Top Bajan Meals

For those of you who aren't aware, I took a lovely, week-long trip to Barbados earlier this month. In this post, I'll rank the top Bajan meals I had on the island. I had a chance to dine at many local restaurants and also fast-food places, so there was a lot of variety in the meals I tried.

Just a little foreword, but the famous local delight of Barbados is flying fish. It's their national fish and an icon around the country. Most of the recommendations I got prior to going to Barbados was about trying the flying fish (along with hitting up Oistins on Friday night)!

What is a Bajan meal you ask? Well from a tourist POV (no idea if this is what locals eat), this is we were served: Fish or chicken, rice or macaroni pasta, and salad all adding up to around $12... so here it goes:

1. Uncle George's, Oistins Fish Fry (the one with the longest line)

As mentioned above, practically everyone told us to go to Ositins Friday night fish fry, even locals we spoke to during the trip asked if we had gone yet. I can definitely see why after trying the food. We were told to go to the one with the longest line and though there were many shops we passed by, it was obvious which one they were talking about. We waited about 25 minutes here, with the rain going on and off, but it was so worth it in the end. When you order, you pick what fish you want and whether you want rice or macaroni pie. I ordered Flying Fish with Rice, but as you can see from the photo below, I got both rice and macaroni pie. I also asked for Macaroni Salad on the side (no extra cost either!). It's VERY varied what you get in your plate, I didn't get any potatoes in mine but someone else got like two whole potatoes in their order. Everything was amazing but the white sauce for the fish is just to die for! Not sure how they season the fish but it was so distinguished. The plate was an excellent medley of Bajan food, perfect for our last night on the island.

2. Sea Side Bar, Bathsheba

One day, we decided to rent vehicles and explore other parts of the island and Bathsheba was one of our destinations. The Soup Bowl is known as an advanced surf spot in Bathsheba, and no swimming allowed because of the rip tides (of course we didn't know this going there and brought our beginner surf boards), so we stayed in the natural jacuzzi pools in the water and explored this lesser traveled tourist spot. While walking around the area, we found a spot for lunch, the Sea Side Bar located conveniently steps away from the beach. Available for order were Fish Burgers, or Fish or Chicken with Rice, I of course ordered the later as shown in my photo. This meal really stood out in my mind, not sure if it was because I was starving, or if it was flavourful rice and gravy, or the extremely juicy and tender chicken but I remember it as the best meal, well before Oistins. I also loved the random side of corn and carrots, nice change from plain iceberg lettuce. Great food eaten on the patio with a beautiful view of ocean waves crashing on random shaped rocks and watching surfers? Definitely a standout lunch.

3. Jammin' Catamaran Cruise, Bridgetown

IMO, the second best day of the trip was when we did a Catamaran tour, 5 hours on a boat with all-you-can-drink, snorkelling with turtles and in a shipwreck, and lunch buffet. What else could I want? I wasn't expecting much from the food but I was really surprised on the quality they served us. The meal included Tilapia, Chicken, Rice, Macaroni Pie, Salad, and Bread in a self-serve fashion. The tilapia was absolutely amazing, even someone who isn't a fan of fish would have enjoyed it. The chicken was also great, I really wanted another piece but they were all out when I went back. I was glad the salad had dressing because most of the places don't serve dressing with their salads so it's literally just lettuce. There was also a gravy they said to pour over basically everything, the rice, macaroni, fish. It was such a delightful meal to add to a fantastic day. It was really hard to rank this one and the last one because they were both great.

4. Fisherman's Pub, Speightstown

This dinner followed lunch at the Sea Side Bar, we were on the opposite side of the island from which we started and in the second largest city in Barbados.  In comparison, I wasn't one of the great meals from the trip. I found the food a bit dry and the portion was quite small. When we arrived, they weren't serving much food so our only options were Chicken or Flying Fish with Rice, I think usually they have a broader menu. It took quite a long time for our food to come, but we were quite a large group and there were only two people there. The restaurant was quite big though and they were saying to come back the next night for karaoke, the owners were very friendly. There wasn't anything wrong with the food, just in comparison, I didn't enjoy it as much as the others. For dessert, they were serving Nutmeg Ice Cream, which I didn't particularly like after the first bite but other people liked it. It tasted like 'baking' to me. It was quite dark when we arrived so we didn't get to enjoy the view of the ocean and long dock beside the place but enjoyed the breezes coming in.

So that's all the traditional Bajan meals I had on the trip, I also got to try some other local foods like dolphin, curry, seafood, and Chefettes but I didn't include those on here obviously. I snuck back a bottle of the Bajan hot sauce they have at all the restaurants but realized that it doesn't go quite well with any of the food I usually eat here! :( I guess I will have to go back to enjoy that hot sauce... or find someone here who can cook Bajan food!