Night Food Market — Restaurant in Shangani

I see reviews are pretty polarised on this place, and I think that's because there are two aspects to it - 1) the food, and 2) the walkabout, watching-the-sideshow. So, if you go here simply to eat your dinner, it's not gonna be a great experience cos, although there is a great range of food, these are not great chefs (despite the hats), so it's simply a case of heating up the ready cooked food on the barbecue or gas stove and giving it to you on a paper-plate, plus - it's not cheap, in comparison to the same food in a less touristy place - for example small meat kebabs were Tsh 500 in town and Tsh 5,000 here - maybe five times the size, not ten - and less flavoursome. On the other hand, this is a great place to walk around and watch the sideshow, joke with the multitude of "chefs" who will accost you to buy from their stall and you can observe the huge diversity of people around, including the youths dancing to the beats from the DJ above the fish market - where, incidentally, you can get a reasonably priced beer. So, for me, definitely worth a stroll around, and maybe a bite or two - but know...

Do not get scammed. Some guys approached us and said visit our food market so we did. They offered 4 skewers and and omelette and cold chips for 95k shillings!! When we said this is too much and they are scamming us they dropped it 70k the next day i went to a younger guy who was selling an omelettes and he charged me 5k shillings and I thought that was reasonable. But the first night I felt so upset I was enjoying everything until I experienced this. The area is full of teens and kids who want your money and some pickpockets so be aware they are not good children. If anyone asks to take you anywhere don’t let them else they will ask for money and follow you! Many times I lost my temper. The place is beautiful but it is ruined by some of the bad people and its many. A child came up to us and asked for a drink so I got him one then he proceeded to ask for more then somehow he wanted cigarettes and drugs. Zanzibar is beautiful but it ruined by the beggars and the constant touts. I will...

The Zanzibar pizza and shawarma are 100% recommended! Definitely try them here — the prices are clearly written, so you pay the same as the locals.

For the rest, the experience was not great. Many sellers are very pushy, trying to explain the same skewers over and over. We tried samosas and a falafel at one stall, but they were disappointing and overpriced (no prices displayed, so it feels like they charge whatever they want).

At that stall, we even had a bad experience: they tried to serve us food we hadn’t ordered, and after agreeing on a price of 9k, they suddenly asked us to pay 14k. After some discussion, they accepted the 9k — but when we paid with a 10k bill, they refused to give us the 1k change, claiming it was “for them.”

We also noticed sugar cane juice being quoted at 4k, even though many reviews say it should be 1k.

Conclusion: Go for the Zanzibar pizza and shawarma — they’re cheap, delicious, and transparent in pricing. I’d suggest skipping the other stalls to avoid...