Symbol indicates a Frommer's favorite.Tel: 345/949-5747
3 Front St
Located in the center of George Town and surrounded by office buildings and shops, this restaurant does most of its business at lunchtime and during the late afternoon, after the nearby businesses have closed. Dozens of regulars enjoy cocktails here after work, making late afternoon an especially good time to get an insight into the inner life of Grand Cayman. The restaurant and bar are decorated like a warm, welcoming tavern, with exposed brick and dark mahogany paneling. Lunches here are simple, quick, and efficient, focusing on salads, sandwiches, light platters, and soups. Dinners are more elaborate and can be accompanied by glasses of any of eight house wines, which are priced from CI$5 to CI$7 (US$6.25-US$8.75) a glass. Other cocktails, such as a melon-flavored piña colada (called a Midori Colada) cost from CI$6.50 to CI$7.50 (US$8.15-US$9.40) each. If you just want to nibble on bar snacks and tapas and hang out at the bar, consider ordering the jerk-chicken quesadilla, the flash-fried calamari with jerk-seasoned tartar sauce, or an antipasto platter. Main courses at dinner might include well-prepared versions of partially seared tuna tataki; baked portobello mushrooms with Gorgonzola cheese; roasted and olive-crusted rack of lamb; and braised salmon with seaweed salad. The wide-ranging vegetarian options are very tasty too.
Cuisine Type: American
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30am-midnight; Sat 11:30am-11pm
Price: Main courses CI$15-CI$24 (US$19-US$30)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
Tel: 345/949-7955
This is the only spot on Grand Cayman that serves the intricately flavored and sometimes fiery cuisine of Thailand. The interior is graceful, elegant, and rather formal and upscale-looking, with black lacquer furniture and lots of Thai paintings. The waitresses are beautifully outfitted in formal Thai costumes, many of them pink. Many island diners come to this genuinely well-liked place for their favorite dishes, including a divine Thai-style lobster and squid with red-curry sauce, pad Thai (rice noodles with shrimp and bean sprouts), stir-fried chicken with cashews and bell peppers, curries, Thai-style spring rolls, and a deep-fried whole red snapper topped with Thai-style chili sauce (the best dish, in our opinion). A lunch buffet is offered on Tuesday and Thursday.
Cuisine Type: Asian/Pac Rim
Hours: Mon-Sat 11:30am-2:30pm; daily 6-10pm
Price: Lunch main courses CI$10-CI$13 (US$13-US$16); lunch buffet (served Tues and Thurs) CI$12 (US$15); dinner main courses CI$16-CI$21 (US$20-US$26)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
Tel: 345/946-6398
426 West Bay Rd
This restaurant screams fun. Christmas lights hang around the edges of the thatched roof, and neon signs make the bar visible from any part of the restaurant. If you want a nice, quiet dinner, this isn't the place. Golf, football, rugby, hockey, basketball, cricket, and baseball can all be seen on one of the many big-screen televisions, and mixologists can create just about any cocktail your heart desires. Depending on what part of the restaurant you're sitting in, the walls will either be deep red or neon green with monkeys. The staff is young and hip, as is much of the clientele. The menu is nothing extraordinary, but the food is made well. Try the Island spicy linguine or the West Indian spice-encrusted tuna. You'll find a kids menu, but we wouldn't recommend taking children here past eight o'clock.
Cuisine Type: Caribbean
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-1am; Sat-Sun 11am-midnight
Price: Sandwiches and wraps CI$7-CI$11 (US$9-US$14). Main courses CI$11-CI$20 (US$14-US$25)
Credit Cards: MC, V
Tel: 345/945-6600
One of the most appealing restaurants in the Caymans, Deckers allows diners to choose their atmosphere from three separate areas. If you want casual dining, try the terrace, where live music can be heard on weekends. In the air-conditioned dining room, original Caribbean paintings and couches for lounging abound. The backyard is the most tranquil of the dining areas, as diners listen to the calming sounds of water running in a triple-tier fountain. Our favorite part of the restaurant, however, is the bar. Built in an original English double-decker bus, the bar is the place to get anything from fine wines to tropical drinks to Metropolitan martinis. The extensive and well-prepared cuisine is what keeps people coming back here. Excellent choices include the homemade portobello-mushroom ravioli, macadamia-nut-crusted black grouper, apple cured and grilled Chilean Key lime salmon, and Moroccan spiced rack of lamb. The wine list contains more than 70 labels. A children's menu is available.
Cuisine Type: Continental
Hours: Daily 5:30-10:30pm
Price: Main courses CI$17-CI$30 (US$21-US$38)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V.
Tel: 345/946-2815
Although some island restaurants might feature an Indian dish on their menus from time to time, this is the only purely Indian restaurant in the Cayman Islands, and as such, it's often sought out as a change of pace by diners who have had their fill of Caribbean cuisine. The decor is warm, folkloric, and charming, with the interior illuminated with lanterns made from embroidered fabric. Dishes are, as a matter of policy, prepared with a "medium" degree of spiciness, which you can doctor by instructing the staff (most of whom come from either Goa or Bombay) according to your wishes. There's a wide array of meat, fish, and vegetarian dishes to choose from, but ongoing favorites include chicken korma in a mild curry sauce; chicken tikka masala, cooked in a medium-spicy tomato-flavored butter sauce; and lamb vindaloo, served in a tomato-based spicy curry sauce. All main courses come with saffron-flavored rice, pickles, yogurt, salad, and Indian breads. The lunch buffet is one of the genuinely excellent meal values on Grand Cayman.
Cuisine Type: Indian
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30am-2:30pm; daily 5:30-10pm
Reservations: Reservations recommended
Price: Lunch main courses CI$9-CI$14 (US$11-US$18); lunch buffet CI$8 (US$12); dinner main courses CI$15-CI$26 (US$19-US$33)
Credit Cards: AE, MC, V
Tel: 345/947-3456
This restaurant offers beautiful views out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that take up a full wall. Sunshine floods the restaurant during the day, giving it an open-air vibe. The friendly staff serves choices from an extensive menu. Your best bets are the seafood Monterey, grilled ginger tuna with a ginger-soy sauce, the Cayman conch chowder, or the Cayman fettuccine with jerk chicken, shrimp, and red bell peppers in a Cayman sauce. You can also choose from a wide selection of savory pizzas. Parts of the menu have a cheesy wannabe Sopranos feel -- for example, the Stallone calzone and Mama's Linguini and meatballs Ba Da Bing -- but the taste of the food makes up for it.
Cuisine Type: International
Hours: Daily 11:30am-10pm
Price: Pizza CI$9.50-CI$16 (US$12-US$19). Main courses CI$11-CI$29 (US$14-US$36)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
Tel: 345/949-7633
2828 Old Fort Building
At this quintessential family-run Italian restaurant -- with a beautiful view of the harbor -- owner Tony Crescente and all of his family welcome you into their little piece of Italy. Pictures of the Crescente family and murals of Italian villages cover the walls, giving the place a cozy feel. Tony's brother, Arnello, will cook you up some of his good-tasting Italian specialties like spaghetti aurora, veal piccata, and ravioli Mama Rosa. If you're lucky, the family might break out the guitar and tambourine and sing beautiful songs of their homeland.
Cuisine Type: Italian
Hours: Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30am-2:30pm; Dinner Mon-Sun 6-10pm
Price: Main courses CI$13-CI$28 (US$16-US$35)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
Tel: 345/943-4343
If you're in the mood for a convivial outdoor snack with the young, the restless, and the wasted, consider driving over to this late-night joint for kabobs, which is open after most of the other restaurants on Grand Cayman have closed for the night. The setting is a vividly painted clapboard shack plunked down in a parking lot adjacent to the island's biggest theater. There's no dining room here, but the dashboard of your car works quite nicely as a table. The tasty, juicy kabobs -- lamb, chicken, or beef -- are seasoned with fresh herbs and grilled to perfection. They can be doused with any of a half-dozen varieties of sauce. Your hosts are Alan Silverman, Laura Wintermut (both from Canada), and their Caymanian partner, Frank McCoy.
Cuisine Type: Light Fare/Fast Food
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-4am; Sat 11am-2am; Sun 11am-8pm
Price: Kabobs CI$5-CI$6.50 (US$6.25-US$8.15)
Credit Cards: Not accepted
Tel: 345/949-8669
This tavern and trattoria is managed by France-born Bruno Deluche and Tony Crescente, who also own two other restaurants on the island. The result is a well-managed pocket of southern European service and cuisine that's tucked into a modern shopping center. The decor includes a mock version of a garden in Naples, banquettes patterned after grottos, and murals showing the highlights of both Monte Carlo and Capri. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, but despite a whiff of corniness, the food is well prepared and flavorful, and the place is genuinely popular, especially with families, who are drawn to its pizzas and pastas. Expect a menu with six kinds of pizza; a long list of pastas and risottos, including an excellent version of spaghetti with shrimp and lobster in a Parmesan cream and pesto sauce and medallion of lobster tail in a creamy cognac sauce. On Thursday nights from 9 to 10pm, you can take a free salsa lesson and enjoy the open dance floor. On Sunday check out the Big Kahuna comedy show. The revamped Sunday buffet serves fresh omelets made right in front of you, salads, chicken, and pastas.
Cuisine Type: Mediterranean
Hours: Daily 11:30am-10:30pm; Sun brunch 11am-2:30pm
Reservations: Reservations recommended only at dinner on Fri-Sat
Price: Pizzas, pastas, and main courses CI$11-CI$25 (US$14-US$31); Sun brunch CI$15 (US$19)
Credit Cards: AE, DISC, MC, V
Tel: 345/949-3948
At first glance you might think this is little more than a waterfront shack, or perhaps a repair shop for the motorboats that are launched from an immediately adjacent concrete ramp. But when you enter, you'll find a charming, funky, and slightly psychedelic bar and restaurant that absolutely drips with Creole colors and a sense of whimsy. If the wind isn't too brisk, you can sit on a wooden deck directly above the water, watching workaday fishing craft depositing their loads at West Bay's busiest fishing port. The venue is very authentic -- a far cry from the congestion and glitter of Seven Mile Beach. But despite its highly appealing raffishness, this place isn't without its touches of elegance. Perch at the rectangular bar here for a cocktail or any of 14 kinds of wine by the glass, or opt for a full meal. The best menu items are marinated conch; Cuban-style shrimp with sherry-flavored cream sauce; fresh fish (ask the waiter what's available) that can be blackened, grilled, or sautéed; roasted rack of lamb with rosemary-and-port-wine sauce; and garlic shrimp linguine. Favorite desserts include mango crepes and sticky toffee pudding.
Cuisine Type: Seafood
Hours: Tues-Sun 11:30am-2:30pm and 6-9:30pm
Reservations: Reservations required for dinner
Price: Main courses CI$23-CI$29 (US$28-US$36)
Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
Tel: 345/946-6240
102 Mary St
This restaurant opened in December 2004 and quickly became a favorite in George Town among locals and visitors alike. The wine racks and large, comfortable booths add to the sophisticated yet casual atmosphere. Large portions are served here, and we highly recommend splitting main courses between two people. The double cut filet mignon is 14 ounces. The Chicago rib-eye is 20 ounces, and the New York strip steak weighs in at 1 pound. Each cut of meat is broiled to the specification of the diner and cooked to perfection. Don't eat steak? You can also choose from a selection of seafood. The restaurant seats only 45 people, so it's a good idea to call ahead for a reservation.
Cuisine Type: Steaks/Chops
Hours: Daily 11:30am-2:30 and 5:30-10pm
Reservations: Reservations recommended
Price: Main courses CI$20-CI$36 (US$25-US$45)
Credit Cards: AE, DISC, MC, V
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