Saint Martin's Boulevard de Grand Case might be the most delicious street in the Caribbean: grilled chicken and a johnnycake from an open-air lolo one minute, a full French dinner with Burgundy the next. That walkable strip is the headline act in a new roundup of 14 islands where the food alone justifies the trip — and the list doubles as a ready-made eating itinerary.
In Nassau, the story goes, celebrity-chef dining and proper Bahamian cooking sit side by side. Marcus Samuelsson's seafood-and-steak house and Daniel Boulud's French-Bahamian kitchen anchor the Baha Mar resort, while two lunches should go local: conch salad chopped to order at McKenzie's on Potter's Cay Dock, and fried fish with peas and rice at Oh Andros or Twin Brothers on Arawak Cay.
Barbados rewards grazing. Start with a fish cutter at Cuzz's near Pebbles Beach (fish-and-cheese if you're only having one), spend Friday night at Oistins — Pat's Place for grilled fish and mac pie — and split small plates at Worthing Square Food Garden. Save one west-coast splurge for The Cliff, tables suspended above the water in Derricks.
Grand Cayman's strength is consistency: casual Cayman-style fish at Heritage Kitchen in West Bay and Eric Ripert's Blue at the Ritz-Carlton can share the same week without either feeling like a compromise. St Barth keeps things compact — codfish fritters at Eddy's Ghetto in Gustavia, French cooking at L'Esprit near Saline, lunch at Le Grain de Sel straight off the beach.
Aruba has quietly become the region's chef's-table capital. Ever seats you facing an open kitchen, Infini is chef Urvin Croes' tasting-menu room, and the counterpoint is fried fish waterside at Zeerovers in Savaneta — plus a warm cheese pastechi somewhere in between. Martinique mixes French and Creole in one day: accras and ti' punch after the Fort-de-France market, beach lunches at Le Petibonum in Le Carbet or Ti' Sable on Grand Anse d'Arlet, and a pilgrimage north to family-run Tante Arlette in the fishing village of Grand'Rivière.
Guadeloupe's Basse-Terre side rewards a slow drive from a Deshaies base — grilled snapper, colombo and blaff at La Savane, L'Amer and La Croisière Chez Lulu, with swims at Grande Anse in between. Curaçao blends Dutch and Caribbean: lunch in the old market hall Plasa Bieu, contemporary cooking at Kome, krioyo at Jaanchie's in Westpunt, and late-night fries from a truk'i pan truck like Flako's.
Then there's Trinidad, billed as having the Caribbean's greatest street food. Doubles at Sauce Doubles in Curepe, curry roti at Patraj or Ali's, and the classic drive to Maracas Bay for Richard's Bake & Shark, where the sauce selection is half the order. The advice that applies everywhere on this list: try the same dish from two vendors and pick your loyalty.
For anyone who plans holidays around the table rather than the beach chair, this is essentially a two-week Caribbean tasting route — pick two or three islands and eat your way between them.
