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Culinary tour
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Culinary tour
Dine around the world
Most restaurants in Nassau reflect two facts: firstly that The Bahamas is located next door to the United States, and secondly that it’s surrounded by water.
Fresh seafood is available on the menus of most restaurants, along with at least one or two items of traditional Bahamian fare. And American-style dishes can be found throughout the island.
Among the eateries offering this mixed fare are many well-known restaurants such as Compass Point, The Poop Deck (east and west), Columbus Tavern, Montagu Gardens, Travellers’ Rest and The Sand Trap (you can find the locations of these sure-to-please restaurants in the dining lists, pgs 47-65).
What may be a little surprising to visitors is the number of top-flight ethnic restaurants in Nassau. You’ll find that it’s possible to eat your way around the world without ever leaving the city. Among the surprises are Holland (Van Breugel’s on Charlotte St), India (Clay Oven on West Bay St) and Thailand (Thai Lotus on King St).
Here are some of the countries represented by restaurants around the city.
Australia
The country that dotes on kangaroo and ostrich meat is represented by Outback Steakhouse on East Bay St. Neither of these exotic fauna are on the menu, but in true Aussie style the grilled shrimp on the barbie are guaranteed plump and fresh and, for a starter or side dish, the bloomin’ onion is sure to please.
Brazil
The farther south you go in Brazil, the more carnivorous the diet becomes. A churrascaria is an all-you-can-eat feast of up to 30 different roasted meats, brought to diners on skewers and carved at the table. The Humidor Churrascaria on West Hill St, next to Graycliff, has imported the concept and added a salad bar several times larger than you’d expect to find in a typical gaucho haunt in Porto Alegre.
Caribbean/Jamaica
Bob Marley spent a lot of time living and recording his reggae music in Nassau, and Simmer Down at Marley Resort and Spa serves some of Bob’s favourite food, including pan-fried catch of the day on sweet potato polenta.
China
Although Canton has the most widely admired food in China, and most of the Chinese chefs working in the West are Cantonese, western Chinese restaurants are rarely loyal to one particular region or style. The East Villa Restaurant on East Bay St and the Double Dragon Restaurants on East Bay and Charlotte streets downtown and at the Marathon Mall offer a mix of Cantonese (from the south), Mandarin (from the north) and Szechuan (from the middle) styles.
Peking duck exemplifies the refined and intricate way of Mandarin cooking, while hot-and-sour soup makes a perfect introduction to spicy Szechuan cuisine. For classic Cantonese food—lightly spiced and seasoned to bring out the best of the natural flavours—try lemon chicken. Or visit Chop Stix on Paradise Island to sample the dim sum, a bewildering variety of hot or cold, sweet or savoury filled dumplings that are a breakfast-to-lunch institution in Hong Kong and
up the Pearl River Delta.
France
With a menu that includes beef tartare, sautéed foie gras and sole meuniere, Café Martinique on Paradise Island sums up the quintessentially French combination of finesse and luxury. Chef Ronny Deryckere of Sun and... on Lakeview Rd prefers the warmer, more vibrant flavours from the south of the country, such as thyme and ripe tomatoes. The echoes of southern France that he found in local Bahamian cooking inspired him to make his famous rock lobster bisque. At Chez Willie, treat yourself to caviar or goose liver pâté and move on to the signature grouper served in a puff pastry with crabmeat and coconut cream sauce.
Great Britain
To eat well in England, said Somerset Maugham, you should have breakfast three times a day. The Cricket Club at Haynes Oval, next to Fort Charlotte, provides that very opportunity, with an all-day sausage, bacon and egg “full English breakfast.” Another delicacy that the British love but the rest of the world finds baffling is the chip butty—french fries sandwiched between two rounds of white bread— currently on the menu at The Pub at Cable Beach on West Bay St.
Italy
Think Italian, and the first thing that springs to mind is fresh ingredients sautéed with wine and herbs and served with pasta—a theme served up with many elegant variations at Capriccio Ristorante on West Bay St. Among them are shrimp Alfredo, pollo salvia and the signature grouper Capriccio. The equally authentic peasant tradition of slow-cooking is celebrated at Amici in the Sheraton Nassau Beach with costolette de vitello—roasted veal rack in a green peppercorn and brandy reduction.
Café Matisse on Bank Lane specializes in the food of Milan and Lombardy, a landlocked northern region whose cooking has traditionally emphasized meat, especially veal, over seafood. Matisse offers the regional delicacy, osso buco, a braised veal shank cut across the bone to allow access to the highly prized marrow. The less adventurous may prefer vitello tonnato—sliced veal in a creamy tuna and caper sauce. Lombardy chefs often prefer rice to pasta or polenta, and risotto Milanese—rice cooked in wine and stock flavoured with saffron—is the purist’s risotto.
Italian-American food occupies the richer end of the homeland’s culinary spectrum, with its powerful, concentrated flavour. Chef Lorenz Martinez describes pomodoro—sautéed celery, carrots and onions roughly blended with wine and tomatoes and reduced for three hours on the stove—as the “mother sauce” at Luciano’s of Chicago. A little pomodoro even finds its way onto the frutti di mare. Carmine’s on Paradise Island is another Italian-American eatery, which boasts a menu of hearty, New York-based Italian food, such as the porterhouse pizzaiola.
Japan
One of Japan’s great contributions not just to cooking but to the theory of food and how we taste it is umami. It used to be thought that the tongue could detect only four basic tastes—salty, sweet, bitter and sour. But in the last two decades umami, a meaty quality associated with konbu (dried seaweed) and miso, among other foodstuffs, has been added to the list. One delicious way to experience this fifth fundamental taste is to try the kelp salad or the shiromi sashimi with dried red miso, which are served at Nobu on Paradise Island.
United States
Anthony’s Grill on Paradise Island and the Hard Rock Cafe on Charlotte St are classic diners serving all-American staples like burgers, ribs, sandwiches and soft drinks. The Black Angus Grill in the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Seafire Steakhouse on Paradise Island are both top-end steakhouses offering prime US cuts, while the Mesa Grill at The Cove on Paradise Island features Bobby Flay’s signature southwestern cuisine, with its seductive marriage of heat and sweetness summed up in the grilled rib-eye steak with chipotle honey.
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