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First-class restaurants and hotel dining rooms serve quite sophisticated cuisine—often prepared by chefs with international experience and rivaling the dishes served in the world's best restaurants. Most menus include seafood: dolphin (mahimahi), kingfish, snapper, and flying fish prepared every way imaginable. Flying fish is so popular that it has become an official national symbol. Shellfish also abounds, as do steak, pork, and local black-belly lamb.
Specialty dishes include buljol (a cold salad of pickled codfish, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, and celery) and conkies (cornmeal, coconut, pumpkin, raisins, sweet potatoes, and spices, mixed together, wrapped in a banana leaf, and steamed). Cou-cou, often served with steamed flying fish, is a mixture of cornmeal and okra and usually topped with a spicy creole sauce made from tomatoes, onions, and sweet peppers. Bajan-style pepper pot is a hearty stew of oxtail, beef, and other meats in a rich, spicy gravy, simmered overnight.
For lunch, restaurants often offer a traditional Bajan buffet of fried fish, baked chicken, salads, macaroni pie (macaroni and cheese), and a selection of steamed or stewed provisions (local roots and vegetables). Be cautious with the West Indian condiments—like the sun, they're hotter than you think. Typical Bajan drinks—in addition to Banks Beer and Mount Gay, Cockspur, or Malibu rum—are falernum (a liqueur concocted of rum, sugar, lime juice, and almond essence); mauby (a nonalcoholic drink made by boiling bitter bark and spices, straining the mixture, and sweetening it); and Ponche Kuba, a creamy spiced rum liqueur (Caribbean eggnog) that’s especially popular around the holidays. You're sure to enjoy the fresh fruit or rum punch, as well.
What to Wear: The dress code for dinner in Barbados is conservative, casually elegant, and, occasionally, formal—a jacket and tie for gentlemen and a cocktail dress for ladies in the fanciest restaurants and hotel dining rooms, particularly during the winter holiday season. Jeans, shorts, and T-shirts (either sleeveless or with slogans) are always frowned upon at dinner. Beach attire is appropriate only at the beach.
This food-truck park is a great spot to sample a wide variety of dishes for lunch or dinner. Venezuelan arepas, Italian pizzas, Trinidadian roti, and Bajan classics are among the many options here. There's live music on Thursday, and sometimes there are other special events as well. Though the area is shaded, it's best to go at night, when the temperature is a bit cooler and the lights add a nice atmosphere.
As local as local gets, this open-air waterfront beach bar (a former rum shop) is built on stilts a stone's throw from the Speightstown fish market. For years, fishermen and other locals have come here for the inexpensive authentic Bajan lunch buffet. Soak up the atmosphere and fill your plate with fried flying fish, stewed chicken or pork, curried goat or lamb, pepperpot, macaroni pie, fried plantain, peas and rice, sweet potatoes, cou-cou, and crisp green salad. Eat inside or on the deck. And on Wednesday night, you can also dance—or simply listen—to catchy steel pan or calypso music. (Whether dinner is served varies from season to season, so call ahead.)
Tucked away in the heart of St. Lawrence Gap, this waterfront restaurant is great for families with small children and has indoor and outdoor dining and play areas. The food is casual---think pizza, pasta, vegetarian choices, and, of course, mimosas.
Wood beams, stone tiles, clay pottery, straw mats, and colorful dinnerware set the style at Naniki (an Arawak word meaning "spirited" or "full of life"). Huge picture windows and outdoor porch seating allow you to enjoy the exhilarating view of surrounding hills and gardens along with your lunch of well-prepared Caribbean standards like grilled dorado, chicken or shrimp skewers, and jerk chicken or pork. Meals are accompanied by cou-cou, peas and rice, fries, or salad. Sunday brunch often features great jazz music (live and recorded). Vegetarian dishes are always available.
Situated within the Carlisle Bay area just outside the capital, this family-friendly location is a great spot to sample a variety of Caribbean and international dishes. A mixture of a food-truck park and beach bar with an adjacent events venue, you can go from the beach (rent a beach chair and shared umbrella for $8) to enjoying a drink at the bar with friends or dining on tacos, sandwiches, kebabs, Bajan dishes, Jamaican jerk chicken, or even plant-based options.
The food at Surfers Cafe is hearty, traditional, and Bajan---think homemade Bajan fish cakes, buljol (chopped salted cod, tomatoes, and chilies), or flying fish---with good-size portions. The decor is rustic and the views are amazing; if you're lucky enough to be seated at the large table outside, you'll feel as if you're on board an old-fashioned pirate ship. There's live music most evenings. Service can be a little slow and the Wi-Fi is patchy, but if you're looking for a place to eat and relax, this is the place to go in Oistins.
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