Where to Eat in San Pedro

The Three Tiers

Almost everywhere on the island falls into one of three categories, and knowing which one you are walking into sets your expectations correctly.

The mistake most visitors make is spending the entire week in tier three. The mistake a few make is never leaving it. A good week uses all three.

What to Actually Eat

Belizean food is its own thing, drawing on Creole, Maya, Garifuna, Mestizo and Caribbean cooking, and it is worth seeking out rather than defaulting to international menus.

• Stew chicken with rice and beans. The national plate. Recado gives it the colour. If a local place does one thing, it is this.
• Fry jacks. Fried dough at breakfast, filled or alongside eggs and beans. The single best breakfast on the island.
• Whatever was landed this morning. Snapper, grouper, barracuda. Grilled whole, with lime.
• Ceviche. Conch in season, shrimp otherwise. A standard afternoon thing with a beer.
• Garnaches and salbutes. Small fried masa snacks. Cheap, everywhere, excellent.
• Marie Sharp's hot sauce. On every table in the country. The habanero one is not a novelty, it is genuinely good.

Lobster and Conch Seasons

Both are regulated and the closed seasons are enforced, for good reason.

The opening of lobster season in June is celebrated properly, with a festival in San Pedro. See the festivals guide for that and the rest of the calendar.

Where to Look

In town, walk the three streets. Front Street has the beachfront places and the views, Middle Street has more of the everyday restaurants, and the further back you go the more local and cheaper it gets. Around Central Park at the weekend there is street food, and it is very good.

North of the bridge, the beach bars and restaurants along the coast road are half the reason to do that drive. Many have docks and swimming, so lunch turns into an afternoon.

At Secret Beach, the bars along the shore do food, and it is geared to people who have been in the water since ten.

South of town, quieter, fewer options, but some good ones tucked among the resorts on Coconut Drive.

The Daily Rhythm

Meals here run earlier than visitors from Europe expect and later than some North Americans do. Knowing the pattern stops you arriving somewhere at the one hour it is shut.

Drinking

Belikin is the national beer and it is everywhere: the regular lager, the stout, and a lighter one. Local rum is inexpensive and good. Panty Ripper, which is rum and pineapple juice, is the island cocktail and the name is not something anyone here is embarrassed about.

Happy hours are widely observed and generously interpreted. Fresh juices and seaweed shake, which is sweet, milky and better than it sounds, are the non alcoholic standards.

If the evening involves any of this, settle the driving first. Belize enforces drink driving law on golf carts exactly as it does on cars, and this is the single most common way a good night turns into a bad one. Either somebody stays off it or you take taxis both ways.

Dietary Requirements

Vegetarians manage comfortably: rice and beans, plantain, garnaches and salads are everywhere, though you may want to check that the beans were not cooked with pork. Vegans need to be more specific and will do better at the places catering to visitors than at a traditional kitchen.

Serious allergies need care. Kitchens are small, staff turn over, and the concept of cross contamination is not as embedded as it is in North America or Europe. Be direct rather than polite, and carry whatever medication you need rather than assuming a pharmacy will have it.

A Week of Eating

If you want a shape rather than a list: eat breakfast near where you are staying because it is the meal you least want to drive to. Eat lunch wherever you have ended up, and let it be the cheap local one. Spend on two dinners out of seven at somewhere well regarded, and eat the other five at mid range places you walked past and liked the look of.

That pattern costs a fraction of eating every dinner at a resort and it is how you will actually find the place you talk about afterwards.

Practical Notes

• Cash. US dollars are accepted everywhere at two Belize dollars to one US dollar. Small notes are much more useful than large ones.
• Card surcharges are common and usually disclosed. Ask if it matters to you.
• Service charge is sometimes added, sometimes not. Check the bill before you tip on top.
• Pace. Food takes as long as it takes. This is not a service failure and complaining about it marks you out.
• Water. Purified water and ice are standard in established places.

Getting There and Back

Eating in town from a hotel in town is a walk. Eating anywhere north of the bridge is a drive, and getting a taxi back from a beach bar at ten at night is the part people do not plan for.

If the evening involves drinking, sort the driving out in advance. Belize enforces drink driving law on golf carts exactly as on cars. Either somebody stays off it or you take taxis both ways, and both are fine. The transport guide covers the trade offs.