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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.
If you're in the mood for modern comfort food, this is the place for you. Chef Simon and his team offer a wide selection of Asian-, Southern-, and Caribbean-inspired dishes—from barracuda baos, plantain tostadas, and fried pig ears to delicious desserts such as salted-caramel brownies.
For decades, an alfresco lunch on the Atlantis deck overlooking the ocean has been a favorite of both visitors and Bajans. A pleasant atmosphere and good food have always been the draw, with a casually elegant dining room and a top-notch menu that focuses on local produce, seafood, and meats. The Wednesday and Sunday West Indian buffet lunch—with pepperpot, saltfish, chicken stew, peas and rice, cou-cou, yam pie, and breadfruit mash—is particularly popular. Lunch and dinner entrées include fresh fish, lobster (seasonal), curried goat or chicken, fricassee of rabbit, pepper-crusted flat-iron steak, and several main-course salads, pasta dishes, and panini. There's a kids' menu, too.
Have a hankerin' for Tex-Mex food? Enjoy nachos, tacos, burritos, empanadas, fajitas, and tostadas in this Mexican bar and grill at the western entrance to busy St. Lawrence Gap. Or choose a burger, honey-barbecue chicken, or flame-grilled steak from the Gringo Menu. Helpings of rice and beans, a Corona, and plenty of jalapeño peppers, guacamole, and salsa give everything a Mexican touch. Some people come just for the margaritas—15 fruity varieties rimmed with Bajan sugar instead of salt. With two happy hours every night, this place gets really busy; reservations are accepted only for parties of five or more.
Enjoy the breathtaking views overlooking St. Lawrence Bay—you may see sea turtles bobbing around in the shallow surf during the day—paired with a diverse menu and cocktail list. The reasonably priced menu caters to various diets and restrictions, featuring local dishes with fresh fish, as well as international dishes. Pudding and souse (a local dish) and fried seacat (octopus) is served for lunch on Saturday. Happy hour is 5 to 6 pm.
Locals and visitors alike gather at this no-frills fast-casual restaurant for affordable, relatively healthy, and delicious local food. Simple dishes like grilled catch of the day and grilled steak deliver the goods, but the barbecued ribs, jerk chicken, and Caesar salad are excellent. There is a second location in Holetown.
An eclectic deli-bistro serving farm-to-plate-inspired food, the menu at The Orange Street Grocer includes fresh salads, baguettes, wraps, healthy bowls, and wood-fired pizza. They are open for breakfast and lunch, but stay open later on Friday and Saturday for dinner service. Make sure you call ahead to reserve a table for spectacular ocean views.
Owners Robert and Gail Manley oversee the menu for guests staying in their historic (1832) manse-turned-inn, as well as tourists enjoying the East Coast and Bajans dining out. The lunch menu—served on a deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean—includes house-made soups and quiches, sandwiches, salads, and pasta. Dinner choices—served in the moonlight—extend from shrimp scampi, oven-baked dolphinfish steak, or grilled flying fish fillet to baked ham, sirloin steak, or homemade pasta specials. Some people come just for the flying fish pâté. Rolls and breads (whether for sandwiches or dessert), along with apple and coconut pies, are personally made by the owners. From the outdoor dining deck, the view of ocean waves smashing on the rugged coastline is stunning.
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