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Provided by the compucert The most important part of any vacation is the food. Is food included in your stay? If not, then how far must you trek to find things to eat? What sort of variety is available?
Since our plane landed in the early afternoon we got the our hotel with a lot of day to go. My wife doesn't like to eat before or during a flight so she was starved when we arrived. We were staying at the Blue Horizon. It's a nice enough hotel and for the money we paid for the trip, I think it was excellent. They have their own restaurant on the grounds. That was our first taste of food on the island. Sort of. I ordered a burger and Stacey also had something tourist-like. The staff there are quite efficient but the menu is rather limited and high priced. The beef on my burger wasn't great, so I chose not to eat there other than for breakfast. The breakfast there was very good.
That's fine. There's plenty of food all over that area...
Right next door to the hotel is Chefette, the island's fast food restaurant. The food is hit or miss. Some of the chicken tastes good, some doesn't. The beef isn't all that great. The website: http://www.chefette.com/
If you walk over to the next shopping center and you have more options. We tried the "NY PIZZA" over there. It took 40 minutes for them to make 2 slices. They were okay at best, but certainly not up to NY standard. There's a Chinese restaurant in there too. We didn't go and we didn't see anyone else there ever, either. There was a very nice little place in there called JUST GRILLIN' that had pretty good food. Their beef wasn't great either, so I assume it must be an island thing. But the grilled fish and rice was pretty good and the beer was pretty cheap, so we ate there a couple times. I think there might've been a couple other shops there but we didn't eat at any of them.
A little further down the road were several other restaurants, but the only one we went to was called Bubba's. It's like a local version of Bennigan's or TGIF's. The food was pretty good and the beer was VERY cheap, so we ate there a couple times. Also, this might've been the ONLY air conditioned restaurant we were able to find. If you trekked further you'd find KFC, a Greek Restaurant and an English Style Pub. There were many other things along the way, but we never really ventured that far.
If you left the hotel heading in the other direction you found other options. Indian food. Another Italian style place. The place we wanted to try was the Lucky Horseshoe. We went by at about sox or seven one night. The place was open, but empty except for one table with four girls at it. When we strolled up they started shaking their heads. "Sorry, you're not dressed appropriately," they informed me and sent us away. I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. My wife fumed. We'd walked by on other nights and the place was always deserted and yet they were turning away customers. Fine screw them, they didn't get my dollars. It's a pretty stupid rule, too, being down the block from the beach and very touristy areas. Then again, I'm not the boss.
We went on two other excursions that took us further away and tried different eats.
One day we took the minivan that they pack about 14-15 people into to go to town. When we got here and we got our bearings about us we wandered their big city. I have no idea what it was called. They just called it "town." It wasn't even as busy as Main Street, Flushing. We wandered about and found the one restaurant that all locals highly recommend: MUSTOR'S. IF you blinked you might miss it as it was a small place on the second floor. But if you found it, you'd be happy you did. Once again, no a/c. Great service, and pretty quick. Good sized portions at a great price. We had the flying fish there with rice and peas. Wonderful! In addition the owner was a really nice guy and made suggestions regarding places we might want to see on the island.
It was also suggested that we go to Oistin. That adventure will be a bog entry on it's own.
But the most pleasant surprise was the food van lady. There was a lady who had a van with racks of home made food that she sold at the taxi stand across the street from our hotel near the beach. For $7 Barbados, or US$3.50 you get a very large portion of assorted taste treats. Rice, meat, vegies, noodles, salad and it weighs a lot, and tastes great. You can't go wrong for the money.
Unlike some trips we've been on we were very happy with the food we were able to get nearby. And so you know, they charge a 15% VATS or something. It's a flat tax on everything on the island. In the Bahamas they charge a similar tax, sort of, but it's a mandatory gratuity. It took a couple days for us to figure that out. I felt bad when I did. Previously I stiffed a waitress, but I asked if the meal included the tip and she said I didn't have to leave any.
So the bottom line, on Barbados the TIP IS NOT INCLUDED.
Now you're ready to have fun there. It's a nice place.
Since our plane landed in the early afternoon we got the our hotel with a lot of day to go. My wife doesn't like to eat before or during a flight so she was starved when we arrived. We were staying at the Blue Horizon. It's a nice enough hotel and for the money we paid for the trip, I think it was excellent. They have their own restaurant on the grounds. That was our first taste of food on the island. Sort of. I ordered a burger and Stacey also had something tourist-like. The staff there are quite efficient but the menu is rather limited and high priced. The beef on my burger wasn't great, so I chose not to eat there other than for breakfast. The breakfast there was very good.
That's fine. There's plenty of food all over that area...
Right next door to the hotel is Chefette, the island's fast food restaurant. The food is hit or miss. Some of the chicken tastes good, some doesn't. The beef isn't all that great. The website: http://www.chefette.com/
If you walk over to the next shopping center and you have more options. We tried the "NY PIZZA" over there. It took 40 minutes for them to make 2 slices. They were okay at best, but certainly not up to NY standard. There's a Chinese restaurant in there too. We didn't go and we didn't see anyone else there ever, either. There was a very nice little place in there called JUST GRILLIN' that had pretty good food. Their beef wasn't great either, so I assume it must be an island thing. But the grilled fish and rice was pretty good and the beer was pretty cheap, so we ate there a couple times. I think there might've been a couple other shops there but we didn't eat at any of them.
A little further down the road were several other restaurants, but the only one we went to was called Bubba's. It's like a local version of Bennigan's or TGIF's. The food was pretty good and the beer was VERY cheap, so we ate there a couple times. Also, this might've been the ONLY air conditioned restaurant we were able to find. If you trekked further you'd find KFC, a Greek Restaurant and an English Style Pub. There were many other things along the way, but we never really ventured that far.
If you left the hotel heading in the other direction you found other options. Indian food. Another Italian style place. The place we wanted to try was the Lucky Horseshoe. We went by at about sox or seven one night. The place was open, but empty except for one table with four girls at it. When we strolled up they started shaking their heads. "Sorry, you're not dressed appropriately," they informed me and sent us away. I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. My wife fumed. We'd walked by on other nights and the place was always deserted and yet they were turning away customers. Fine screw them, they didn't get my dollars. It's a pretty stupid rule, too, being down the block from the beach and very touristy areas. Then again, I'm not the boss.
We went on two other excursions that took us further away and tried different eats.
One day we took the minivan that they pack about 14-15 people into to go to town. When we got here and we got our bearings about us we wandered their big city. I have no idea what it was called. They just called it "town." It wasn't even as busy as Main Street, Flushing. We wandered about and found the one restaurant that all locals highly recommend: MUSTOR'S. IF you blinked you might miss it as it was a small place on the second floor. But if you found it, you'd be happy you did. Once again, no a/c. Great service, and pretty quick. Good sized portions at a great price. We had the flying fish there with rice and peas. Wonderful! In addition the owner was a really nice guy and made suggestions regarding places we might want to see on the island.
It was also suggested that we go to Oistin. That adventure will be a bog entry on it's own.
But the most pleasant surprise was the food van lady. There was a lady who had a van with racks of home made food that she sold at the taxi stand across the street from our hotel near the beach. For $7 Barbados, or US$3.50 you get a very large portion of assorted taste treats. Rice, meat, vegies, noodles, salad and it weighs a lot, and tastes great. You can't go wrong for the money.
Unlike some trips we've been on we were very happy with the food we were able to get nearby. And so you know, they charge a 15% VATS or something. It's a flat tax on everything on the island. In the Bahamas they charge a similar tax, sort of, but it's a mandatory gratuity. It took a couple days for us to figure that out. I felt bad when I did. Previously I stiffed a waitress, but I asked if the meal included the tip and she said I didn't have to leave any.
So the bottom line, on Barbados the TIP IS NOT INCLUDED.
Now you're ready to have fun there. It's a nice place.
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