Now six years into the business, the Mainayau Local Cuisine and Catering restaurant at FNPF plaza in Suva is an unmistakable hotspot when it comes to Fijian authentic cuisines.
Sepesa Mainayau and his wife Volau are owners of the establishment that is making a name for itself in offering customers with a variety of authentic iTaukei dishes to choose from.
Both in their late 50s, the couple lived on Cikobia island in Lau most of their lives, surviving off what nature had to offer and making food that’s now generating income for the couple.
Being parents to four children, the Mainayau decided to move from their village home into the capital and launched their dream business with the amount saved throughout their lives.
The restaurant’s initial location was in Grantham Plaza in Suva.
“We started our business back in 2019, we started off in Raiwaqa,” Mr Mainayau said.
“We’ve been talking about starting a business for a while and we saw the lack of representation of iTaukei cuisines in the foods industry.”
“Like every business we also faced struggles when we started, especially with trying to promote the business and the funding. It all came from my pocket.”
Mr Mainayau said the space they rented in Raiwaqa became too small to operate in as their customer numbers grew.
It was not until this year that the couple decided it was time to change their location to cater for their large customer-base.
“We started off our restaurant which was a very small space in Raiwaqa. It started off slow, one year passed and we saw that more people were coming in because word was spreading, and the space was small because there were a lot of people.
“We had to maintain it for a bit longer until we found a new place to relocate our little establishment to cater for the demand,” he said.
Mr Mainayau was also asked about the challenges they encountered while trying to build their restaurant business.
He said one of the biggest challenges was trying to break the typical stereotype of iTaukei-owned businesses being doomed to fail because of weakness in money management.
“Our businesses are stereotyped that it’s destined to fail but when you are passionate about your work and you put effort into the work you’re doing, you’ll be able to come through.
“So, we started our business promoting iTaukei authentic meals because I figured that it was us the iTaukei that filled up the restaurants here in Fiji,” he added
Asked how he maintained ingredients supplies to his restaurant, he said he had no problem getting ingredients and this was why they were always meeting customers’ demand at reasonable prices.
“Our supplies for this restaurant mostly come from the village, we don’t buy from anywhere else in the country but home.
“So, the menu that we have is everything we eat on a daily basis back in the islands – we have not changed anything.”
Mr Mainayau said they were never raised in a business background.
“We don’t have any experience at all in running a business, since we have lived in the village our whole lives.
“Whenever there was a small business training, I would attend and that’s where I got the idea of starting a business.
“My wife worked in a restaurant once and with our knowledge combined, we are now six years into the business,” he said
For the Mainayau, while the restaurant is the main source of income to support their family, it is also a way to promote the iTaukei culture and because of the changes in society, food is one way culture can be preserved.
“Our signature here apart from everything else we make, is fish in coconut milk, either boiled or fried with rourou (taro leaves) mutton, pork, corned beef and the list goes on.
“We also have desserts that we always suggest our customers try, but most people come in just to try fish in coconut milk,” Mr Mainayau said.
The couple plan to expand their authentic iTaukei meals offering to tourists in the near future
