Eating in Cape Maclear is almost entirely a lodge affair. The bar-restaurants attached to the backpacker lodges along the beach — Mufasa, Gecko Lounge, Thumbi View, Fat Monkey at the southern end — all run open-air kitchens with similar menus: lake fish (chambo, the lake's signature tilapia, is what to order), curries, pizza, vegetarian options, cold Carlsberg Green.
For something more local, the chip-and-chambo stalls in Chembe village do whole grilled lake fish, nsima (the maize-flour staple of the Malawian diet) and beans for a fraction of lodge prices. The Cape Mac Lodge restaurant a kilometre back along the beach road is the only sit-down restaurant in the area that consistently does formal three-course dinners.