Many of the best restaurants in Anguilla, the culinary capital of the Caribbean, sit minutes from the villa, and the area around Shoal Bay East holds more than a dozen of its best restaurants. Within minutes of the villa: Ben’s, Artisan, Falcon’s Nest, Lime Keel House, Madeariman, Olas, Hanks, 20 Knots, Tropical Sunset, Gwen’s Reggae Bar and Grill, The Vibe at Uncle Ernie’s, L’Étoile, and Nat’s Palm Grove, plus Scilly Cay by boat. Sandy Ground, 10 minutes away, runs the island’s nightlife.
Guests ask us for the list constantly, so here it is.
Where to eat in Anguilla: the ones we send people to first
Gwen’s Reggae Bar is on the sand at Shoal Bay East and it is the easiest introduction to eating here. Grilled fish, ribs, rum punch, chairs you can sit in all afternoon. It is relaxed rather than refined and that is the appeal.
Elodia’s is also on Shoal Bay East, a little further along, and does the same kind of thing with a slightly quieter room. Good crayfish. Good place to end up when you have been on the beach since morning and cannot face driving anywhere.
Ben’s Pit Stop is where you go for barbecue rather than a view. It is not the place for a special occasion dinner. It is the place you will think about after you get home.
How to think about the price range
Anguilla splits fairly cleanly into two kinds of restaurant. There are the high end dining rooms attached to the resorts, where you should book ahead and dress for it, and there are local kitchens and beach shacks where you turn up.
Most guests do a mix. Two or three nights out somewhere memorable, the rest eaten at the villa or picked up on the way back from the beach. That pattern is also the reason our kitchen is set up the way it is.
Eating in, which more people do than expect to
The villa has a full kitchen, so groups tend to cook more than they planned. Breakfast almost always happens at home. So does the last drink of the night, usually at the outdoor bar rather than inside.
There are grocery stores on the island for provisioning, and if you tell us your arrival time we can point you at the practical stop on the way from the airport or the ferry. Coming in late and finding nothing open is a common way to start a trip badly, and it is avoidable.
Two practical things
Book the well known places before you arrive, especially in high season between January and April. Anguilla is small and the good tables go.
Second, you will want a car. Almost nothing is walkable from anywhere unless you are staying directly on top of it, and taxis add up quickly over a week. We cover arrival logistics in the arrival guide.
If you want the current version of this list, ask us when you book. Places change hands, and we would rather tell you what is good this season than have you eat somewhere on the strength of a page we wrote a year ago. Message us here.
