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jayandstacey

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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

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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!

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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"!

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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.

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We found ourselves in the Bahamas, specifically on Harbour Island, for a wedding this past weekend. It probably has the most beautiful water I've ever seen, and we had a great time all around. While the cost of pretty much everything on Harbour Island was like that of an all inclusive resort, we enjoyed the fact that we were in an actual town. The place we stayed, the Landing, was quite nice. On the bay side, it had very nice rooms, and a nice little pool. I'd definitely recommend it. A few more thoughts before I get into food:

  • We rented a golf cart, and I'd probably recommend it. The island is not large, but it isn't exactly pedestrian friendly, and having the cart makes it so much easier to see the whole island, and to go from place to place. Particularly useful if we were sitting on the beach and wanted more than one or two lunch options. 
  • You can probably arrange a snorkeling trip through your hotel, but we had excellent luck just walking down to the Government Dock and talking to some of the guys with boats down there. It cost much less, and we hit up a couple of nice snorkeling locations, and saw Preacher's Cave. In this situation you do have to rent your snorkeling gear separately, but you can do so at Valentine's Dive shop, a couple of blocks from the dock, for not that much.
  • If you need food or basic items either Piggly Wiggly or Captain Bob's can take care of them, although selection is extremely limited.

On food, I'll echo some of what was said above, with one exception nothing was particularly great, although we did have a couple of meals that I would at least classify as "good." And unfortunately much of what you'll find is absurdly expensive.

Queen Conch - It's on the harbour side, near the northern part of the island, and is a shack with a deck overlooking the bay. The conch salad we got here was incredible, and one of the best things I've eaten. They also had the best conch fritters I had on this trip, as well as very good cracked conch (essentially calamari but with conch), and a tasty conch curry. The conch salad is not always available, and in fact was not available when we first sat down for lunch. They have just one guy who prepares it, and he's very slow and deliberate in doing so. As a result, a meal here is not a quick affair. If you don't have anywhere else to be you can have a lovely time sitting on the deck, but we did see several folks get frustrated at the speed at which food was coming out and leave. Their loss because the food is delicious. It's also BYOB, so you can pop across the street and buy Kalik beer 3 for $5.50, which, for the island, is a hell of a deal. I'd strongly recommend this place. I wish I'd made time for conch salad every day I was on the island.

The Landing - We actually had two dinners here, where we were staying. The first was associated with the wedding, and as a result I don't really feel it's fair to judge that meal. The second one was on our last night there, in part because every place we wanted to go was either closed on Mondays, or said they didn't have any availability. After eating at the Landing, however, I'd question the lack of availability at places and just show up. We were told that they only had one table available, and that one was inside. But during our time there many tables were never full, and several folks walked up without a reservation and were seated.

Anyhow, the food. It's good, not great, but extremely expensive. Entrees are in the $30-$50 range, appetizers in the $15-$25 range. Of the places we ate I'd recommend it, it was the best of the nicer restaurants we were at.

Acquapazza - A kind of faux Italian place. It has great views of the harbour, and if you're there at the right time of the sunset. The food is just ok, and the prices are absurd. If I went back I don't think I'd go here, in part because it's not remotely convenient to anywhere else.

Sip Sip - Of the folks attending the wedding, this was probably the most talked about and recommended place. So we went. It's located right by one of the public beach access points, and I believe it is only open for lunch (at a minimum I know that they are not open for dinner). Spectacular setting, looking over the ocean, it was hopping every time I walked by. The food is quite good, but it's really expensive. My wife's margarita was $19, a Kalik beer is $7. We went with the crowd favorite, the lobster quesadilla, and it's good, if not quite as good as advertised. It's also $40. Now, that was enough for two people, easily, but still. The other dishes looked great as well but we didn't try them.

Bahamas Coffee Roasters - We ended up here for breakfast and coffee almost every day. I like it. The coffee is quite good (and roasted in the Bahamas, apparently, although not onsite). My coffee was also $6 a cup, but at this point prices like this were expected. They have great fresh baked muffins, and their other breakfast items were also quite good, including the breakfast burrito and the Huevos Rancheros.

Valentine's - We found that on Sundays most non-hotel places were closed. So we found ourselves at Valentine's for lunch post-snorkeling trip. It is not a bad option. They have a huge deck overlooking the bay, and the food is solid, if not spectacular.

Humphrey's - Really cool, if tiny bar on the island. And really enjoyed it. They seemed to take a little more care in making their cocktails, and the place had a really cool vibe. I would have liked to have spent more time here.

Jimmy's - You're advised to arrive at North Eleuthera Airport two hours before your flight, because things can get rather backed up and delayed. If, however, there aren't delays, you'll find yourself with about an hour and fifty-five minutes to kill before your flight. Jimmy's will help you to do that. They've got a small amount of outdoor seating, and you can buy a glass of beer on tap for $1.50 (Sands, Sands Light, High Rock and one other available), or in a bottle for as cheap as $1.75. You can pick up food that looked quite good (I didn't try any) next door and eat it on their deck. It's not a bad way to kill some time, and to spend your last few Bahamian dollars before you leave.

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Ok, headed back to Nassau for a week next week for work.  Staying at the Hilton.  Last time I was there I was unimpressed with the food options (and with Nassau itself).

Any recommendations?  I'll be looking for dinners, and most likely be by myself at night after the workday.

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Ok, headed back to Nassau for a week next week for work.  Staying at the Hilton.  Last time I was there I was unimpressed with the food options (and with Nassau itself).

Any recommendations?  I'll be looking for dinners, and most likely be by myself at night after the workday.

(I really thought I had written something after my first visit back in 2012, but am not seeing it here...)

I agree with your impressions of Nassau and the food.

I can't remember the name of the Bahamian place across Marlborough street from the Hilton, but it's fine. Conch fritters, blackened fish, peas and rice, cold Kaliks. It may be better than I think it its, but I think it's just that I am not a huge fan of Bahamian cuisine. (It might be cash only. Or their CC machine wasn't working most of the times I've been in.)

There is a Greek place past (past coming from the Hilton) the Straw Market. I entered from a side street and went up one floor to the bar area to order takeout. The main entrance may be on Bay Street. I got takeout and had avgolemono, some spanikopita and something else (I can't remember now.) A welcome change from the Bahamian food.

I went to the Fish Fry one night and can't remember which place I ate at...Twin Brothers? Oh Andros? It's an interesting enough scene, but I think most of the restaurants are serving pretty the same thing. I noticed a few smaller and in some cases, portable (a smoker on a trailer) vendors, which may be a better option?

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I went to the Fish Fry one night and can't remember which place I ate at...Twin Brothers? Oh Andros? It's an interesting enough scene, but I think most of the restaurants are serving pretty the same thing. I noticed a few smaller and in some cases, portable (a smoker on a trailer) vendors, which may be a better option?

I think it's fair to say that Fish Fry is pretty much a gut bomb operation at all the places there.  Everything fried, and the fry oil might not have been changed recently.  If your tummy is cast iron, go for it.  Otherwise, caveat emptor.

There are many stands, on Potters Cay under the Paradise Island bridge, that make conch salad.  Worth a shot, can be very good, but sanitation as always is dicey.

I just did some googling and came up with this Bahamas food tour site.  Might be worth a shot -- I have no idea.

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We were recently on Paradise Island for a corporate reward trip.  We managed to sneak into Nassau for a couple of meals in the areas readily accessible by cruise ship passengers.  Of note:  Dali Modernistic Tapas:  Not earth shattering, but this is a nice mix of traditional tapas fare and local flavor.  We particularly enjoyed eating the lionfish fingers; lionfish is invasive in the Bahamas.  The avocado soup is more of a mousse, but was interesting.   We also had the misfortune to be in town during a national holiday where most of the smaller places serving locals were closed.  We ended up at the tourist-trap Sharkeez Tiki Bar, which is on the waterfront with a view of the docked cruise ships.  Much to our surprise, the fish and chips were fantastic, among the best we have had anywhere.  The breading was light and crisp and the grouper was moist.  The grilled jerk chicken sandwich was less successful, consisting of a grilled chicken breast slathered with a piquant jerk sauce.  Marinating it in a jerk sauce would have been better.  The portion sizes are generous and we would have been fine splitting the fish and chips for lunch. 

We also enjoyed our tour of John Watling's Distillery, the only locally-owned rum distillery on Nassau.  You can purchase some sort of organized tour, but we just cabbed it from Paradise Island and did it on our own, which probably paid for at least our first bottle of rum.  You will be met at the door by a "volunteer" who offers to take you on a 5-10 minute tour and makes it clear that tips are encouraged.  He gave us a hilarious account of John Watling, an infamous pirate who was, by our guide's account, quite the scoundrel.  It was an amusing departure from the usual white-washing of historical figures.  The bottling line was in use when we visited.  It is clean and very small, with minimal automation.  This isn't surprising since their rum is not exported.  Our tour guide delivered us to the gift shop, where we received a small gratis pina colada sample.  Beyond the gift shop is the bar/tasting room, where we paid about $6.50 US to sample their 3 rum line; pours were generous enough for us both to share.  For an additional $7 or so, we got a sample of their new single barrel rum, which is a limited 5,000 bottle run and had been launched only that week.  Their regular rums are a white, an amber, and a 5 year-old rum.  The white is unremarkable, the amber is well above average, and the 5 year-old rum is the smoothest I've ever tasted.  The single barrel is akin to a top level bourbon in complexity.  We brought the 5 year-old and the single barrel home with us.  The distillery is near Graycliff Inn and downtown is downhill from it, so it makes a good distillery+ lunch or dinner combo. 

Disclaimer: I have a shellfish allergy these days and on our last trip to the Bahamas, conch fritters gave my system a very thorough cleaning.  It could have been the conch, it could have been the oil, or it could have been sanitation.  As a result, we were avoiding food shacks and shellfish. 

 

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On 5/26/2016 at 10:21 AM, PollyG said:

We ended up at the tourist-trap Sharkeez Tiki Bar, which is on the waterfront with a view of the docked cruise ships.  Much to our surprise, the fish and chips were fantastic, among the best we have had anywhere.  The breading was light and crisp and the grouper was moist.  The grilled jerk chicken sandwich was less successful, consisting of a grilled chicken breast slathered with a piquant jerk sauce.  Marinating it in a jerk sauce would have been better.  The portion sizes are generous and we would have been fine splitting the fish and chips for lunch. 

We also enjoyed our tour of John Watling's Distillery, the only locally-owned rum distillery on Nassau.  You can purchase some sort of organized tour, but we just cabbed it from Paradise Island and did it on our own, which probably paid for at least our first bottle of rum.  You will be met at the door by a "volunteer" who offers to take you on a 5-10 minute tour and makes it clear that tips are encouraged.  He gave us a hilarious account of John Watling, an infamous pirate who was, by our guide's account, quite the scoundrel.  It was an amusing departure from the usual white-washing of historical figures.  The bottling line was in use when we visited.  It is clean and very small, with minimal automation.  This isn't surprising since their rum is not exported.  Our tour guide delivered us to the gift shop, where we received a small gratis pina colada sample.  Beyond the gift shop is the bar/tasting room, where we paid about $6.50 US to sample their 3 rum line; pours were generous enough for us both to share.  For an additional $7 or so, we got a sample of their new single barrel rum, which is a limited 5,000 bottle run and had been launched only that week.  Their regular rums are a white, an amber, and a 5 year-old rum.  The white is unremarkable, the amber is well above average, and the 5 year-old rum is the smoothest I've ever tasted.  The single barrel is akin to a top level bourbon in complexity.  We brought the 5 year-old and the single barrel home with us.  The distillery is near Graycliff Inn and downtown is downhill from it, so it makes a good distillery+ lunch or dinner combo. 

This is a very useful post that will benefit travelers to The Bahamas in the future. Thank you for having taken the time to write such a vivid account of your adventure - it will be here for you, and for anyone else, when people need to refer to it.

I would have *never* gone to Sharkeez Tiki Bar without having read your post (God only knows what's dripping down the top of the Nachos Supreme); now, I would actually make it a point to go there and get the fish and chips (not to mention buy a bottle of the Watling's single-barrel rum).

Your post was also the impetus behind this one.

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Nassau is a short 3 hr. direct flight from DCA, and you go thru U.S. immigration in the Bahamas on the return flight (and they have Global Entry).  Nassau also has a Priority Pass lounge (Graycliff) but I forgot to bring my card because I know DCA doesn't have a PP lounge.

 

Anyhow, staying at the Comfort Suites on Paradise Island gave me full access to Atlantis (other than its gym apparently, cause I got charged $20 even though I didn't use the gym - Comfort Suites rescinded the charge).  Comfort Suites is a 3 star hotel with friendly service, and lots of families.  Fortunately, no one was up late at night to disturb my sleep.  Atlantis is less than a quarter mile away.  The internet speed is relatively slow - blurry streaming quality at best.  Atlantis also does not provide free internet to visitors.  Comfort Suites is about $100 cheaper a night than the lowest priced room in the Atlantis.

 

Atlantis has a casino and sports book.  Both the casino and the sports book allows smoking, which was hell on my bronchitis.  I was able to place bets on NFL games but not soccer matches (Vegas allows Premier League bets, futures on Champions League and Premier League).

 

I also brought my folding bike, which let me roam all over Nassau.  The two bridges between Paradise Island and Nassau both have sidewalks where you can walk/bike across the bridge.  There are generally sidewalks around Nassau, and I was able to bike to the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay to the west, and Fort Montague to the east.

 

First  meal (late lunch) was at Virgil's BBQ in Atlantis.  I had been up since 5:30 a.m. and needed something to eat.  First dinner was at Olives (Todd English).  The conch ceviche's seasoning did little to penetrate the conch.  At least the conch wasn't tough, but that's not really a good reason to eat them.  I also had a bowl of clams, and some broccolini.  Serviceable food.

 

Day 2 found me at the Poop Deck.  I had some pleasant conch fritters - light and airy fritter where you can't really taste the conch (because there wasn't much conch, and conch also has very little flavor) - which makes them some of the best conch fritters I've ever had!  I also had some decent fish cakes (I didn't want to get something heavier like fried fish because I also ordered...) and nice stone crab claws.  3 claws for $32, they're probably large using Joe's scale.  I didn't like the dressing as much as Joe's, perhaps too mustardy and tarty.   

 

Day 2 evening was spent at Graycliff restaurant.  I couldn't find a menu online, because if I did, I wouldn't have gone.  Boring (French influenced) and expensive.  3 tiny slivers of foie gras was $62.  I also had some conch chowder (tastes like tomato based veggie soup), and ordered some charcuterie to fill me up.  The restaurant is very old school and the service was impeccable, so go for the ambiance, not for exciting food or value.

 

Day 3 found me eating sheep tongue souse at the only restaurant open early in the morning at the Arawak Cay fish fry area (I don't know the name of the restaurant).  The local firemen also stopped for souse to go, that made me feel marginally better.  The styrofoam container of souse was packed with chunks of offal, which I wasn't sure was all tongue (and that had me worried).  I managed to eat maybe 1/3 of the container....didn't want to insult the proprietors, who were standing in front of me with big knives cutting up conch!  The soup itself is pretty mild, clear broth tasted like vegetable stock cooked with tongue.

 

For dinner I had reservation at Nobu.  When the $49 sushi dinner arrived with 9 pieces of pedestrian fish and 6 tuna rolls, I refused to eat it.  I at least tried the $40 mixed seafood tempura and $12 vegetable tempura.  The shrimp was overcooked, but I had to stop eating when the enoki mushroom tempura emitted rancid oil.  They only charged me for the vegetable tempura.

 

Disheartened and still a little hungry, I went to Seafire Steakhouse.  The ox-tail soup was mostly roux, with no chunks of ox-tail.  The bone-ribeye was cooked to the requested medium rare. 

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We're not going until January, but since I'm thinking about it now I figured I'd ask if anyone has any updated tips on food or anything else. Or, if anyone could report back on a trip between now and then that would be great as well. I'll be traveling with my (non-foodie) husband and 4-year-old (who will be almost 5 by the time this trip rolls around!). We're staying in Sandyport, which is about 15 minutes from downtown Nassau.

Basically we chose the Bahamas and Nassau because it's not too far from home and we could use all of my husband's expiring airline miles (and only have to buy minimal additional miles). I have very little Caribbean experience, having only been to Puerto Rico a couple of years ago. I don't have high hopes for food but figured I may as well ask if anyone knows of anything good, specifically anything it would be worth going to downtown Nassau for.

I saw the recommendations above for Cafe Matisse. I wouldn't be too interested in Italian food unless we get sick of the local cuisine, which I suspect is a distinct possibility. (We'll be there for 4 full days.) I also figure if we get sick of the beach and check out Ardastra Gardens we could check out Twin Brothers at the Fish Fry/Arawak Cay. I'm intrigued by Athena Cafe and Bar if anyone knows anything about it (although I just looked at their website and see that they're only open for breakfast and lunch). I see there's a location of the Poop Deck, which @Ericandblueboymentioned above, near our hotel (along with a few other restaurants, which I suspect we'll mostly stick to out of convenience, but in case we get motivated to venture away from our hotel I figured I'd ask for advice!).

I'm pretty happy to be staying away from downtown Nassau and the whole Paradise Island scene. Should we expect that the staff at our hotel will generally know the cruise ship schedule so we can plan any trips we take downtown accordingly (i.e., when there aren't any cruise ships in port, if there's ever a such a time)?

Thanks in advance for any information!!

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I remain totally unimpressed by food in Nassau, but the last time I was there my colleague (a local) took me to the Green Parrot (on Paradise Island just over the bridge, looking back toward the mainland). 

It was the best fish sandwich and most fun bar I went to. Popular with locals. This does not mean it is great  

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g147416-d1754961-Reviews-Green_Parrot_Bar_Grill-Nassau_New_Providence_Island_Bahamas.html

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On 5/7/2018 at 2:20 PM, dracisk said:

We're not going until January, but since I'm thinking about it now I figured I'd ask if anyone has any updated tips on food or anything else. Or, if anyone could report back on a trip between now and then that would be great as well. I'll be traveling with my (non-foodie) husband and 4-year-old (who will be almost 5 by the time this trip rolls around!). We're staying in Sandyport, which is about 15 minutes from downtown Nassau.

Basically we chose the Bahamas and Nassau because it's not too far from home and we could use all of my husband's expiring airline miles (and only have to buy minimal additional miles). I have very little Caribbean experience, having only been to Puerto Rico a couple of years ago. I don't have high hopes for food but figured I may as well ask if anyone knows of anything good, specifically anything it would be worth going to downtown Nassau for.

I saw the recommendations above for Cafe Matisse. I wouldn't be too interested in Italian food unless we get sick of the local cuisine, which I suspect is a distinct possibility. (We'll be there for 4 full days.) I also figure if we get sick of the beach and check out Ardastra Gardens we could check out Twin Brothers at the Fish Fry/Arawak Cay. I'm intrigued by Athena Cafe and Bar if anyone knows anything about it (although I just looked at their website and see that they're only open for breakfast and lunch). I see there's a location of the Poop Deck, which @Ericandblueboymentioned above, near our hotel (along with a few other restaurants, which I suspect we'll mostly stick to out of convenience, but in case we get motivated to venture away from our hotel I figured I'd ask for advice!).

I'm pretty happy to be staying away from downtown Nassau and the whole Paradise Island scene. Should we expect that the staff at our hotel will generally know the cruise ship schedule so we can plan any trips we take downtown accordingly (i.e., when there aren't any cruise ships in port, if there's ever a such a time)?

Thanks in advance for any information!!

On 5/19/2018 at 5:57 PM, dracisk said:

Has anyone been to Sapodilla in Nassau? It's between the airport and Sandyport. Friends just ate there in April and they raved about it, but I don't trust their raves. :-) I'm wondering if it's worth the expense.

We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow, so if anyone has any updated information I'd love to know it!

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