9 Best Restaurants in Antigua

13.11.2024 - 23:33 / cntraveler.com / Ernest Hemingway

The best restaurants in Antigua rival the best of its idyllic beaches, and if you can pull yourself away from the white sugar shores, you’ll be rewarded with a restaurant scene that reflects the island’s deep diversity. Powered by chef-curated resort restaurants and locally-owned spots, Antigua has an established (and underrated) food scene where you can find nearly any flavor. Some of the best dishes across the island include golden fried conch fritters, curried beef stuffed roti, buttery escargot, and spicy prawn soup. Antigua also has a good mix of restaurant experiences. You can indulge in a three-course French meal under the stars or crack open a buttery lobster and wash it down with a rum punch right on the beach. From fine dining to beachside barbecue, the following list celebrates the best restaurants in Antigua.

Some of Antigua's finest cuisine includes golden fried conch fritters, curried beef stuffed roti, and buttery escargot.

Catherine’s Cafe is from the same group behind Sheer Rocks, and the beachfront French cafe is tucked into the southern part of Pigeon Point Beach. The restaurant has a St. Tropez-esque beach club vibe with daybeds, live music, and wicker tables and chairs shaded by neem trees. The restaurant has an all-day menu, but most diners head here for lunch to enjoy the sumptuous seafood in an elevated beachfront setting. There are wines a plenty, and chilled champagnes and prosecco to pair with the tuna tartar, crispy fish cakes, and handmade seafood taglioni. If you still have room, build your own sundae with house-made ice cream and sorbets, or savor a rich coffee crème brûlée.

In St. John, Antigua’s capital, Hemingways is on a second-story dining patio that overlooks the busy St. Mary’s street. The restaurant is housed in a green and white wooden structure that dates back to the 1800s, formerly a hotel called Jardines. The writer Ernest Hemingway was rumored to have hung out in the building, which has been transformed into an unpretentious, family-run diner for the past three decades. The setting invites you to linger while indulging in traditional Antiguan food: conch fritters, Caribbean seafood chowder, and grilled Antiguan lobster. Save room for the bread pudding infused with local Cavalier rum.

In Dickenson Bay, Papa Zouk’s is a rum bar that happens to offer excellent seafood dishes. Owned by German transplant Bert Kirchner, the bar is named after a man in Dominica who fascinated Kirchner with his ability to dance to Zouk music despite being deaf and mute. The dinner-only bar has a signature dish, red snapper, though the butternut fish and grouper in garlic sauce are superb. The rum list is extensive (over 250 types of rum from all over the Caribbean and the world),