Three days in Paramaribo
A workable three-day plan: the UNESCO inner city on foot, a day across the river in Commewijne, and a third day that depends on what you want from Suriname.
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Restaurants · Centrum
't Vat
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.
Best for drinks, nightlife, sports viewing, casual dining.
't Vat is the sidewalk cafe at Kleine Waterstraat 1 that most conversations in Paramaribo eventually end up at. Its own contact page gives opening hours of 08:00 to 02:00, every day of the week: an eighteen-hour day that covers breakfast, lunch, an afternoon beer, dinner and the late end of a night out, which is why it works as a default.
The setting is a large covered terrace on the short street off the Waterkant that also holds the flower market and most of the city's hotel beds, so it is walkable from almost anywhere a visitor is likely to be staying. Contact numbers are +597 424631 and +597 424790.
It is a bar and all-day cafe rather than a destination restaurant. Prices in Surinamese dollars move quickly and we do not print them.
Appears in
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
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 · 2 named sources
Information on this page is sourced from 't Vat, Petit Fute.
- 't Vat · address, existence, hours, phone · read 21 August 2026
- Petit Fute · established · read 21 August 2026
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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.
Chi Min
Long-established Chinese-Surinamese restaurant on Cornelis Jongbawstraat in central Paramaribo, with a ground-floor takeaway counter and a dining room upstairs.
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.