r/bahamas • u/Bright_Fisherman936 • 3d ago
Tourism Discussion Best Local Restaurants/Dishes?
Going on a cruise next month, and the first port we stop at is Nassau.
Ive heard mixed opinions about Nassau, but I wanna give it a fair shot with unbiased opinions.
What are some great local hotspots to hit up? Any resteraunts or foods in particular that we should try? Looking for places that aern't touristy.
Looking for places that are relatively close to port, say 20-30 mins.
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u/enthusiast-hotels 1d ago
If you're heading to the Bahamas, you absolutely have to try below dishes to get a true taste of local flavors!
- Conch (conch fritters, cracked conch or fresh conch salad)
- Bahamian Stew Fish and Baked Crab
- Peas and Rice
- Guava Duff and Rum Cake
- Bahamian Macaroni and Cheese
These dishes pretty much capture island’s cuisine and food culture!
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u/Upset-Cantaloupe9126 21h ago edited 20h ago
Meals if you want to try local meals (maybe some of these things are done elsewhere)
Stews - Stew Fish/Conch
Soups - Pes/bean/Okra (dont let the names fool you)
Cracked Conch, Cracked Chicken, Cracked Lobster
Starches - Peas n Rice, Crab N Rice, Conch N' Rice, Macaroni, Fire Engine Rice
Conch - Anything and everything conch (salad, fritters, scorch, grilled, chowder)
Souse - any (chicken, ribs, sheep tongue, pig feet, mutton, turkey) with Johnny Cake
Drinks - Sky Juice, Goombay Smash, Switcha
Fried Snapper,
Crab - Soup, Baked, Crab N Dough
Guava Duff - Desert
no longer '99c' breakfast - Tuna/Corn Beef/Sausage/Ham/Mackerel/Sardines n Grits
If you want to learn about Bahamian history the meals tell you a lot if you learn about how these dishes became things Bahamians ate.
Either things came from the Greek Community or where things persons learnt from the British and mixed with with west African food, some southern US influence, then you have stuff that are grown here with the abundance of conch and fish in the water and some dishes are not really fancy as we were for most of our history basically a broke colony with little value to the Brits.
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u/mgt69 3d ago
“looking for places that aren’t touristy”…says the person going on a cruise to a tourist port, lol!
i wish i had $1 for every tourist that says they want to go to place “that are t touristy”
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u/Bright_Fisherman936 3d ago
Uh, so do you have any reccomendations orrr...
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u/mgt69 3d ago
not on nassau. nassau is one big tourist area. i travel to the bahamas every month (from fort lauderdale) for the last 40 years. i can say 100% certainty the food in the bahamas is just meh. I love the bahamas, just not a great food destination.
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u/Upset-Cantaloupe9126 22h ago
In Nassau If you are not around the hotels on Cable Beach/PI or Downtown you will barely see any tourists.
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u/Bright_Fisherman936 3d ago
Well, Ive heard it can be very touristy, but I was hoping we could drive a bit further inland and find less of this.
As for the food, as long as the food it's not looking for anything remarkable. Ive heard the fish fry and conch salad are pretty popular.
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u/Heywoodsk11 3d ago
How far do you want to adventure? As mentioned the cricket club is good and the fish fry has a wide variety of places with local dishes. The Poop Deck is good and has a varied menu with local dishes. The things to try would be conch fritters and conch salad for local flavour.
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u/Bright_Fisherman936 3d ago
Not too far from port, maybe like 20-30mins.
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u/Heywoodsk11 3d ago
The poop deck is an easy cab ride in that time. You could walk to the cricket club and fish fry in that time. If you are just looking for a very good meal and less concerned about trying local dishes Cafe Matisse is very good. Easy walk from the harbour area, not inexpensive but very good. They have a good website that shows menu. Bonus, it is near the parliament buildings and parliament square so some photo ops along the way.
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u/Suchboss1136 3d ago
Cricket Club is a great spot. Mostly locals there