Antigua eats well if you know where to go, and badly if you leave it to chance. This is our list, arranged by how far you have to travel from Dickenson Bay. Places change hands and chefs move on, so if something here has closed or changed, tell us and we’ll fix it; and ask us on WhatsApp for whatever we’re currently excited about.
On the bay, on foot
Ana’s on the Beach. Our default long lunch: Mediterranean plates, a proper wine list, art on the walls, sand underfoot. It’s the kind of place where lunch drifts into the afternoon. Also good for dinner if you want to stay on the bay.
Coconut Grove. The open-air restaurant at Siboney Beach Club, a few minutes’ walk along the beach. Tables in the sand, fresh fish and lobster when it’s in season (roughly July to April), candles after dark. Book for dinner in winter.
The beach bars. Between the restaurants there are a handful of bars on the sand where a rum punch at sunset is the right order. Cash helps.
In and around St. John’s, ten minutes
Papa Zouk. A small, loud, wonderful fish-and-rum place in a house in St. John’s that has been feeding people for decades. Whole fish, bouillabaisse, and a rum list that runs to hundreds. Evenings only, cash, and worth the taxi.
Roti King. Roti is the island’s great lunch, a soft flatbread wrapped around curried chicken, goat, conch or vegetables, and this is where St. John’s goes for it. Cheap, fast, and better than anything you’ll get on the beach.
Le Bistro. French, at Hodges Bay a few minutes east of Dickenson Bay, and one of the island’s longest-running restaurants. White tablecloths, a proper cellar, the sort of place for the last night.
Cecilia’s High Point Café. On Dutchman’s Bay near the airport, so the lunch to have on the way to or from a flight: a Swedish-owned café on the beach that does simple, good things with fish. Lunch only, most days.
Down the west coast, thirty minutes
Sheer Rocks. On a cliff at Cocobay, above Valley Church beach: tapas, cocktails and plunge pools cut into the rock, with the whole west coast to look at while the sun goes down. The most beautiful place to eat on the island; book ahead, and ask for a table with the sunset.
The beach bars at Ffryes and Darkwood. Each of these long, quiet beaches has a bar that grills fish and pours rum punch. Nothing fancy, and that’s the appeal. Lunch there is the reason to make the drive.
English Harbour, forty-five minutes
Catherine’s Café Plage. A French beach club on the sand at Pigeon Point, just past Falmouth: rosé, grilled fish, salads, loungers for after. Pair it with a morning at Nelson’s Dockyard and you have a day.
Inside the Dockyard. The inns within the walls do a good lunch under the trees, and the yacht clubs at Falmouth and English Harbour are the place for a drink watching boats come in during Sailing Week.
Shirley Heights, Sunday. Not a restaurant, but the barbecue at the Sunday sunset party is dinner for a lot of people on the island every week. Chicken and ribs from the grill, a rum punch, a steel band, and the view over English Harbour.
Cooking at home
Every one of our homes has a kitchen, and a week that mixes a few dinners out with a few on the terrace is, for us, the right balance.
Epicurean Fine Foods, on Friars Hill Road a few minutes inland from Dickenson Bay, is a large, American-style supermarket: a proper deli counter, a bakery, a butcher and a fish counter, a wide wine and spirits aisle, a pharmacy, and the brands you’re used to from home. It’s the place for the big shop on day one. Prices are higher than at home, because nearly everything arrives by ship, but the range is excellent. There is a second branch at Jolly Harbour if you’re on the west coast.
The Public Market in St. John’s is where the island buys its fruit and vegetables: mangoes, pineapples, papaya, plantains, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, and whatever is in season, sold by the people who grew it. Saturday morning is the day; go early. Cash only.
Fish. Ask at the fish counter at Epicurean for what came in that morning, or, if you’re up early, the fishermen sell from the boats at the fish market by the port in St. John’s.
Rum. The local one is English Harbour, aged five or ten years, made at the island’s distillery. A bottle from Epicurean, a squeeze of lime, and the terrace: dinner can be simple.