13 replies to this topic

[jayandstacey]

Doing the cruise thing and would like to eat one meal in a room smaller than the Astrodome. Any suggestions in Nassau or Freeport? Doesn't have to be formal, and local style would be ideal, but would consider other cuisines. Given the choice, I'd rather have a home-style meal cooked by the owner of a small place than a focus-group tested meal cooked by someone who works for an LLC headquartered in another country. TIA - Jay

[msminnich]

I've actually been wondering the same thing. We're sailing from Baltimore on the 21st of March and will be in Nassau on my 50th birthday. I'm looking for somewhere to take my family for the big day. The New York Times has a number of reviews for places in Nassau. If I find anything else interesting I'll post links here.
Scott

[jayandstacey]

I've actually been wondering the same thing. We're sailing from Baltimore on the 21st of March and will be in Nassau on my 50th birthday. I'm looking for somewhere to take my family for the big day. The New Your Times has a number of reviews for places in Nassau (Google Restaurants in Nassau and they should show up). If I find anything else interesting I'll post links here.
Scott

We're taking the same cruise mid-May.

That's a great way to spend a birthday!

I'd like to go someplace nice, however, it isn't critical. We'll be doing that 3 hour guided Jeep tour while there and that may be enough. If I come up with any ideas I'll let you know - and please let me know what you ended up doing once you get back!

[msminnich]

Well,I decided. I only have one night in Nassau, and I picked Cafe Matisse. It's in an old colonial house right off of Parliament Square. It is Italian with Bahamian influences. It was recommended on another board. I'll write back and give a full trip report on my return!

[Ferhat Yalcin]

Any news? Headed to Nassau in a couple of months and would welcome any ideas!!!

This is the place where we had dinner after a long day at the beach. Twin Brothers
I had the grouper fingers and my wife had the deep fried conch. They were both great, no grease, super fresh and moist. The portions were huge as well for a small price. This place is in Nassau.

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[Sundae in the Park]

This is the place where we had dinner after a long day at the beach. Twin Brothers
I had the grouper fingers and my wife had the deep fried conch. They were both great, no grease, super fresh and moist. The portions were huge as well for a small price. This place is in Nassau.

Ah, the Fish Fry (Arawak Cay, about a 15-minute walk out of downtown Nassau), where the locals and tourists alike can congregate to eat. We tried Twin Brothers and Oh Andros there, and both had their strengths. I think the fried stuff is preferable at Twin Brothers, but I didn't care for thier peas-n-rice (salty!) and the "steamed" fish is actually fried then stewed, while the "broiled" fish is really steamed in foil. Weird. The foil fish tasted like diet food - lots of root vegetables and hardly any flavor at all, while the stew was sharply tangy (tomoato-based) and interesting. Fried things (fish, conch fritters), however were terrific, and judging from the other tables, really the way to go. The blackened? fish at Oh Andros was pretty tasty, and came with three sides. Our cab driver, on coming in to town, had told us that "Bahamians eat a lotta starch" and she wasn't kidding...all the sides seem to be starches - mac and cheese, peas-n-rice (really red beans and rice), potato salad or fries, plantains, etc. Overall I liked Oh Andros bit better, but both are great to get to know the local offerings.

My favorite meal of the week was at Conch Fritters, a random bar and grill right across from the Hilton in downtown Nassau. The blackened grouper was excellent! Lots of seasoning, moist and tender fish, with spicy greens, a dense block of mac n cheese (tasted exactly the same to me everywhere I ate it), and perfectly caramelized fried plantains. Yum yum yum yum, except that they never had that combination of items available again - we checked in three more times that week, but they were always out of something! Very disappointing. We tried guava duff here, which is sort of a biscuity shortcake drenched in a fruity cream sauce. It's not bad, but not really to my taste, and I generally prefer fruit desserts.

Bahamian Kitchen (downtown Nassau) is cute, but they just serve the same food as everyone else - conch, grouper, shrimp, in various combinations. I tried the minced fish, which we had heard was an interesting local dish, but I DO NOT recommend it. It tasted like very fishy canned (crappy) tuna fish dry-fried with some bits of unidentifable vegtables in some salty-sour seasonings. The fried food was fine, though!

Our main experience at the local joints was service on "Island" time with "Island attitude" - slow, not particularly attentive, not particularly apologetic (when something is missing or wrong). It got to be a bit wearing, which is why I think we enjoyed our experience at Cafe Matisse (downtown Nassau) so much. It's an Italian restaurant with actual white tablecloths and spiffily dressed waiters, and there is a gorgeous center garden for outdoor seating. The ice water is free and replenished frequently, and there is also free bread (both were nonexistent at the other types of places). Heavenly! The food, however, wasn't anything to write here about - pizza and pasta and salad were fine, adequate, etc. Perhaps the meat and seafood are the stars. Still, it's a great place to relax and sink into a level of dining comfort most of us are accustomed to.

We had fun at Humidor Churrascaria in the Graycliff Hotel (downtown Nassau). Again, there is attentive service and air-conditioning, which goes a long way after not having them! Our night there featured 12-13 meats, incluing ribs and lamb and different sausages. I especially liked the prime rib and the salad+ bar was decent. Our meal also came with sauteed mushrooms, fried polenta, and mashed potatoes. It's nothing special as compared to other churrascarias, but is a good time and a nice change from local fare.

[jayandstacey]

Ah, the Fish Fry...

Thanks for the detailed report. I'm going back in a few days and if there's anything to add I will.

[Rhone1998]

Any recent recommendations? We'll be there this week!

[Rieux]

Any recent recommendations? We'll be there this week!

The aforementioned Cafe Matisse is lovely - I thought Twin Brothers was not that good -- greasy, with a rancid oil taste. In general, with the exception of Matisse, which is pricey, I was not impressed with food in Nassau when I was there for work earlier this year.

[jayandstacey]

Thanks for the detailed report. I'm going back in a few days and if there's anything to add I will.

I went but didn't eat. We took a cab to Adasrta Gardens and spent some time there with the kids. What a lovely way to spend a few hours, with plants, flowers and lots of animals, including flamingos you can wander amongst. A cynic might say its just a petting zoo but that's not giving it a chance.

Besides, something there must be valuable as the guard by the front gate has a machine gun strapped to his back.

[Rhone1998]

So, having just spent an otherwise delightful week in the Bahamas, my advice for finding good food to folks traveling there is, sorry to say, don't even bother. Just give up. Walk off the plane expecting beautiful weather, great beaches, pleasant people, lots of fun in the sun, but also that you'll be paying more money than you ever have before for worse food than you've ever eaten before.  Expect that and you won't be disappointed. And when a meal rises to the level of mediocrity, hey, you'll be pleasantly surprised.  

I'm exaggerating, but not by all that much. Nearly all the food we had in Nassau and on Paradise Island--including at the Atlantis--was pretty darn bad.  And outrageously expensive compared to what we're used to here. The third best meal of our trip, we agreed, was at the Wendy's at the airport while we were waiting for our flight out. A single orange -- one damn orange -- at the Starbucks at the Atlantis costs $3.45. The worst meal of the trip and one of the most expensive was at a place called Anthony's on Paradise Island -- a very casual looking joint where entrees that tasted like frozen dinners pushed $30 each. 

I don't get the love for Conch Fritters. Our dinner there was overall pretty mediocre, and served with complete indifference. A tuna melt was gloppy, wet, nearly inedible. The conch fritters themselves were nearly all dough...kind of like dense hush puppies with a hint of fishy chewiness in there. Not pleasant. The only thing that worked was the fried grouper, which tasted fresh and was fried nicely with a crisp exterior. 

In fact, generally you'll find frying done quite competently at restaurants here. As long as you're not looking for anything in the way of spicing or saucing, you can at least do ok with simple fried fish at most places.

Twin Brothers at the Fish Fry was a much, much better restaurant than Conch Fritters.  Loud, bustling, happy atmosphere, very pleasant and competent service.  Conch fritters with more conch than filler, fresh fried whole snapper served on very tasty rice.  Tasty selection of tropical drinks. Try the chicken wings here!

The best food we had on our trip came from a little white trailer (food truck?) called Sonia's Jerk about 100 yards east of the permanent-structure restaurants at Fish Fry.  We tried curry goat and chicken, as well as jerk pork and jerk chicken from the barrel smoker she's got right outside. All were very good, though more mildly spiced than we expected.. What she called jerk pork was to my taste just some delicious barbecued pig, very smoky and sweet.  Good stuff, with each of the above offered in huge portions with sides for about $10. 

There were a couple of other places a that looked interesting that we didn't get a chance to try, including a Filipino restaurant on East Bay Street called Cabalen that has gotten some good reviews online.  I might try it if I'm ever back in Nassau, but honestly next time I think I'd just spend a lot less time thinking about food generally...

[Rhone1998]

We took a cab to Adasrta Gardens and spent some time there with the kids. What a lovely way to spend a few hours, with plants, flowers and lots of animals, including flamingos you can wander amongst. A cynic might say its just a petting zoo but that's not giving it a chance.

Besides, something there must be valuable as the guard by the front gate has a machine gun strapped to his back.

This place was a lot of fun! Thanks for the heads up, we wouldn't have learned about it otherwise. There are a lot of interesting tropical animals here from around the world (though it was pretty amusing to see, among them, a cage containing the exotic "North American Raccoon"!

[Ericandblueboy]

What draws you to Nassua? Atlantis? I can say there's nothing on Grand Bahamas island that's really worth visiting. I was there because they have casinos and golf courses but nowadays you can do that in PA and WV.

[Rhone1998]

What draws you to Nassua? Atlantis? I can say there's nothing on Grand Bahamas island that's really worth visiting. I was there because they have casinos and golf courses but nowadays you can do that in PA and WV.

We wanted a carribbean vacation with a relatively short direct flight from DC to minimize flight time for our one and a half year old, and Atlantis was a plus, so Nassau it was. If it was just going to be an adult vacation I'd go back to St. Martin next time in a heartbeat.