The Best Restaurant in Montserrat

Background Illustration for Restaurants

Restaurants are casual affairs indeed, ranging from glorified rum shops to hotel dining rooms. Most serve classic Caribbean fare, including such specialties as goat water (a thick stew of goat meat, tubers, and vegetables that seems to have been bubbling for days), saltfish cake (codfish fritters), home-brewed ginger beer, and freshly made juices from soursop, mango, blackberry (different from the North American species), guava, tamarind, papaya, and gooseberry.

What to Wear: Dress is informal even at dinner, though skimpy attire is frowned upon by the comparatively conservative islanders. Long pants are preferred, albeit not required, for men in the evening.

Grand Phoenix

$$

A welcoming, green-and-white building adorned with twinkling lights houses this restaurant—the place to eavesdrop on island gossip, as government functionaries file in for lunch (at least when day-trippers don't take over). In a trim room or on a breezy though viewless verandah, dine on old-time dishes like saltfish and Johnny cakes or more upscale specialties such as velvety pumpkin soup, honey-garlic salmon, and maple-glazed ribs.