A Seafood Lover's Guide To Jamaica

Jamaica’s coastline is dotted with little fishing villages where long wooden boats can be seen tied up beneath trees on beaches. Jamaicans love seafood and have developed an interesting variety of dishes worth exploring. Seafood is available everywhere from the street vendor to the top restaurants. With seafood a staple of every menu on the island, it can be hard to know where to start, hence our seafood lover’s guide to Jamaica.

Restaurants

There are a few seafood restaurants that rightfully stand out as exceptional in Jamaica. Gloria’s at Port Royal is arguably the most famous of them. Situated just 30 minutes from Kingston, Gloria’s has fantastic sea views and a wonderful atmosphere — and the best curried fish ever. The jerk shrimp is pretty good too. Staying in the capital, Whitebones offers top quality seafood, so fresh it is possible to pick your dinner live from the tank on arrival. Venturing along the south coast to Manchester, Little Ochi restaurant provides beachfront seafood dining with a view. Jerk lobster is an interesting variation (it’s not only chicken that gets jerked in Jamaica) and the steamed fish is delicious — all freshly caught. Of course, many of the better hotels along the north coast will also offer very good seafood, but much of the enjoyment in Jamaica is the local atmosphere and so it’s well worth venturing out to one of the better local venues.

Miss T’s Kitchen, Unda Di Sea menu, Ocho Rios

Beaches

Street vendors

Leaving the beach behind, street vendors in most towns and cities sell a variety of seafood. Conch soup is the most common, often served from a large metal pot kept hot on a wheeled trolley. Vendors can be seen pushing the trolleys along busy streets where customers stop for a cup full of nutritious conch soup. The conch is a sort of sea snail said to have aphrodisiac properties. In fact, conch soup is available in most seafood restaurant and beach eateries in Jamaica. Staying on the street, the oyster bar in Port Royal has to be one of the few street vendors of oysters anywhere. A hand-painted sign hangs above a roadside table stacked high with fresh oysters on a quiet backstreet not too far from Gloria’s. Illuminated by a single lightbulb, backstreet oyster eating doesn’t get any more atmospheric than this.

Catch your own

The freshness of Jamaican seafood isn’t in doubt, but some people might prefer the satisfaction of catching their own. The main tourist hub of Montego Bay has a number of operators offering deep-sea fishing excursions for mahi mahi, tuna, marlin and snappers. The best thing is knowing that on return to shore, you will be dining on your catch at the Montego Bay Yacht Club restaurant. Otherwise, it is possible to join the spear fishermen of the north coast for a more intimate fishing experience — just be sure to agree to it with them first as they can be protective about their fishing areas.

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