Right on the water with great views of the Maputo coastline, Miramar was busy on the Sunday afternoon I went to eat there.

Located next to the Holiday Inn, this restaurant offers casual dining. It’s a favorite tourist hangout with a great playground for kids right on the beach.

For starters, I was leaning towards prawn samosas and prawn cakes. So I asked the waiter if I could see what they looked like before making my decision. He surprised me by bringing two bags of frozen food to my table.

OK, he gets an A for full disclosure, so I ordered them and they were good. The breaded prawn cakes were crispy on the outside, and hot and delicious on the inside. The samosas were just spicy enough.

Other finger foods on the menu included grilled calamari, giblets, and halloumi cheese.

My main course, grilled redfish, arrived with its head, skin, bones and scales intact, and half a boiled potato. The accompanying veggies — carrots, beans and cabbage — were buttery and somewhat tasty. Whole fish can look spectacular on a plate when it’s presented well. The overall presentation of my dish was a bit lackluster.

Other entree choices included prawns prepared every way you can eat them including fried, grilled and Mozambican style with a sauce of beer, pepper and carrots. You could also get prawns in queen, king or tiger sizes.

There was butterfly fish on the menu; combo platters and meat dishes such as Portuguese steak and prego with chips.

The house specialty dessert was unavailable but the waiter brought me a tray of other desserts including something he called a chocolate tart.

This tart didn’t have a crust and came served in a glass bowl. There was also a lemon dessert and a chocolate pudding on the tray.

I’ve learned that tart is the default food description used by Maputo restaurant managers and waiters when they are unable to translate from Portuguese. I’m OK with that. I even like it. It’s how it tastes that counts.

But looks count too. On the dessert tray there wasn’t anything that looked tempting enough to make me want to order it.

Great view though.