Mount Otemanu view at lunch, you want a livelier scene with a happy hour crowd, or you’re sensitive about dogs being near your food. The dogs are friendly and well-cared-for, but they are part of the property and they will come check you out.

If you’re trying to figure out which main island restaurant is right for your specific trip, our Bora Bora main island restaurant guide (coming soon) will compare all the main beachfront lunch spots side by side. For now, this is the quiet one.

FAQ

The Verdict on Restaurant Tama’a Maitai

Restaurant Tama’a Maitai is not the best restaurant on Bora Bora’s main island and it’s not trying to be. It’s a quiet beachfront lunch with a real menu, fair pricing, friendly service, and the rare luxury of actually being able to hear yourself think while you eat. After two months on the island, we’ve come to appreciate that more than we expected to.

If you’re chasing the iconic Mount Otemanu view, eat somewhere on the west side. If you want a crowd and a happy hour, hit the Yacht Club. But if you want feet in the sand, shade from a tree, a strong cocktail, and a menu deep enough to bring you back for the lobster next trip, Tama’a Maitai is right there waiting for you. We’ll be back for the langouste.

For practical Bora Bora trip planning, check out our Bora Bora snorkeling guide for what to do across the street at La Plage Excursions, and our Avis Bora Bora rental car review (coming soon) for how we got around the island. Our Bora Bora main island restaurant guide (coming soon) will pull all the lunch spots together once it’s live.