Pacific Harbour's eating splits three ways: the independents clustered in and around the rebuilt Arts Village, a handful of roadside places along the Queens Road and Beach Road, and four resort dining rooms. The Arts Village reopened in October 2025 after a $20 million rebuild, which changed the picture considerably — for years it was the thing everyone said Pacific Harbour was missing.
What is the Damodar Arts Village, and is it open?
It is open, and it is the centre of eating at Pacific Harbour again. The complex began life as the Cultural Centre and Marketplace of Fiji, fell into years of disuse, and reopened in October 2025 as the Damodar Arts Village after a $20 million redevelopment by Damodar Yatulau Pte Limited, a joint venture between the Damodar Group and Yatulau Company Limited.
Tourism Fiji's trade channel describes what is now there: meke dance shows, storytelling and the Beqa firewalking ceremony; a recreated Fijian village with a bure kalou spirit temple, a Chief's bure and artisan bures; an artisan and lifestyle precinct of boutique shops, local crafts and cafes; and an open-air Starlight Cinema. The Tiki Hut, previously a simple bar, has reopened as a multi-purpose entertainment venue.
One caveat worth carrying: the reopening coverage names very few individual tenants, and management went out to expressions of interest for shops and cafes. Several of the venues below are recorded at Arts Village shop numbers by sources that straddle the closure, so shop numbers and current trading should be confirmed by phone. A new premium restaurant and sports bar with an outdoor deck over the lily pond is reported as opening around November 2026 — though two Fijian outlets give its name variously as The OVALS, The OVAL and OVO, so we will not pick one.
Where should you eat if you only have one meal?
Skinny Bean Cafe in the Arts Village is the best-documented independent in the area and the easiest recommendation. The Fiji Times profiled it: owner Nilesh Kumar, who lives in Navua and previously worked as a food and beverage manager in hotels and resorts, trades every day from 7am to 7pm, serving coffees, sandwiches, wraps and pizzas, with pizza the biggest seller, plus omelettes and burgers. The same piece notes that The Pearl and Uprising send overflow guests there when they are fully booked — which tells you something about both the quality and the shortage of alternatives.
What are the independent restaurants and bars?
| Venue | Where | What it does | Published hours | Published prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skinny Bean Cafe | Arts Village | Coffee, sandwiches, wraps, pizza, breakfast | 7am–7pm daily | Breakfast reported under FJ$15 |
| The Waters Edge Bar & Grill | Arts Village, by the lily pond | Pizza, burgers, wraps, fish and chips, grills, Asian fusion, local Fijian | 10am–9pm, Mon–Sun | Not published |
| Baka Blues Cafe | Arts Village, by the lily lake | International and European; a Cajun-influenced menu with blues | 11am–midnight | Not published |
| The Establishment | Riverside; reported relocated to Arts Village | Beer garden, seafood focus, Sunday lunch buffet, seafood BBQ; hosts events | 7am to 9 or 10pm | Seafood chowder FJ$14; loaded wedges FJ$12 |
| Beach Bum Burgers | Beach Road, past the Uprising turn | Gourmet burgers, hand-cut chips, fish and chips, curries, daily specials | Arrive before 7:30pm unless booked | FJ$18–$25 |
| Oasis Restaurant | Pacific Harbour | Burgers, sandwiches, tortillas, curries and a lot of seafood | Not published | Not published |
| Grace Garden | Grace Road True Mart, Nakaulevu Road | Pizza, pasta, Korean, sushi, vegan options, kids' menu | Not published | Not published |
| Vakia Restaurant | Opposite The Pearl — address disputed | Breakfasts, coconut cream fish, kokoda wahoo, burgers, sandwiches | Not published | Mostly under FJ$15 |
| Kevis Fish On Chips | Queens Road at Waidradra, east of Uprising | Battered fish and chips from an open-air bure | Not published | Under FJ$10 |
Two honest notes on that table. The prices and several of the hours come from travel publishers rather than the venues themselves, so treat them as indicative and expect movement. And the sources disagree on some addresses: The Establishment is listed both on Hibiscus Drive and as having relocated to the Arts Village, while Vakia appears on both Queens Road and Hibiscus Drive in the same publisher's pages. Ring before you drive.
For The Waters Edge, note that Tourism Fiji lists it at Shop 87 with phone 9486183 while the Fiji Yellow Pages has Shop 86 and 345 0145. Either number should find it. It publishes dairy-free, gluten-free, halal, vegan and vegetarian-friendly options, which is unusually explicit for the area.
What about the resort restaurants?
Four resorts publish dining, and they cover the top of the market.
The Pearl names two outlets on its own site: Riviera Restaurant & Bar, an expanded indoor and covered-outdoor dining room with views over the Qaraniqio River and out to sea, serving buffet breakfast, themed buffet dinners and all-day dining — dining 7am to 10pm with breakfast 7am to 10am, bar 11am to 11pm — and the Poolbar, open daily 10am to 6pm with a snack menu and wood-fired pizza. Several travel listings attribute other outlet names to The Pearl; those do not appear on the resort's current dining page, so we have left them out.
Uprising Beach Resort publishes a Main Restaurant serving island-inspired cuisine, buffet breakfast and à la carte lunch and dinner, open daily 6am to 10pm, and The Beach Bar with a daily happy hour 5pm to 7pm and live entertainment. Its scheduled events are the useful part for visitors: a Thursday Island Night lovo buffet, Sunday live music and BBQ lunch, and Tuesday "Twosdays" from 4pm to 7pm.
Nanuku, on a private 500-acre coastal estate, is the most elaborate. Its own site names Kanavata Restaurant and Lounge in the Clubhouse, open 7am to 11pm daily, serving Pacific Rim cuisine built on fish and seafood caught in Beqa Lagoon; the poolside Nuku Bar; plus Treetop Dining in a 70-year-old dilo tree, Cliffside Dining above the surf, and a Cinematic Sunset Dining setup with a 12-foot screen and a private chef. Kanavata is reported as open only to resort guests.
Yatu Lau Lagoon Resort on Fairway Place runs Magiti Restaurant, which mixes traditional Fijian dishes with Western platters, fires pizzas in a firewood oven near the pool, and bakes its own pastries, bread and burger buns. Chef Tavaita Tavabulabula has over a decade of experience. Management runs weekly Saturday "Kava Barrels", and Friday to Sunday are the busiest nights.
Where do you go for a long lunch on the water?
Lailai Lounge by Tropic Magic is the one genuinely distinctive outing. It is a floating lounge in Beqa Lagoon, across the Beqa Passage, reached on the operator's own boat the Tropic Breeze on a 30 to 40 minute crossing. The published inclusions are a complimentary Fijian breakfast snack with juice, a seat on the open-air top deck or in the main cabin, snorkelling and paddling gear including kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, about seven hours on the island, and a F$40 food and drink voucher built into the ticket. Private charters are available, and optional transfers run from Coral Coast hotels.
Which should you choose?
- Breakfast or a working coffee: Skinny Bean Cafe, 7am.
- Casual lunch with a view: The Waters Edge, over the lily pond.
- Cheap and good: Kevis Fish On Chips, or Beach Bum Burgers if you want a proper burger.
- A proper dinner out: Riviera at The Pearl, or Magiti at Yatu Lau Lagoon for the firewood pizza oven and the Fijian side of the menu.
- Something to tell people about: Nanuku's treetop or cliffside dining if you are staying there, Lailai Lounge if you are not.
- Live music and a drink: Baka Blues Cafe, or Uprising's Beach Bar at happy hour.
- A group of 20 or more: the resorts. Yatu Lau Lagoon publishes three conference venues holding up to 200, and Uprising's Thursday lovo night and Sunday BBQ are built for numbers. No independent venue here publishes a group capacity.
Two names that circulate online we have deliberately left out, because we could not verify either as a trading venue from any source we trust. If a listing site sends you somewhere we have not named, treat it as unconfirmed.
Pacific Harbour is not a restaurant destination the way Denarau Island is, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. What it is, since the Arts Village reopened, is a place where you can eat well for a week without eating in the same room twice — which was not true two years ago.
Next: see the national picture in where to eat and drink in Fiji, compare the strip next door in where to eat on the Coral Coast, plan a group meal with group dining at Pacific Harbour, get the full area brief in the Pacific Harbour complete guide, and pick a base in where to stay at Pacific Harbour.
