Where to eat in Paramaribo: Javanese, Creole, roti and Chinese
Four everyday kitchens share one small city. This is what we have been able to verify about where to eat in each of them, and where the gaps are.
Updated
Restaurants · Centrum
Chi Min
Long-established Chinese-Surinamese restaurant on Cornelis Jongbawstraat in central Paramaribo, with a ground-floor takeaway counter and a dining room upstairs.
Best for chinese food, takeaway, families.
Chi Min is a Chinese-Surinamese restaurant at Cornelis Jongbawstraat 83, within walking distance of the Kleine Waterstraat hotel cluster. A directory listing checked on 21 August 2026 describes it as family-owned and operating since 1989, which would make it one of the longer-running Chinese kitchens in the city.
Chinese food is one of Paramaribo's four everyday cuisines, alongside Javanese, Creole and Hindustani, and it is cooked here the way it is cooked in Suriname, Cantonese roots adapted to local tastes, rather than as an import.
Listings describe the restaurant as a takeaway counter downstairs with table service above, and recent reviews as mixed on service. We could not read those listings directly, because the platform carrying them blocks automated checks, so treat both as reported rather than confirmed, along with its opening hours and phone number, which no source we could verify publishes. We list this as a solid neighbourhood option rather than a destination.
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Paramaribo restaurants compared: kitchen, neighbourhood and opening hours
Twenty-nine verified places to eat and drink, in one table: which kitchen, which part of town, when they are open, and what we could not confirm. Use it to plan a day of eating rather than a single meal.
Updated
Sources and verification
Checked · 5 named sources
Information on this page is sourced from TripAdvisor, Experience Suriname, Suriname Yellow Pages, Bestel.sr.
- TripAdvisor · address, existence, hours, phone · read 21 August 2026
- Experience Suriname · existence · read 8 September 2026
- Chi Min — Experience Suriname · Experience Suriname · existence · read 21 August 2026
- Suriname Yellow Pages · hours · read 8 September 2026
- Bestel.sr · phone · read 8 September 2026
Other restaurants
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Long-running sidewalk cafe and bar at Kleine Waterstraat 1 in Paramaribo's hotel district, open daily from 08:00 to 02:00, with a large covered terrace, sports screens and live music.
Baka Foto
Restaurant at the Fort Zeelandia site on Abraham Crijnssenweg in Paramaribo, in a historic building beside the Suriname River. It has also traded as Museumrestaurant Baka Foto.
Chris Roti Shop
Family roti business trading in Paramaribo since 1981, with two outlets in the city and one in Rotterdam. The Maystraat shop closes in the early afternoon; the Kwattaweg branch stays open into the evening.
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Corrections from owners are welcome and are treated as a source like any other: checked, dated and credited.