Montego Bay Restaurants

The Montego Bay area offers some of the finest-and most expensive-dining in Jamaica. But if you're watching your wallet and don't have a delicate stomach, some intriguing food is sold right on the street. For example, on Kent Avenue you might try spicy jerk pork. Seasoned spareribs are also grilled over charcoal fires and sold with extra-hot sauce. Naturally, either dish goes down better with a Red Stripe beer. Cooked shrimp are sold on the streets of Mo Bay; they don't look it, but they're very hotly spiced, so be forewarned. If you're cooking your own meals, you might want to buy a fresh lobster or the catch of the day from a Montego Bay fisherman on the harbor.

Town House Gloucester Avenue Casa Blanca Hotel Montego Bay Tel:876-952-2660 Fax:876-952-3432

Jamaica Touristboard

You don't have to be one to dine at Town House by the Sea, but it is the favourite restaurant of the rich and famous, with a menu designed to meet all taste buds and prices designed to meet all pockets.

They opened our doors over thirty years ago and some of the famous guests who have graced our tables are:- Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman (in Jamaica, making Papillon), Sean Connery, Jerry Lewis, Tony O'Reilly (British Lions and Irish International Rugby Player), Ringo Starr, Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies Test Cricketer), Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, James Coburn, Hon. P.J. Patterson (Prime Minister of Jamaica), Danny Glover and many others.

The Town House is located on Montego Bay's famous Hip Strip.
Serving Lunch and Dinner

Frommers:

Housed in a redbrick building dating from 1765, the Town House is a tranquil dining choice. It offers sandwiches and salads, or more elaborate fare if your appetite demands it. At night it's floodlit, with outdoor dining on a veranda overlooking an 18th-century parish church. You can also dine in what used to be the cellars, where old ship lanterns provide a warm atmosphere. Pepper-pot or pumpkin soup is a delectable start to a meal. The chef offers a wide selection of main courses, including the local favorite, red snapper en papillote (baked in parchment). We're fond of the large rack of barbecued spareribs with the owners' special Tennessee sauce. The pasta and steak dishes are also good, especially the homemade fettuccine with whole shrimp and the perfectly aged New York strip steak.

Chef Oliver Magnus
Corniche Rd, Around Town
Phone 876/952-2988

Frommers:

Set on a hill overlooking faraway cruise ships, this restaurant is housed in a villa with a tile roof. Chef Oliver Magnus dazzles with an array of appetizers ranging from gazpacho to smoked marlin; salads are also interesting, especially the marinated papaya with the tangy balsamic green-onion vinaigrette. Main dishes include a snapper Camembert with a ranch sauce topped with cheese and toasted almonds. We're also fond of the misto di mare, a medley of shrimp, crab, and other fish stewed in a tomato pesto ragout. The grilled lamb from New Zealand is given added Jamaican flair with the use of a mild jerk spice.

China House
32 Gloucester Ave
Phone 876/952-5240

Frommers:

Forget the tacky commercial surroundings, which evoke a fast-food outlet in the States. The cooks here dish up an array of lip-smackingly good dishes, platter after platter of fresh, tasty Chinese food. In the densest concentration of stores and souvenir shops on Montego Bay's tourist strip, this high-ceilinged restaurant lies across Gloucester Avenue from the sea. The well-prepared food is served in copious portions. Lobster in black-bean sauce is a specialty, and the cooks also prepare several Cantonese dishes exceedingly well.

Day-O Plantation Restaurant
Day-O Plantation, Lot 1, Fairfield, Montego Bay, Around Town
Phone 876/952-1825

Frommers:

Here's your chance to wander back to Jamaica's plantation heyday. This place was originally built in the 1920s as the home of the overseer of one of the region's largest sugar producers, the Barnett Plantation. The restaurant occupies a long, indoor/outdoor dining room that's divided into two halves by a dance floor and a small stage. Here, owner Paul Hurlock performs as a one-man band, singing and entertaining the crowd while his wife, Jennifer, and their three children manage the dining room and kitchen.
Every dish is permeated with Jamaican spices. Try the chicken plantation-style, with red-wine sauce and herbs; filet of red snapper in Day-O style, with olives, white wine, tomatoes, and peppers; or, even better, one of the best versions of jerked snapper in Jamaica. We also like the grilled rock lobster with garlic butter.

Glistening Waters Inn and Marina
Rock Falmouth, Trelawny (between Falmouth and the Trelawny Beach Hotel)
Phone 888/991-9901 toll-free in Jamaica, 876/954-3229

Frommers:

Residents of Montego Bay often make the 45km (28-mile) drive out here along Route A1 just to sample the ambience of old Jamaica. This well-recommended restaurant and sports bar, with a veranda overlooking the lagoon, is housed in what was originally a private clubhouse for the aristocrats of nearby Trelawny. (The furniture here may remind you of a stage set for Night of the Iguana.) Menu items usually include local fish dishes, such as snapper or kingfish. Other specialties include three different lobster dishes, three different preparations of shrimp, three different conch viands, fried rice, and pork chops. The food is just what your mama would make-if she came from Jamaica. And the waters of the lagoon contain a rare form of phosphorescent microbe which, when the waters are agitated, glows in the dark. Ask about evening booze cruises, which cost $15 per person, including one drink, where you can observe this phenomenon. Departures are nightly at about 7pm.

Guangzhou
Shop 7, Miranda Ridge
39 Gloucester Ave
Phone 876/952-6200

Jamaica Touristboard:

Authentic Chinese cuisine served in air-conditioned comfort over-looking Montego Bay.

Frommers:

This is about your only choice for Chinese food along the "Hip Strip." If you live in such places as New York or San Francisco, don't get too excited about dining here. Nonetheless, what you're served isn't bad. The food is also very familiar: a selection of lobster, shrimp, chicken, and pork from lo mein to Singapore noodles. The same menu is served at both lunch and dinner. We've found lunch here a bit gloomy, but dinner is better. The chefs, incidentally, are actually from China.

Julia's
Julia's Estate, Bogue Hill, Around Town
Phone 876/952-1772

Frommers:

Julia's food, although competently prepared and using fresh ingredients whenever possible, can hardly compete with the view. The winding jungle road you take to get here is part of the before-dinner entertainment. After a jolting ride to a setting high above the city and its bay, you pass through a walled-in park that was the site of a private home built in 1840 for the Duke of Sutherland. The long, low-slung modern house boasts sweeping, open-sided views over the rolling hills and faraway coastline. Wills Green, the man running the place, draws on the styles of both the Caribbean and central Europe to prepare filet of fresh fish with lime juice and butter, lobster, shrimp, and many different kinds of pasta. Also look for such dishes as the mixed grilled seafood, cheesecake of the day, and their delicious raspberry tart

Marguerite's Seafood by the Sea and Margueritaville Sports Bar & Grill
Gloucester Ave, Around Town
Phone 876/952-4777

Frommers:

This two-in-one restaurant across from the Coral Cliff Hotel specializes in seafood served on a breeze-swept terrace overlooking the sea. There's also an air-conditioned lounge with an adjoining "Secret Garden." The chef specializes in exhibition cookery at a flambé grill. The menu is mainly devoted to seafood and fresh fish, but there are also numerous innovative pastas and rather standard meat dishes. The changing dessert options are homemade, and a reasonable selection of wines is served. The sports bar and grill features a 34m (110-ft.) water slide, live music, satellite TV, watersports, a sun deck, and a straightforward menu of seafood, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, salads, and snacks-nothing fussy. Naturally, the bartenders specialize in margaritas.

Pork Pit
27 Gloucester Ave
Phone 876/952-3663

Frommers:

This joint is the best place to go for the famous Jamaican jerk pork and jerk chicken, and the location is right in the heart of Montego Bay, near Walter Fletcher Beach. Many beachgoers desert their towels at noontime and head over here for a big, reasonably priced lunch. Picnic tables encircle the building, and everything is open-air and informal. A half-pound of jerk meat, served with a baked yam or baked potato and a bottle of Red Stripe, is usually enough for a meal. The menu also includes steamed roast fish.

Richmond Hill Inn
Top of Union St, Around Town
Phone 876/952-3859

Frommers:

This plantation-style house dates from 1806, when it was built by owners of the Dewars whiskey distillery. Today it's run by a family who prepare well-flavored food for an appreciative clientele. Dinners include a sautéed shrimp, an excellent house salad, stuffed breast of chicken, filet of red snapper, and a choice of dessert cakes. Many of the dishes are of a relatively standard international style, but others, especially the lobster, are worth the trek up the hill.

Round Hill Dining Room
In the Round Hill Hotel and Villas, along Rte. A1, 13km (8 miles) west of the center of Montego Bay, Around Town
Phone 876/956-7050

Frommers:

One of the top dining rooms in Montego Bay, this place has attracted a smattering of celebrities with its sophisticated surroundings. To reach the dining room, you'll have to pass through the resort's open-air reception area and proceed through a garden. Many visitors opt for a drink in the large and high-ceilinged bar area, designed by Ralph Lauren, before moving on to dinner served either on a terrace perched above the surf or (during inclement weather) under an open-sided breezeway. The menu changes nightly, offering an array of well-prepared dishes, from Mediterranean to Jamaican, from American to Italian pastas. For example, shrimp and pasta Caribe is sautéed with chopped herbs, cream, and wine; and Rasta pasta is tossed with vegetables and basil. Caribbean veal is stuffed with spicy crabmeat and seared, and the catch of the day is served jerked, broiled, or steamed with butter, herbs, and ginger. Of course, you can also order more classic dishes, including rack of lamb, pan-seared scallops, or a medallion of lobster sautéed with cream and served over fettuccine. Afternoon tea and sandwiches are served daily at 4pm.

Sugar Mill Restaurant
At the Half Moon Golf, Tennis, and Beach Club, Rose Hall, along Rte. A1, Around Town
Phone 876/953-2314

Frommers:

This restaurant, near the ruin of what used to be a water wheel for a sugar plantation, is reached after a drive through rolling landscape. The lovely setting and exquisite cuisine make this place a perennial favorite. Guests dine by candlelight either indoors or on an open terrace with a view of a pond, the water wheel, and plenty of greenery. Lunch can be a relatively simple affair, a daily a la carte offering, preceded by Mama's pumpkin soup and followed with homemade rum-and-raisin ice cream. For dinner, try one of the chef's zesty versions of jerk pork, fish, or chicken. He also prepares the day's catch with considerable flair. Smoked North Coast marlin is a specialty. On any given day, you can ask the waiter what's cooking in the curry pot. Chances are it will be a Jamaican specialty such as goat, full of flavor and served with island chutney

The Brewery
In Miranda Ridge Plaza, Gloucester Ave, Around Town
Phone 876/940-2433

Frommers:

This is more a bar than a full-scale restaurant, but lunch and dinner are served. Basic hamburgers, salads, and sandwiches are available, and there's also a daytime special buffet featured on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, costing J$300 (US$5). You can enjoy drinks and a meal on the outside patio overlooking the ocean. The best time to come for drinks is during happy hour, from 4 to 6pm daily. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have disco nights, and the bar has karaoke on Thursday.

The Castles
In the Sea Castles Resort, Rose Hall (along A1 east of Montego Bay, toward Falmouth), Around Town
Phone 876/953-4671

Frommers:

The Castles is one of the most elegant restaurants between Montego Bay and Falmouth. The chefs scour the globe in their search for dishes such as gazpacho, spicy spaghetti in meat sauce, or a beef consommé julienne appetizer. In a formal setting that's open to the breezes, guests peruse a menu that is usually divided among seafood selections-such as a delicious lobster thermidor-and main dishes and roasts, perhaps tenderloin of pork with honey and thyme or a savory roast prime rib of beef. There's also a selection of Italian dishes ranging from veal parmigiana to chicken with peppers, though these tend to vary in quality. Carrot cake is the pastry chef's prized dessert. Although the restaurant serves its regular guests nightly, it is open to the general public only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday.

The Houseboat Grill
Freeport Rd, Around Town
Phone 876/979-8845

Frommers:

The setting for this unusual and very laid-back restaurant is a houseboat built around 1960 that floats at permanent anchor from a pier beside Freeport Road. You can enjoy a pre-dinner drink and watch the sunset from a chair on the main deck before descending into the boat's innards for a meal that's composed of culinary ideas from virtually everywhere. Specialties include New Zealand mussels in a Thai-style red curry; pan-seared pork medallions with apple-pecan stuffing and a brandy-flavored cream sauce; and filet of red snapper with Thai-style tamarind sauce and garlic-flavored green beans. Although the kitchen closes around 10pm, the bar opens every day at 4pm and remains open until whenever the owners feel like shutting it down.

The Native Restaurant
29 Gloucester Ave
Phone 876/979-2769

Jamaica Touristboard:

Fine Jamaican cuisine including stewed oxtails, stew peas (red kidney beans), rice and peas, curried goat (mutton), jerk chicken/pork with lots more.

Frommers:

Open to the breezes, this casual restaurant with panoramic views serves some of the finest Jamaican dishes in the area. Appetizers include ackee and salt fish and jerk reggae chicken, or smoked marlin, which you can follow with steamed fish or jerk chicken. A more exotic specialty is Boonoonoonoos; billed as "A Taste of Jamaica," it's a big platter with a little bit of everything-meats, fish, and vegetables.

The Pelican
Gloucester Ave, Around Town
Phone 876/952-3171

Frommers:

A Montego Bay landmark, the family-friendly Pelican has been serving good food at reasonable prices for more than a quarter century. Most of the dishes are at the lower end of the price scale, unless you order shellfish. Many diners come here at lunch for one of the well-stuffed sandwiches, juicy burgers, or barbecued chicken. You can also choose from a wide array of Jamaican dishes, including stewed peas and rice, curried goat, Caribbean fish, fried chicken, and curried lobster. A "meatless menu" is also featured, and includes such dishes as a vegetable plate. The soda fountain serves old-fashioned sundaes with real whipped cream.

The Terrace Restaurant
P.O. Box 99
Montego Bay
Tel:876-953-2650
Fax:876-953-2617

Covered outdoor terrace restaurant serves scrumptious breakfast buffet including cooked to order egg station, continental and hot dishes. In the evening, themed buffets offer variety of the freshest seafood, carving stations and mouth watering dessert selections. Features live evening entertainment each night.
Serving Breakfast and Dinner

Three Palms
Across from the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort, Rose Hall, Around Town
Phone 876/953-2650

Frommers:

This restaurant sits across from one of the largest hotels in Montego Bay. With its cedar-shingled design and trio of steeply pointed roofs, it has the air of a country club. Not everything is ambrosial on the menu, but the cooks turn out a predictable array of good pasta and seafood dishes. Many of the flavors are Mediterranean, especially the lobster tails and other seafood dishes. Two intriguing chef's specialties are "grouper round down" (grouper served with shrimp, squid, and mussels) and pan-seared snapper with beans, rice, and fresh vegetables

Links & Sources :

• WCities
• Wikipedia
• Frommers
• Rough Guides
• Lonely Planet
• Jamaica Touristboard