The classic Moorea eating advice is to skip the hotel restaurants, where prices are uniformly high and the food is mostly fine but rarely memorable, and seek out the smaller independent places along the coast road. Roulottes — converted food trucks parked at the bay heads and beach laybys in the evening — sell poisson cru (raw tuna in coconut milk and lime), grilled mahi-mahi, steak frites and Polynesian-Chinese stir-fries for a fraction of restaurant prices.
For sit-down meals, Chez Luciano near Tipanier is a long-running Italian-leaning kitchen popular with both locals and visitors. Snack Mahana on the south coast does the most-recommended poisson cru on the island. Holy Steak House in Tipanier is the steak-night option. The Hilton, Sofitel and Manava resorts all run open-to-the-public Polynesian dinner shows once or twice a week.
Two market areas near the ferry terminal at Vaiare sell groceries and fresh fruit at near-Tahiti prices, useful if you are staying somewhere with a kitchen — but imported staples (cheese, wine, packaged anything) are eye-wateringly expensive throughout French Polynesia.