Welcome to Kaio. Situated on the grounds of Alaïa, a premium 55-room luxury hotel, we are a multi-floor beachfront restaurant located directly on the shores of the Paje lagoon on Zanzibar’s stunning east coast.
While we proudly serve the hotel’s residents, Kaio is fully open to non-resident guests. On any given day, a meaningful share of our dining room is filled with active travelers, kitesurfers, beach walkers, and food lovers staying elsewhere on the island who visit Paje for the day and stay for the exceptional culinary experience.
Kaio is the most ambitious project yet from an established hospitality team. Our history is deeply woven into the fabric of two distinct tropical islands, and understanding how we got here is a genuine part of the dining experience itself.
Before Kaio, there was Hello Capitano. And before Hello Capitano Paje, there was the original Hello Capitano on Gili Trawangan.
Our journey began several years ago on a tiny tropical island off the coast of Lombok, near Bali, Indonesia. Gili Trawangan is globally celebrated for its crystalline waters, white sands, and an unhurried island pace. It was here that we launched our first beachfront venue, focusing on pristine seafood and vibrant, Mediterranean-influenced cooking served just meters from the tide. The concept resonated deeply, and the restaurant became an island fixture.
Years later, our team expanded to the east coast of Zanzibar to open Hello Capitano Paje. Built with its own distinct menu and a customized atmosphere for the Zanzibar travel market, it quickly became an established favorite on the coast.
Kaio represents the third chapter in this lineage. While both Hello Capitano locations continue to thrive, Kaio is a grander, more sophisticated evolution of everything we have learned over years of island operations. It brings together an elevated, multi-floor dining space, a disciplined Italian-trained kitchen, a premium all-day coffee program, and a dedicated healthy plates menu engineered for active lifestyles.
To execute this vision flawlessly, we doubled down on technical training and infrastructure:
Kaio’s kitchen leans into the Italian culinary tradition more deliberately and deeply than our previous concepts. We chose this direction because authentic Italian cooking travels beautifully; the core architecture of hand-stretched pizza, al dente pasta, fresh local seafood, and vegetable-forward mains translates perfectly to any coastline in the world.
We brought two professional Italian chefs to Paje for a three-month intensive residency to train our local kitchen team in traditional dough fermentation, pasta texturing, and authentic sauce reduction. These chefs return to Zanzibar periodically to conduct quality audits.
We invested in a state-of-the-art Italian electric pizza oven that bakes at traditional Neapolitan temperatures, alongside a professional La Cimbali espresso system.
We source what we must directly from Italy – including premium pizza flour, authentic dry pasta, Italian sauces, extra-virgin olive oil, and espresso beans. Everything else is gathered locally, including fresh fruit, vegetables from island farms, and seafood pulled from the very boats you can see working the lagoon from your dining table.
Operating beachfront restaurants for years taught us that an elevated vantage point completely changes your relationship with the ocean. Paje sits on the east-facing side of Zanzibar, looking out across the Indian Ocean. From a floor above the sand, the coastal panorama opens up beautifully.
Our architecture features two distinct dining environments:
Each phase of the day brings its own unique energy to the space:
We serve our full menu continuously from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM, with no operational closures or service breaks between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This ensures that whether you are on an early morning flight, returning from a mid-afternoon dive, or seeking a late-night bite, our kitchen is fully prepared.
Breakfast catches the lagoon at its calmest and most unhurried, featuring a balanced mix of an abundant buffet and fresh à la carte selections.
Dinner transitions into a slower, more romantic pace, illuminated by glowing lanterns as the room settles into a peaceful, sophisticated dinner service.
Lunch introduces high-energy views of kitesurfers vibrant against the turquoise water, paired beautifully with our refreshing grain bowls and house-pressed juices.
Kaio is a strictly alcohol-free restaurant – a consistent and conscious choice maintained across all of our sister properties since day one. We made this lifestyle decision to prioritize a calm, balanced, and inclusive atmosphere.
A dining environment without a dominant bar scene behaves differently. Conversations remain at comfortable volumes, solo diners feel entirely secure, and families with young children or wellness-focused travelers find a space that matches the natural rhythm of their trip. The evening room remains just as calm at 9:00 PM as it does at 7:00 PM, keeping the focus entirely on excellent food, stunning views, and great company.
Furthermore, this operational guardrail inspires our beverage team to innovate. Rather than treating non-alcoholic options as a secondary thought, our mocktails, house-fermented sodas, and La Cimbali coffee program receive our kitchen’s absolute dedication, resulting in sophisticated flavor profiles that stand entirely on their own merits.
We design our menus and spaces to welcome three core audiences in equal measure:
Kitesurfers, divers, yogis, and outdoor enthusiasts looking for high-quality, nutrient-dense fuel that supports an active day without weighing them down.
Multi-generational travelers who value a welcoming space, clean food alternatives, and high-quality children’s menus that do not compromise on real-food ingredients.
Partners seeking a slow, beautiful, and romantic dining setting – whether that means a casual lunch on the sand or an elegant multi-course dinner on the upper terrace.
