Mwanza is a fish town, and the best meals here are simple: fresh Nile perch or tilapia from the lake, grilled or fried, with chips, ugali, or rice. The street food scene is excellent — the small mama lishe stalls along the lakeshore promenade serve kuku choma (grilled chicken) and nyama choma (grilled meat) by the kilo, eaten with kachumbari salad and a cold Kilimanjaro beer.
The Indian community has been in Mwanza for over a century and Indian food is a meaningful part of the local restaurant scene. Tilapia masala is the obvious local crossover dish — the local fish in a tomato-and-coriander sauce, eaten with chapati or rice. A handful of slightly more formal restaurants in the centre and on the Capripoint side cater to the NGO and business-traveller market, and the larger hotels run buffets that are reliable if not exciting.
For real local atmosphere, the Tilapia restaurants on the lakeshore at Capripoint in the evening — concrete tables under thatched roofs, the fish brought straight from the boats, cold beer, and the lake visible past the palm trees — are the place to spend a long Saturday lunch.