Aurora Boutique Hotel & Restaurant

Great hospitality and quality all around. Everything is done perfectly here and all needs, even the ones you didn’t know you needed are taken care of
Food is amazing, and you feel very welcome and taken care of from start to finish. Also easy to book tours through the hotel. When going to Zanzibar, this one is a gem and a no brainer.

The food is amazing, everything is made fresh with top class attention to detail, made with love and passion 😋 to ensure your enjoyment.
The host Melissa is awesome, eco aware and and take pride in ensuring her guests have a memorable zanzibar experience.
I highly recommend you make an effort to support these amazing people. 👏
We will definitely see u soon again.

We spent 3 nights here in September and the whole experience was superb. We love Aurora's intimate and familiar concept. You feel like one member of the family instead of an another guest. The staff is super friendly and always happy to help. Rooms are large, well decorated and comfortable. Great restaurant and just a short walk from the beach. We would come back thousand times!

The hotel is like an oasis. Everything is great: very good food (European standards), extremely friendly and accommodating staff, daily room cleaning (I had forgotten that there was such a thing after 3 weeks in Zanzibar), a dog and two cute cats, the rooms are very well thought out and organized, comfortable pillows and mattress. But the best thing is the couple who own this accommodation: they are extremely nice and welcoming, but above all they can help you with absolutely anything - practically a better concierge service than even at St. Regis (they can help you with recommendations, negotiations, suggestions, cheap taxi... absolutely anything you want, they will know how to help you and they will do it immediately).

This restaurant is always a winner.
The chef from Italy, and his wife from the UK, is running this amazing restaurant and boutique hotel
I have eaten in this restaurant many times, with family and friends, for birthdays and business meetings.
My favorites are the fish burger with red snapper, croque madame with homemade pickles and homemade potato chips, as well as the gnocchi with gorgonzola.
All their dishes are classics , and I just cannot recommend this restaurant enough

Aurora Boutique Hotel in Jambiani is by far the best place you will ever stay on the whole island. The food is absolutely delicious and to die for. Prepared by amazing Italian chef with fresh delicious ingredients. The rooms are spacious, clean and sooo comfortable! The host and front house welcome consists of Marissa, Django the dog and their lovely cat. It is impossible not to fall in love with them all. My partner and I have spent 2 Christmas/NYE staying at Aurora and we miss it all year long! I cannot recommend this hotel enough. It feels like home and is so beautiful, welcoming, clean, comfortable and fun! Look no further if you are trying to look for a place to stay in the area or Zanzibar as a whole.

An amazing boutique hotel. The owners really care and have employed and trained the staff to be a great team. Cleaning standards are so high. So many little extra touches. Rooms are large. Pool is gorgeous. Great restaurant especially the breakfast.

The food was great. The ambient is great as well. The drinks are great as well. Service could be better, but it is the Zanzibar issue and the owner is trying hard to fullfill that.
We ate borh gnocchi (tomato and cheese based) and they were great.
We ate slipery lobster and tuna and it was great. Very spicy but it is the character of Zanzibar and I felt it.
For desert we had passion ice cream and bounty. Ice cream was perfect and bounty a bit hard but it tasted very good (I did not felt added sugar which was hit for me). I would recomment to make it more like ice-cream, but I do not mind eating it with a steak knife 🙈
The casa farive prosecco is very refreshing and I loved Sauvignon blanc with its full body.
There is always a room for improvement, but everything there seeks perfection in Zanzibar which is a hard job. It was a bit too warm for us (no wind, high humidity, it is very private and closed) so maybe stronger vents, but it is a really small thing and the other thing is to make bounty softer 😆
But we really enjoyed it and this was just a constructive critique.
Do not miss this place if you are near it is worth visiting.

Everything. Amazing place. Thank you Marisa and guys for making my week so relaxing, exactly what I was looking for. Comfy bed, beautiful room, cool terrace, super pool. Cute dog and cats :-) Beautiful garden. There are no words to express how perfect the hotel is. Great activies around, Marisa help and avices are a huge help to those that travelling the first time to Zanzibar. I just wanted to travel alone, being alone and I have found friends in the hotel. We had a lots of fun together. Not to forget the food, just as perfect as it should be. You should try all! Thank you Simone, best dishes ever. And thank you Ali for your smile and drives.

If I had to decide again where to stay in Jambiani, I would definitely choose Aurora Hotel. It's quiet here, a clean pool and beautiful rooms. In addition, the owners are very nice people. The food in the restaurant is a bit more expensive but very tasty. The best breakfast !

Unique. Boutique. Uber cool. Marisa & Simon are putting their heart & soul into Aurora and it shows. They really GET hospitality, what it takes to create a special, inviting atmosphere.
The rooms are beautifully decorated & comfortable w no expense spared on the ceiling fans. Cleanliness 5/5.
Marisa does not miss a beat. She is across everything and full of personality & charisma.
Simon is an absolute maestro of chefs, creating dishes with the most complex flavours & textures. You also don’t have to wait an hour to get your food, like most of Zanzibar. Plus, they play really tasteful (not commercial) and appropriate music: relaxing, downtempo tunes in the morning working its way up to more house/ nu-jazz vibes at dinner. After our stay we kept coming back to try every dish on the menu. Incredible!
There really isn’t anything bad to say. If you read any negative reviews on this place, I truly believe it’s because that guest must’ve had a disingenuous agenda ie. trying to scam something for free and it didn’t work. Sadly plenty of these people exist!

Just "Wow". I stayed more than one month in Zanzibar, but discovered this great restaurant only for the last 2 weeks. I visited it once to get some cocktails and it was very good! But the main reason i writing this 5-star review is their delivery service. Ordered delivery many times and every single time everything was just perfect! No "pole pole" service here, so it always was super fast and everything was really hot! Packaging is absolutely perfect. And the food is extremely tasty :) Their burgers are amazing - Mighty Beef Burger and the one with fish (barracuda). Salads, thai style fishcakes, chocolate truffles and many more - everything was just top-notch. Would recommend 100%! Ah yeah, also, the person i spoke via phone with got really really good english! Which is not seen very often on Zanzibar :) Very easy to understand!

Excellent food! Fantastic new accomm in Jambiani. One of the best restaurants on the island, by far, delivering a very high standard. We stayed for a few nights and felt so welcomed, relaxed and revived. Marisa is an exceptional, hands-on host who ensures everything gets done. We’ll be going back for more amazing food.

Best hotel I have visited sofar! Very-very friendly and helpful crew! The design of the apartmans and the whole hotel is a fascinating mix of being authentic and modern at the same time. Pool and chilling areas are fantastic. All the food are amazing both in quality and in quantity. E.g. the red snapper is fantastic, incredible taste harmony.

As a pilot I'm traveling a lot and spending plenty of nights in Hotels - but I have never stayed in something like the Aurora Boutique Hotel before.
Starting with the rooms and the hotel itself - its perfectly maintained, the rooms are cleaned daily, the bed is comfy and the bathrooms as well as the amenities are very good. All in all the cleanliness of the whole compound is perfect, Marisa and Simon did really well there! Furthermore they are trying everything to make you happy! The meals are just from another planet, very deliscious and only with the best and freshest ingredients - thanks to the chef Simon!

But one thing is outstanding there - the crew around Marisa - Ahjube, Mustafa and Little One are doing an awesome job and Django is always up for some entertainment. If you are in Jambiani, give it a try, at least for dinner or better for a few days!

Thanks for having us and all your given efforts to make our stay unforgettable.
We will come back sooner or later - c u then!
Sven and Marie

I was recommended to eat here by a friend who lives in Jambiani.
It took me a week to finally make it but I’m so happy that I did.
Firstly the boutique hotel and restaurant is absolutely beautiful. The atmosphere for dining in the evening is spot on with lovely mellow music and perfect lighting.
As soon as I arrived I was greeted with smiles from the staff and then a lovely lady (turns out to be the owner, chef is the husband) welcomed me and ran through the delicious dishes on the menu.

I wasn’t overly hungry so she recommended the Thai fish cakes as it was a starter, but when I saw the Masaman curried Baracuda my mind was made up.
And I’m so happy I did, turned out to be the best meal I’ve eaten after 4 weeks in Zanzibar and I’ve eaten some nice meals here but this was another level. From presentation to the perfectly cooked fish, this dish would not be out of place in any top restaurant in London.
Despite being full and usually refusing desserts I took a look just in case and could not refuse trying the rum chocolate truffles. OMG they are huge and I took two but after the first bite I new it would be no problem to finish them both :)

When I checked the place on google maps and saw no reviews I was a little concerned, but after a lovely chat with Marisa I realised that they have only been open from November.

So to summarise, beautiful place, exquisite international quality dishes, warm and charming staff.

I don’t usually leave reviews and certainly not long ones, but after eating at Aurora I felt it was only right to help share my experience so that you could too.
So please don’t hesitate to try this place out I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Awesome food, amazing variety of fresh and creative dishes. Super nice interiour. Cozy. Most amazing hosts. And they have truffles!! Loved it very much and will be back again and again.

Marissa, Simone and staff are fantastic. The facilities, room and experience is one of the best on the island and cuisine cannot be matched.
Definitely a must when visiting Zanzibar
Marc & Venessa

Top class food by top class chef. Generous and warm, welcoming atmosphere. An oasis of casual sophistication where the food is very affordable if you consider the very high quality you receive. Definitely recommended.

Aurora is not just a hotel, but the ideal place for relax and reboot. Marisa and Simone created a real Zanzibar's diamond.
Totally everything, such as service, staff, clean area, organic cosmetics in bathroom, comfortable beds and sunbeds, calm music, delicious food, are same as in 5star hotels, and maybe even better. Swimming pool is always clean and fresh.
It's important to say more about food: Simone is a godlike chef. It's pure truth! Sophistication of the dishes, cooking methods, manner of serving, palette of flavors. Everything was of the highest quality and beyond praise! He bakes bread himself. When we think about the ice cream he makes, we want to go back again.
Marisa organize everything in hotel with love and care better then 5 stars hotel.
And if you collect all these facts and add one more: there is only 7 rooms in Aurora hotel, you will get the pure introvert Paradise to reboot from madness of big cities, and for those who need just a moment of awareness and respite.
About area:
To get to the ocean takes 5 minute through the village Jambiani. It's an ordinary village in Thailand, Sri Lanka and even Russia. And people who are sympathetic and kind to visitors. The beach is one of the most beautiful places in Zanzibar. Ocean changes colors from malachite to turquoise. Some people may not like low tide, but at this time the ocean floor reveals its secrets of underwater life and local farming. Yes, locals use tide to grow sea grass. It was very interesting for us. After low tide you can swim, kite, fishing, and whatever you like to do.
We read about frequent power outages, but in real it happened only once.
So sad, that all rooms were booked and we couldn't stay here longer.
Thank you Marisa ans Simone for wonderful time, interesting communication and our relaxation.