If your September has turned decidedly autumnal, Condé Nast Traveller has a remedy: a single evening of Caymanian cooking in Belgravia. On Wednesday 30 September, from 6.30pm, Wild by Tart — the former coal station in Eccleston Yards that has become one of the neighbourhood's smartest restaurants — will host A Taste of the Cayman Islands, a dinner built around the food of the three-island British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean.
The evening is led by Diego Smith, a Caymanian chef known for his take on the island's street food. His brief is to translate the flavours of George Town and its beaches to a London dining room: a cocktail-and-canapé reception to start, followed by a seated dinner with matched wines, with the chef on hand to talk through the stories behind each dish.
The menu leans hard into Cayman staples. Expect mahi ceviche marinated in fresh orange, jerk pork belly cooked over cassava charcoal, grilled chicken with papaya salad, and the islands' signature snapper, coconut and breadfruit run-down — a slow stew rooted in local fishing and farming traditions. There's a dessert the organisers are keeping quiet about, billed as the dish that might have you pricing flights before you've left the table.
Tickets start at £100 per person, which covers the welcome reception, the full dinner and wine pairings. For a booking that doubles as a scouting mission — the dinner is explicitly framed as a taste of a destination worth travelling for — that puts it in the territory of a special-occasion night out rather than a casual Wednesday.
Why bother? Caymanian food is still under-represented in the UK compared with the wider Caribbean canon, so a dinner hosted by a chef cooking from the source is a rare chance to try dishes like run-down outside the islands themselves. If you've been mulling a Caribbean trip and Grand Cayman is on the shortlist, this is a low-effort way to get a read on whether its food culture is your thing — while squeezing a few more weeks out of summer in London.
Seats at one-night events like this tend to go quickly, so booking ahead is wise. Details, times and tickets are available via Condé Nast Traveller.