Gecko Bar — Restaurant in Mahé

Not really sure why this place has great reviews. Yes, the service was great, but the food was a different story. We ordered the guacamole to start with plantain chips. Plantain chips were good, guac and pico de gallo came in shot glasses, and both were not good - at around $15USD it was terrible. We then moved to our mains, chicken and steak tacos, they were pretty ok. Hard to mess up the grilled meat, but they used the same pico. I used their house chili sauce to liven the tacos up. We also ordered Mexican red rice and a steamed corn as side dishes. Mexican rice was odd, and the steamed corn was old enough to plant maize!! At around $7usd for the sides, including on ear of steamed corn, we again thought it was a terrible deal. Overall, I think they intend well, but clearly none of their cooks know Mexican food. I would highly suggest they bring a proper native chef for some training. With the prices they were charging, I think they could fly in a few Mexican chefs on private jets!

Finally, why we really decided go there wasn't for the Mexican food - typically we try to eat local food on our travels. However on their website we saw that it was Sunday's Chillout was noted they were to have a live band starting at 18h. Given the location on the beach, and its proximity to the hotel we were staying we decided to go there around 1830h. When we got there, we were told that it wasn't a live band but a DJ that would be performing. Ok, disappointed a little, but decided to stay. The "DJ" started at 1930 instead of the scheduled time - barely had any equipment and doled out old hits that I've never heard a DJ ever play - think "You're the one that I Want' from the Grease soundtrack!. Wouldnt ever call that guy a DJ but a dude manually playing a Jukebox!

Overall, great location and service, but the overall experience is in no shape or form a 4.1. My honest review is a 2 star as serious improvements are needed for food and...

How this place is part of a 5 star hotel, I’ll never know. The service was ok, nothing to shout about, but I’d expect a hell of a lot more from such a hotel, especially in a place like the Seychelles. People pay so much money to come here and usually for special occasions like their honeymoon (ours), so it is very disappointing. While we’re not guests of the hotel, visiting the gecko bar made me feel much better about it. The views are non existent (they claim it’s a good spot for the sunset, but it’s completely blocked by trees and people selling excursions). As for the food and drink, that’s where my biggest issue comes from. My husband ordered a pesto/mozzarella vegetable panini, which turned up with no mozzarella, no pesto and no sundried tomatoes which it should have had. In addition to that, the bread was completely dry and stale. As for the Cajun wrap which I ordered, it was so flavourless and the chicken was boiled/pan friend and not grilled how it should be so it had a very strange taste. The waitress did ask us how the food was, to which we replied very politely saying it’s not too great, it’s ok, and that there are things missing. She made us then dissect it to show her that there was no pesto or mozzarella. She was nice enough, that’s the only reason there’s 2 stars and not 1. Anyway, she did ask the chef about it and apparently the chef forgot to add those things. At this point (having worked in restaurants & five star hotels my whole life), the first thing you should do is either offer to take it off the bill or offer a complimentary drink or something. But no, just a smile and that was it. For the prices they charge, I’d expect a hell of a lot better. Won’t be...

Extremely awful and disappointing….. we were forced to eat here for a few times as we were staying at Savoy since during covid most other restaurants don’t operate at full capacity so they were either full or closed.

The service and staff was a joke: they didn’t have most of the things on the menu, they just said “sorry we don’t have that”, they would forget or mess up our order. The worst one was when our friend asked for two proseccos which they didn’t have, so the friend asked what do they have? The staff said they’ll check, came back with only two options, and when my friend asked whether they’re sweet or dry, waiter said that “we wouldn’t know”. My friend asked if it was possible to ask someone who knows or to taste, the staff said that wouldn’t be possible…. Another friend asked for a cocktail, they said they don’t have it, they asked for something else, and in the end they came with both…

The food was terrible as well: we were a group and tried almost every dish, and except the chicken wrap sandwich which was good, everything else was pretty terrible. The burger had no taste, it used very cheap bread, and the mayonnaise looked scary. The ribs were mostly fat, and the fries were surely the frozen kind since they were super crispy and tasteless.

I sincerely hope you have other options since I wouldn’t recommend anyone...