Enjoy a very special light lunch at QP Bistro
We love the diversity of the food and drink in Barbados. The island is home to some of the best restaurants in the world, offering exceptional cuisine in exceptional settings but local street food is also wonderfully tasty and beach bars welcoming. Expect full flavours and even fuller smiles.
The Horny Ram is a Bajan pub and meathouse just north of Holetown, five minutes' walk from our villa in Porters, and it gave us the perfect first night of the holiday: a real children's menu, a proper rum punch, and fish they know how to cook.
The five West Coast restaurants we book most often for our own guests. What each one is like, what an evening really costs per head, and which to choose for the big night, the long lunch, or the evening with the children.
The Sand Street Bistro in Speightstown offers generous portions, good value, casual table service, and a wide-ranging menu with gluten-free and vegetarian options in a relaxed open-air setting near the sea.
Enjoy a relaxed lunch at The Deck, Sugar Hill's poolside restaurant offering stunning sea views and dishes like the highly praised Club Toastie and Bajan Lemonade.
Caboose in Speightstown is a unique fish cutter spot set in a beached fishing boat kitchen serving freshly grilled catch-of-the-day in traditional Bajan salt bread. Open Wednesday to Sunday, it offers a simple menu focused solely on fish, with prices around BDS$20-25.
The Cliff Bakery in Holetown offers artisan pastries and breads from 7am daily, perfect for early mornings on Barbados' West Coast, with specialties like the caramel and vanilla beignet.
If you’re staying on the West Coast and fancy a seafood lunch with your toes in the sand, Lobster Alive on the South Coast is well worth the 20-minute drive from Holetown. Perched on the beachfront next to The Boatyard, this open-air restaurant in Carlisle Bay serves up freshly flown-in lobster in a setting that combines beachy charm with live music and relaxed island vibes.
Tucked away on the sands of Batts Rock Beach, La Cabane is one of those rare places that manages to feel both effortlessly cool and utterly uncontrived.
This past Saturday evening, Lisa and I discovered a restaurant gem tucked away in the most unexpected corner of Holetown – Derrière French Brasserie. Newly opened in Limegrove, this surprising little spot is a fresh addition to the West Coast dining scene and one I suspect will be making quite a name for itself. Nestled discreetly next to Café de Paris and not far from Clifton Market, it’s easy to overlook at first glance – but oh, what a find.
If you push me to name my favourite restaurant in Barbados, I would give it just a few moments consideration and then reaffirm my loyalty to The Tides in Holetown. The Tides was one of the first fine dining restaurants we visited on the island and over the years, as other restaurants have gone in and out of favour, The Tides has remained consistently brilliant.
The Rum Shop is to Barbados as the pub is to Great Britain. For over 300 years, the rum shop has been at the centre of local community life – a place to meet and put the world to rights as well as a place to drink, eat and often buy local groceries!
Speightstown was once the busiest port in Barbados and the town gained its other name ‘Little Bristol’ as a result of the trade in sugar and other goods between here and its larger namesake in England. Tucked away at the back of the small car park in the centre of town you’ll find Island Plates.
Forget the image of a table by a roaring fire at the local pub, Sunday lunch Bajan style usually takes the form of a marvellous buffet with a wide choice of local dishes, all eaten al fresco and often accompanied by live steel pan music. Here is our selection of some of the best places to enjoy a Sunday lunch with a difference on your Barbados holiday.
Barbados is often known as the land of the flying fish and it is even depicted on the island’s one dollar coin. You will usually find fresh, filleted flying fish for sale at your local fish market in Barbados or, if the catch isn’t yet in, packets of frozen fish are also available at the local supermarket. It's easy to prepare yourself, fried with plenty of seasoning.
The choice of Sunday lunch venues is wide and there are many popular beachfront options which are rightly popular. Lunch at the Lone Star or The Cliff Beach Club is certainly special with wonderful views to accompany your roast pork or fresh catch of the day. But there is another Sunday lunch option which we thoroughly recommend for a completely different dining experience with wide selection of splendid food and an even larger helping of old Barbados on the side: Sunday lunch at Lancaster Great House.
Barbados is a foodie’s paradise with many fine-dining restaurants dotted up and down the coast. But true Bajan cuisine has deep roots and is more likely to be found out on the street where hundreds of makeshift serveries regularly appear each evening and where food vans take up position at the roadside each lunchtime.
The Chattel Village in Holetown is an attractive and popular area of town with a collection of boutique shops specialising in a variety of products, from souvenir essentials to jewellery and even Cuban cigars. At the centre lies Cafe Bar Carizma which is a popular spot for breakfast or a morning coffee and just behind lies one of favourite places, The Gourmet Shop.
Little Bristol Beach Bar is hidden away in the centre of Speightstown – it is easy to miss if you aren’t looking out for it and very unassuming from the street side but it has a lovely deck overlooking the sea and a wonderful laid-back vibe. Visit on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday evening just before sunset and enjoy live music and a great atmosphere.
Having been bar-less for a while, imagine our growing excitement in recent months as we started to hear rumours of a new beach bar coming to Mullins, virtually next door to the old one – would it be any good? Could it live up to the original? Well, there was only one way to find out, so on Friday night my wife Cat and I headed out (with our toddler) for the opening night of Mullins’ newest beach bar named simply, ‘Sea Shed’.
Oistins is a small Barbadian fishing community in Christ Church parish on the south coast of the island (fairly close to the airport). Over the years it has become known for its Friday Fish Fry, a go-to spot in Barbados for brilliant food, loud music and smiling faces.
Bajan fish cakes are an island staple. You’ll find them for sale at the side of the road or as an appetiser in bars and restaurants across the island of Barbados. Of course, not all fish cakes are made equal – at least so would most who sell them have you believe. Follow this simple recipe and make your own fishcakes whilst staying in your villa in Barbados or once you get home.
We wouldn’t really describe Barbados as a party island and the west coast is even more laid back than the south coast but when night falls, there are a number of bars and lounges that come to life and are well worth a visit. Here are some of our favourites:
Originating from the Indian Subcontinent, the roti is a simple unleavened flatbread, traditionally eaten as an accompaniment to cooked vegetables or curries. In the mid 1940s, the first roti shop appeared in Trinidad with the curry already enveloped in the roti – just like a modern-day wrap and easy to take away and eat on the go.
There is an alternative to Banks that you might like to try when sitting at a Barbados beach bar or relaxing by the pool at your villa: 10 Saints. This local micro-brewed beer is uniquely aged for around 90 days in Mount Gay rum oak casks and it has a rather more complex flavour than Banks.
We are Mark and Lisa Hammerton and we are lucky enough to spend our time organising villa and apartment holidays to the wonderful Caribbean island of Barbados.
We have been involved with the travel industry for most of our working lives but fell in love with Barbados after many visits and ended up buying a second home there.
We would love to talk to you about the island and our selection of wonderful properties and, as our priority is matching the right property to your requirements, we will always be open and honest in what we have to say.
Mark & Lisa
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