Loloata unveils new food offering
Mary Tao investigates the new food offerings at Loloata Island Resort under their new head chef.
Chef Neori Mokotanavanua (in white) with his crew. Credit: Supplied by Loloata Private Island Resort
Loloata Island Resort has introduced new menus with the arrival of Fijian executive chef Neori Mokotanavanua. Many of the dishes utilise fresh local ingredients and Pacific influences.
Among the new dishes is a seafood platter that includes seared salmon and chilli, and garlic spiced mussels served with cassava chips, tartare sauce, coconut and tomato pineapple salsa. There’s also surf or turf cooked on hot Hawaiian lava stones.
“The dishes utilise fresh local ingredients and Pacific influences”
Chef Mokotanavanua has created the dishes, but he credits his kitchen staff for executing the new recipes to perfection.
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- Loloata’s new dishes include a seafood platter, kokoda, grilled lobster tail with chickpea ragout, and crackling pork belly with kaukau mash. Credit: Loloata Private Island Resort
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- Loloata’s new dishes include a seafood platter, kokoda, grilled lobster tail with chickpea ragout, and crackling pork belly with kaukau mash. Credit: Loloata Private Island Resort
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- Loloata’s new dishes include a seafood platter, kokoda, grilled lobster tail with chickpea ragout, and crackling pork belly with kaukau mash. Credit: Loloata Private Island Resort
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- Loloata’s new dishes include a seafood platter, kokoda, grilled lobster tail with chickpea ragout, and crackling pork belly with kaukau mash. Credit: Loloata Private Island Resort
Mokotanavanua has come to the resort’s Sea Breeze restaurant with 20 years of experience – from learning the basics as a kitchenhand from his late chef father to working at some of the top hotels in Fiji.
He decided it was time for a menu change after a month of observation at Loloata, trialling new dishes on guests and reading past reviews by diners.
He shares his Fijian heritage through items on the menu such as kokoda (diced tuna fillet marinated in lemon, island salsa, coriander and coconut cream) and wacipoki (lamb fillets wrapped in taro leaves).
“Everywhere that I have worked I get connected to farmers, to the local people supplying the hotel; and that is the backbone of this menu – farm to table,” he says.
Western and Asian classics are included in the menus, and vegetarian and vegan options are available.
The new menus have been rolled out for all-day a la carte dining, room service and the daily buffet.
See loloata.com
This article was first published in the February – April 2026 issue of Paradise, the in-flight magazine of Air Niugini.
