Cotonou - Post Report Question and Answers
What typical restaurants, food delivery services, and/or takeout options are popular among expatriates?
There is Benin Restroo that will deliver over 30 or so restaurants to your home. - Oct 2024
Shamiana is the best indian restaurant on earth. Pizza, Lebanese, and acceptable Thai options deliver. For dining-in, lots of options, including exceptional Chinese, Russian, sea food, etc. - Feb 2020
Restaurant & bar scene pretty good and slowly growing. Lots of Arabic, Indian, and French options but also a number of other options. - Aug 2018
There is a good range of different types of restaurants available. - Jan 2017
There are a variety of international options. About US$30 per person, average. - Oct 2015
There are excellent restaurants (Indian, Asian, Lebenese, Russian, French, Italian) in Cotonou. They are moderate to expensive. - Jun 2015
The Haie Vive neighborhood has some, as does the "downtown" area. However, "decent" is a subjective term in this case. While you can get Indian, Thai, and a few other kinds of cuisine, be prepared to have mild gastrointestinal issues throughout your entire time here - there's no avoiding it. - Aug 2014
We loved the Indian food here. You'll probably spend anywhere from US$10-$15 for a meal that is totally worth every penny. The pizza here is very good, if you like your pizza more on the thin side (price is about US$10-15 per pizza). The fish is fabulous. - Jul 2013
There are no American chains. There is one South African fast-food chain (Steers) which is nothing to write home about. There are a number of decent sit-down restaurants at DC prices ($10-$15 per meal). You can find very good Indian, Thai, Italian/pizza, seafood, and Lebanese cuisine. There is also one mediocre and expensive sushi restaurant, a few Chinese restaurants, a Russian restaurant, etc. The dining options, although they get a little tired after a while, are significantly better than I expected. - May 2013
Lots of restaurants here with D.C. prices. - Mar 2013
Livingstone is the expat hangout. It has decent pizza, so-so burgers, good brochette entrées, and a two-for-one happy hour on Saturday. On Saturday night, that’s where you’ll find most of the expats. It's reasonably priced. A South African fast food chain, Steers, just opened near the airport. They seem to have not quite gotten their act together, but we have high hopes. There are good Indian, French, Thai, and Lebanese restaurants. There’s even a sushi place and nobody has as of yet died after eating there. While the non-Beninese restaurants are expensive by local standards I think that most of the expats consider them reasonable. - Dec 2011
