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20 CARIBBEAN RESTAURANTS You travel all this way for sun, sand, sea and tropical breezes, so why leave them even for a meal? Here's a guide to eating well and sitting pretty in the islands. Ask our Caribbean Specialists to help you enjoy your dining experience in the Caribbean! Antigua Barbados Dominica
Dominican Republic A restaurant is only as good as its kitchen, but CURTAIN BLUFF''s location enhances award-winning chef Ruedi Portman's work. On 20 pristine acres of the southern headland, the resort has 60 formal tables on a wraparound veranda and in a courtyard where a 160-year-old tamarind tree towers over the dance floor. Returning guests (of which there are many) recommend a casual breakfast on the covered porch, facing the gardens. For dinner, drag out your formals and get front-row seats for the live band and the Milky Way. (268-462-8400) HARMONY
HALL On six undeveloped, hilltop acres on the Atlantic coast, HARMONY HALL'S rough 19th-century walls enclose African, Latin American and Caribbean paintings, sculpture and pottery - the collection that established this former plantation as an art gallery in 1982. Today the hubbub is about the fledgling restaurant. Start with drinks at the1843 sugar mill turned bar before settling in at one of the 25 tables set under bougainvillea, lime trees and areca palms. A wine list and menu bring Sorrento to the Caribbean - asparagus and Parmesan mousse, lobster in a lime crust, chocolate marquise. There's even a menu of views - lush Green Island, NoneSuch Bay where boats gentle back and forth and the lesser hills. (268-460-4120) You enter through the bar, which is 'genius', really, because you'll want a drink while lingering over the sunset on one of THE CLIFF'S three terraces. Blasted into the coral-stone cliff on the island's west side, the restaurant is only about 15 minutes north of Bridgetown - but a world away, overlooking a peaceful little sandy beach. If before nightfall you don't catch a glimpse of dolphins in the Caribbean beyond, stick around. At twilight, the cove is illuminated to reveal fish swimming in the crystalline water. Spotting the likes of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones is also distracting but chef Paul Owens keeps you focused with Caribbean-Thai shrimp in green, coconut curry and grilled snapper with three coriander sauces. Reservations are a must. Christmas is booked a year in advance. The best table is No. 50, at the apex of an open-air terrace. Dinner only. (246-432-1922) First the downside - the dining pavilion at the PAPILLOTE WILDERNESS RETREAT is uncomfortably large and packed with cruise-ship passengers; then the payoff - the adjoining nature sanctuary is a botanical garden of rare orchids, hanging vines, heliconias, and anthuriums. Have your hotel pack you a box lunch, and stop at the Retreat's funky old bar for one of its famed rum punches and a few cold sodas. Then head for the gardens and a 20-minute walk from the entrance, a picnic at 200-foot Trafalgar Falls. Your tabletop will be a stone, the view uniquely your own and you don't have to leave a tip. (767-448-2287) An old sugar mill or a colonial-era warehouse is often the most architecturally interesting site in a Caribbean town, which makes the town of Altos de Chavon all the more special. As you ascend through it to the CASA DEL RIO, you pass through a faux Mediterranean village with winding cobblestone streets, stucco buildings, and the Church of St. Stanislaus. From one of the restaurant's seven window tables in the front room, you look down from your cantilevered perch at the twists and turns of the Chavon River. Lyonnaise chef Virginie Dumonceau's menu appropriately combines French techniques with Caribbean ingredients, seafood and mango chutney in a phyllo crust, lobster in vanilla broth with glazed chayote. Dinner only, reservations required. (809-523-3333) After a year of renovations, the recently renovated SPICE ISLAND BEACH RESORT, five miles outside St. George, has a fresh glow. Sitting under the oceanfront colonnade at Oliver's, the more upscale of the resort's two restaurants, you face the white sand of two-mile-long Grand Anse and, all the way to the north, St. George, a picturesque harbor town with an illuminated 18th-century fort and 19th-century brick and stone buildings. On the menu, creole meets European under Swiss-schooled Grenadan chef Bernadette Checkley. Typical dishes: charcoal-grilled swordfish with fruit salsa, chicken brochette with fried green tomatoes, and linguini and basil oil. If you're not a Spice Island guest, you must reserve in advance. (473-44-4258)
You can't miss it. South of St. George, on Lagoon Road, PATRICK'S LOCAL HOME STYLE COOKING is in Patrick Levine's home, a coral-pink house adorned with white Christmas lights. Arrive for the six o'clock dinner seating and watch the sun set over the lagoon. It's one of the two views you've come for. The other is of the chef-owner, and you can't miss him either. With a hibiscus behind one ear, Patrick dependably presides grandly and flamboyantly over a prix fixe feast that includes an astonishing 20 dishes, all local specialties - sea crab salad, stir-fried rabbit, fried plantain, curried mutton, and on and on. Each table becomes a private buffet of tasting dishes. "If you're coming for dinner, don't eat lunch," says Patrick. And when you think you can't eat another bite, a sip of 'Under the Counter' (rum with local spices) will steel you for the banana pudding. Reservations are encouraged, especially during low season, when the kitchen prepares only enough food for guests who have called ahead. (473-440-0364) TOUT
BAGAY Perched on a peninsula west of St. George and overlooking the harbor - fishing boats and tugs, bareboat charters and small runabouts - the newly-opened TOUT BAGAY has ten tables set before eight picture windows that face the sea. The restaurant is particularly pretty at sunset, when the cruise ships depart and Wharf Road becomes a string of twinkling lights. Tout bagay ("everything is possible") is an apt description of Grenadan native Sylvester Jeremiah's eclectic menu, which varies from teriyaki ribs to scampi Provencal, and blackened snapper to deep- fried lambie (conch) strips. The goat curry and spicy pot stew, in particular, demonstrate Jeremiah's command of the local cuisine. Reserve ahead for a table at sunset. (473-440-1500) The 20 tables on the terrace of L'AUBERGE LES PETITS SAINTES AUX ANACARDIERS overlook nearby uninhabited Ilet a Cabrit and Saintes Bay, where ferries from Basse-Terre come and go. This restaurant on Iles des Saintes entices with, not only the view, but the menu, and the furnishings. In fact, you can spend your francs on scallops of mahimahi in passion fruit sauce, as well as on the Balinese statues gracing the restaurant. Everything is for sale on this temptation island, and it's all been picked out by owners and world travelers Jean-Paul Colas and Didier Spindler. Polynesian masks, colonial furniture, and Indochinese knickknacks create a cosmopolitan jumble. Now, if only there were a way to purchase the view of the harbor at sunset and take that home, too! (590-00-50-00) Like Martinique itself. LA MAISON DE L'ILET OSCAR, a little five-room resort on the tiny isle of La Maison, off the Atlantic coast, is a Caribbean destination best-appreciated by Francophiles. On the beach alongside the restaurant, the air is scented with frangipani, curries from the kitchen, and cigarette smoke. And when you're called to your table, one of three under the palm arbors that protect the terrace, you'll be served French and creole dishes like (cod fritters) and crab farci, typically followed by grilled catch of the day or a plate of crayfish. Apres- lunch, you can stick around, bum a Gauloise from a fellow diner, and brush up on your French. Lunch only. (596-65-82-30) For more than 30 years, the world-weary rich have found their way to this tiny Grenadine island, where they can commiserate with folks like themselves over a rum punch by the sea. The names associated with Mustique's most popular nightspot, BASIL'S BAR, once had a decidedly English flavor: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Princess Margaret. But now they are joined by New World royals such as Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, and Courtney Love. The appeal of Basil's isn't the food - despite such well-prepared seafood dishes as grilled lobster, seafood crepes, and pasta with shrimp satay - but rather a certain beach chic and the cachet of its A-list guests. The simple thatched-roof bar is built of weathered boards and perches on stilts, jutting into the Caribbean. Of course, there's something disingenuous about Basil's humility. (How many beach shacks have entrees starting at $50!- but you're likely to forget any complaints in the glow of the stars, celestial and otherwise.) (784-456-3350) Built in 1740, the Hermitage's PLANTATION HOUSE, (a hotel since 1984) is one of the Caribbean's oldest wooden residences and one of its most perfectly-placed, with Nevis Peak to the north and the sea to the south. The dining terrace is open on three sides, and (talk about gilding the lily) the vistas are framed in blue plumbago and gold and white trumpet vines. When the sun has gone down, it becomes easier to focus on the restaurant's other draw - the culinary creations prepared by chef Lovey Bodie and co-owner Maureen Lupinacci, who has lived on Nevis for more than 30 years. The hotel's own farm provides much of the produce, as well as the lamb and the pork. This makes Wednesday night, when the menu includes pig roasted on a spit, especially worth entering in your PalmPilot. (869-469-3477) A hotel built on the slopes of a peak named Mount Scenery is likely to create unrealistic expectations, but the view from WILLARD'S OF SABA does not disappoint. The tiny (only five square miles) Dutch island of Saba is an emerged mountaintop, all slope, peaking at 2,865 feet. Some 2,000 feet up sits Willard's, with views of sunrises over St. Kitts and Nevis and sunsets that drop behind the mountaintop. Three of the restaurant's nine tables are poolside, perfect on a warm evening, but you can also enjoy the scenery from the six inside. The eclectic menu includes chicken adobo from the Philippines, Indian curries, and wasabi beef. One of chef Corazon de Johnson's specialties makes the most of local produce; a dish called maruya, it consists of plantains and jackfruit in an egg roll wrap that's deep fried and served with homemade ice cream. As night descends on Saba, it's a 'Dutch treat' not to be missed! (500-416-2498) Once they're sufficiently bronzed, St. Barts' elite can be found at the bar of the CARL GUSTAF HOTEL at sunset, name-dropping over kit royales. While chatterers without reservations soon disperse, you retire to the intimate dining room. Overlooking Gustavia Harbor from a hillside, you face the lights of the yachts at anchor from the elegantly understated terrace, with white plantation-style architecture, blue and white linens, and Bernardaud china. Last year there was a new chef, Franck Philippe, who trained at Lausanne's legendary hotel school. He brings French techniques to local fare with signature dishes such as the vanilla and ginger-perfumed prawns and the roasted prickly pear and strawberries in port. For the best views, request a table in the middle of the terrace; reservations are a must in high season. (500-20-79-00) HOSTELLERIE
DES 3 FORCES A quiet auberge in the hills, the HOSTELLERIE DES 3 FORCES has been positioned in accordance with feng shui principles by chef-owner Hubert De La Motte, and there's no arguing with the view. On the windward side of Mont Vitet, the restaurant looks east to the sweeping beaches of Grand and Petit Cul de Sac, framed by the surrounding hillsides, De La Motte is both a chef and an astrologer. His strengths in the former are demonstrated by the traditional French fare: magret de canard with an orange-ginger sauce, quenelles de poissons in court bouillon, and specialties from chateaubriand to rosemary lamb chops, emerging from the wood-fired oven. De La Motte practices his other calling with impromptu read-ins for diners who want to know what portents are revealed in the alignments of the star-filled sky above. Housed in a 17th-century plantation house, the GOLDEN LEMON sits on the northwest end of St. Kitts, above the black sands of Dieppe Bay. Cocktails are served on the flagstone patio, accompanied by views of St. Eustatius, St. Barts, and on a clear day, St. Martin. You may find it hard to drag yourself inside...yes, for this one restaurant in our selection, you must... but if you don't, you'll miss another sort of view - one of the Caribbean's most elegant dining rooms. The owner, Arthur Leaman, was once an editor at "House & Garden", and his discriminating eye is revealed in a refined room with 12 tables, Venetian glass chandeliers, and prized Delft tulip vases. The menus changes daily, but the emphasis is on Caribbean ingredients and techniques. Past favorites include grilled snapper with eggplant and sweet pepper relish and lobster cakes with papaya mayonnaise. Reservations recommended. (859)4657260) RAWLINS
PLANTATION Catching every breeze and trade wind atop a green velvet hill, RAWLINS PLANTATION started producing sugar around 1690 - and stopped only 20 years ago, when it became one of the prettiest small hotels in the West Indies. From the wide-open veranda that is across rippling green cane fields toward the cerulean blue sea far, far below, Chef-owner Claire Rawson harvests her kitchen garden to create authentic, imaginative Caribbean dishes: lobster and coconut soup with lemongrass and chilies: salt fish and fungi, a local dish made from salt cod and cornmeal dumpling: and a sensational soursop sorbet. At Rawlins, life and the meals follow the slow, seductive pace of another era, helped along by Paul Rawson's killer cocktails - best made with the local CSR (cane spirit Rothschild), a highly refined, but potent, white rum - not unlike its Gallic creator, Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
It's easy to miss the charms of Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands, when you're standing between the shadows of the looming cruise ships and the mall-like harbor front. But drive some ten minutes along a winding road up green, breezy Government Hill in back of the harbor. From the 18 tables on the outdoor terrace at the colonial-style HOTEL 1829, the patchwork of colonial buildings, forts - and even those leviathan liners suddenly becomes positively picturesque. The menu helps, with its old-world selections - rack of lamb bernaise, filet mignon au poivre - presented with old-school, white-glove service. And, if you retire to the bar after dinner for Armagnac, backgammon, and cigars, you'll surely appreciate anew that old adage about it all being 'a matter of perspective'. (340-776-1829) Historians believe that the 35-acre private YOUNG ISLAND, off the south coast of St. Vincent, was once the home of a Carib Indian chief. Today, commoners breakfast in the nine thatch-roofed huts that dot the resort's gardens and beach. The multicolored Vincentian parrot may make off with a slice of one of the six breads baked fresh every morning (cinnamon, banana, whole wheat, raisin, coconut, and grainy white), while you're feeding on the panorama of St. Vincent's southern coast and the little ferry that shuttles between the two islands. The menu covers American and British breakfast preferences, but we recommend the West Indies option: pan-seared catch of the day, with sides of mangoes and papayas, soursops, and sugar apples. (784-458-4826) Admiral Lord Nelson enjoyed one of his last meals in idyllic Courland Bay. Here, off the northwest coast of Tobago, he readied his fleet for the fateful battle of Trafalgar. Nelson might recognize the spot still - if not the Continental and Caribbean fusion cuisine served at the open-air PAVILION restaurant - high on a promontory. French chef Franck Gautherot's Gallic training and a stint at Scotland's Gleneagles left him with a knack for the artful pairing of disparate cuisines. The duck with ginger-orange sauce is an exquisite example, served with cho-cho, a squash that is ubiquitous in Caribbean cooking. The pan-seared tuna in garden parsley sauce is equally appealing. But nothing on your plate will outshine the vista, which is hypnotic Caribbean for as far as the eye can see! (868-639-0361) |
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