Caribbean in South Florida

1 E. Commercial Blvd., Fort Lauderdale Beaches

954-776-0001

Bar Food, Seafood, Caribbean, American, Bars and Clubs, Music Venues, Best Of

As far as bars go, Aruba Beach Cafe is quintessential South Florida livin'. It hasn't really changed much since it opened in 1983. Both tourists and locals frequent this classically Floridian (read: pastel-colored), upbeat eatery located on the water next to the Commercial Boulevard Pier. In addition to a menu of delectable seafood entrees, two bars offer fruity cocktails, serious cocktails, and the company of locals and tourists. The menu includes seafood favorites like conch fritters, a fresh mahi-mahi sandwich, and the blackened seafood trio, plus turf specialties like the Aruba burger and the goat cheese salad. Watching the beach through the vast ceiling-to-floor windows may be the main draw, but people also love the laid-back atmosphere. Flip-flop your way in to hear live music any day of the week. Steel drums provide island versions of your Top 40 favorites. The hardest choice you'll have to make will be between indoor seating with a view or outdoor seating overlooking the beach. After all, Aruba's sandy spot next door to Commercial Boulevard fishing pier makes it the bona fide beach spot in a village of beach spots.

8 articles

Auntie I's

1178 N. State Road 7, Sunrise Plantation

954-321-0190

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of, Menu

Whether you have been craving classic Jamaican jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat, fried fish, ackee, or some good, old-fashioned cowfoot (don't hate), old Auntie I has got you covered. She opened her first location back in 1987, and Auntie I's now has three in South Florida. Expect friendly service, along with delicious Jamaican food that's prepared using original family recipes yet maintains a modest price. This joint is perfect for lunch (there are always great daily specials), takeout, or a fun family outing. It's about time you break it off with your weekly habit of diluted wonton soup and stale, misleading fortune cookies.

2 articles

Bahia Cabana Beach Resort

3001 Harbor Dr. Fort Lauderdale

954-524-1555

American, Caribbean, Traditional, Bars and Clubs, Recommended, Best Of, Menu, Slideshow

South of the commotion at Beach Place, Bahia Cabana is an oasis of local Fort Lauderdale culture. Tucked away between docks, the Bahia Cabana resort/hotel the bar boasts strong drinks and a ceiling littered with knickknacks, such as street signs and Florida license plates. With the beach across the street, locals and tourists alike drink and eat at the bar, in the attached restaurant area, or out on the dock overlooking yachts. For those arriving via water, dock space is free for bar and restaurant patrons. Tourists, to remember you're in the tropics, order specialty drinks like the "World's Best Frozen Pina Colada" or the "Frozen Pink Lemonade," both $7. Standard domestics cost $4.50, premiums $5. The wine list is extensive and fairly cheap, with no glasses more than $7.50. Throw one back with an order of conch fritters before you walk over for a day in the sun across A1A.

14 articles

Cafe 27

4690 Highway 27 Weston

954-659-9957

Caribbean

Calypso Restaurant & Raw Bar

460 S. Cypress Rd. Pompano Beach

954-942-1633

Caribbean, Seafood, Best Of, Menu, Slideshow

Got a hankering for some marinated, pounded, and "scorched" conch? A craving for chicken curry stuffed in roti? A feeling for mahi, fried and squirted with lime? If so, a visit to the islands-inspired Calypso is certainly in order. Casual and ultraclean, the pub serves Caribbean fare to those who have had it with local dives. Don't depart without homemade desserts like key lime pie or raspberry cream tart.

8 articles

Carl's Seafood & Jamaican Kitchen

7551 W. Oakland Park Blvd. Lauderhill

954-748-9992

Caribbean, Chinese, Jamaican, Seafood, Soul Food, Best Of

1 article

Coconut's Bahama Grill

429 Seabreeze Blvd. Fort Lauderdale

954-525-2421

Caribbean, Seafood, Recommended, Best Of

With an impressive though tidy wine/beer selection (plus sangria, champagne, and frozen mojitos), Coconut's is a charming little dockside restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway, a jump away from the crowds on the beach. The seafood-heavy menu is slightly fancier than at your average shoreside snack shack (ceviche; peel-and-eat shrimp; pork lollpops with honey hoisin glaze), so you'll see more polo-shirted yacht captains than thong bikinis here. Sunday's got an inventive brunch from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. with tasty but out-there entrees like shrimp and grits, and salami benedict. Unlike most beach hangouts, your dog is welcome here on the waterfront deck.

3 articles

The Curry Hut

5416 W. Atlantic Blvd. Margate

954-972-9201

Caribbean, Trinidadian, Recommended

The Curry Hut is an authentic island eatery featuring made-to-order roti, an assortment of great curries, and some interesting Caribbean-influenced Chinese food. The place is more homely than homey, with packages of spices, dried goods, and incense on display at the brick countertop up front and hand-stitched napkin caddies dressing up each table. On weekends, the place gets raucous as live chutney, reggae, and reggaeton blare through the huge loudspeakers positioned in the corners of the restaurant. A cold Dragon Stout from Jamaica and a plate of cilantro-flecked conch curry goes great in that atmosphere, especially when the house-made, neon-orange Scotch bonnet sauce is used liberally. Also on Saturdays and Sundays, the Curry Hut serves bake and fish, a fried bread sandwich made with shark, salt fish, or smoked herring. Daily specials top out at $8, making it a cheap place to party like a Trinidadian.

2 articles

Dining Room at Little Palm Island

28500 Overseas Highway, Summerland Key Florida Keys

305-872-2551

Caribbean, Contemporary, French, Latin American, Seafood, Recommended, Menu

You've got to drive three hours south and then hop on a boat to get to the dining room at Little Palm Island Resort, but for a special occasion, it would be worth twice the trouble. Your complimentary glass of champagne on the skiff ride over is just a prelude to your photo-op dinner right on the west-facing beach at sunset; to the exotic cocktails and the opulent wine list; to the courtly service; and to the cooking courtesy of chef Louis Pous, which changes nightly and seasonally but always draws on Pous' Cuban-Caribbean heritage and what's available from the surrounding waters. Pous has the smarts and the organizational skills to source bounty from Keys waters: blackfin tuna, stone crabs, pink shrimp, grouper, snapper, pompano, wahoo, conch, lobster. As the sky darkens, an outdoor fireplace and torches provide illumination. As romantic as it gets, and you'll pay for it.

1 article

Donna's Restaurant

5434 N. University Dr., Sunrise Plantation

954-578-6970

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of, Menu

It's one of the truly wonderful things about living in South Florida: the ready availability of genuine island-quality jerk chicken. God help us, we love it so. The restaurants can be found in strip malls all over town, but our favorite happens to be in the center of the county, on the northwest corner of State Road 7 and Broward Boulevard. Donna's comes with the classic Caribbean food counter, where you watch as they take a cleaver to succulently spiced meat, lay it down on a delicious bed of red beans and rice, and smother it in delicious gravy. Then comes the standard spare salad (finely chopped lettuce, carrots, and a tomato slice) and some of the best-tasting, sweetest plantains you've ever had. For eight and a half bucks, you get a meal that is generally too much for one big man and quite enough for two 110-pound women. If you don't want jerk, go curry. And if you don't want chicken, get the oxtail, goat, or fish. There are a few tables if you'd like to dine there, but we suggest you take it home -- and make sure to save some for breakfast.

1 article

The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant

111 N. State Road 7 Plantation

954-583-4657

Jamaican, Caribbean, Best Of, Menu

Popular Jamaican haunt the Dutch Pot sets itself above the other Caribbean restaurants with stellar service, a loyal following, and food packed with as much flavor as your taste buds can handle. The staff prepares its own jerk seasoning, brown stew, and homemade curry daily. Lovers of seafood should show up for breakfast - the steamed fish head and ackee (the national fruit of Jamaica) and salt-fish dishes are as authentic as they get. The curry chicken is the best meal on the menu, with meat so tender that it falls off the bone. And they know the secret to an enjoyable Caribbean meal is in the fluffiness of the rice and peas.

2 articles

The Dutch Pot

6029 Kimberly Blvd. North Lauderdale

954-979-1915

Jamaican, Caribbean, Recommended, Best Of

You'd be hard-pressed to find a Jamaican joint more authentic than Dutch Pot, a homey lunch counter and dining room in the heart of North Lauderdale. Make no mistake, this is straight-up soul food: fall-off-the-bone jerk chicken is whacked into bone-in chunks and plated with thyme-scented rice and peas; curry chicken and goat lavish in rich, bone-sucking sauce that's not too spicy; ackee and saltfish marries Jamaica's ripe island fruit with delicate cod. On the side, choose from dumplings, fritters, stewed cabbage, and bammy. There are three portion sizes to every dish, ranging from light snack to relative trough, and the prices are dirt cheap.

3 articles

Fusion Cafe

15531 Sheridan St. Davie

954-252-9008

Caribbean

1 article

Ginger Bay Cafe

1908 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood

954-924-1844

Caribbean, Jamaican, Music Venues, Bars and Clubs

Ginger Bay Café is known for its smooth Caribbean vibe, featuring tunes as spicy as the jerk chicken. With live music five nights a week, you've got several options to choose from. Wednesdays at the Bay is "dance hall night." Thursdays feature soca and calypso music. Round out the weekend with reggae on Friday and Saturday nights, and wind down to jazz on Sundays. Ginger Bay Café is the only Caribbean restaurant in downtown Hollywood, so where else would you go to satisfy your craving for good times and island food? This late-night club-crawl stop-off point serves spicy jerk chicken, whole fried fish, and potent-as-hell rum drinks. Not the kind of place for quiet dinner conversations and soft lighting, this lively Caribbean hangout comes equipped with DJs blaring reggae, hip-hop, and R&B and live bands playing into the wee hours.

3 articles

Hope's Restaurant

2806 J.A. Ely Blvd. Hollywood

954-920-6696

Caribbean, Soul Food, Southern, Best Of

Hope's is all about perseverance -- yours and the owner's. Chef Audrey Hope, who has created one of South Florida's best Caribbean/American spots (with a heavy accent on Bahamian cooking), serves all the best fried fish, fish stews, lobster tail, red beans and rice, and guava duff you could hope for. The entire Hope clan helps keep the restaurant hopping, as does the steady takeout business at the beer/wine/alcohol bar/counter. Stick with the tilapia stew or the fried snapper, and go with the red beans and rice as a side order. End your meal with guava duff, a Bahamian shortcake dessert covered with a sauce made from guava. Delicious eating and a unique dining experience. Let's hope the restaurant springs eternal.

2 articles

Hot Pot Jamaican Restaurant

1166 N. Sr-7, Lauderdale Lakes Plantation

954-797-7414

Caribbean, Jamaican, Best Of, Menu

When you get a craving for grapefruit soda and jerk chicken, you want to go where the meat is spicy and tender. This Jamaican strip-mall staple knows how to stew its ox, curry its goat, and jerk its chicken better than anyone else around, and they built window boxes into each booth's wall so you can kick back and watch BET while you E-A-T. The lunch specials pile on enough caramelized plantains, shredded cabbage, and brown gravy to keep you going until noon tomorrow, so consider it $5 well-spent. Or swing by for breakfast and try out their morning fish dishes.

2 articles

Islands in the Pines

162 N. University Dr. Pembroke Pines

954-431-7600

Jamaican, Caribbean, Recommended, Best Of, Menu

Relentlessly cheerful, this sunny little spot features great Jamaican cuisine. Go as authentic as possible by ordering oxtail that's been cooked so long it's caramelized or brown stew snapper that has an Asian sweet-and-sour cast. Conch fritters are the real, unadulterated thing, and side dishes like bammie (fried cassava cake) and boiled dumplings are excellent foils for the rich goat curry along with island classics like calaloo. Specials change daily.

2 articles

The Jib Room

2104 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Wilton Manors

954-564-3581

Caribbean, Italian, Bars and Clubs, Recommended

Many things recommend the Jib Room beyond the average price of the entrées ($10.95 for penne a la vodka! $15.95 for a pork chop!). One is owner and attorney Deborah Carpenter-Toye, who comes right over, grabs your hand for a firm shake, and focuses like she's slipping your pertinent info into some brilliantly organized file drawer. A seafaring Caribbean menu includes shellfish stew, mahi fingers with creamy cilantro dip, filet mignon of tuna with orzo, plus comfort-food staples like fried chicken and mac and cheese. The house specialty pistachio poundcake, also sold by the loaf, is to die for.

2 articles

Joy's Roti Delight

1205 NW 40th Ave Lauderhill

954-587-7700

Caribbean, West Indian, Recommended, Best Of, Menu

This bustling East-meets-West Indian restaurant offers delicious curry dishes - goat is the most popular option, but chicken, oxtail, shrimp, conch, beef, and veggies are also rolled up in paper-thin Indian flatbread. The roti go for about $7, with lots of add-ons for only a buck more - try the aloo pie, a potato-puffed pastry. Shout your order over the booming sound system, take a number, and sip some Carib beer or shandy (half beer, half ginger ale) while you wait. You're on island time now.

1 article

Kelsie's Place

1395 W. Sunrise Blvd., Lauderdale Lakes Fort Lauderdale

954-727-2891

Caribbean, Jamaican, Soul Food

Kelsie's Place offers Jamaican and Caribbean dishes on the extremely cheap, everything from braised oxtail in thick-as-molasses brown gravy to spicy curry chicken with loads of thyme. Daily $4.25 lunch specials pack a big styrofoam container with moist rice and peas, tangy stewed cabbage, and a heap of chicken either jerk, fried, curried, or in brown stew. The family-owned joint does daily soups too, whole steamed fish, and some sweet and spicy breaded chicken wings reminiscent of Hooters, only more wholesome. For prices this reasonable, Kelsie's sure isn't stingy: they'll load you up with so much food, you'll barely be able to finish it.

Krave Lounge and Restaurant

4519 N. Pine Island Rd., #107, Sunrise Plantation

954-530-3087

Bars and Clubs, Caribbean

3 events

Latitudes Beach Cafe

2501 N. Ocean Dr. Hollywood

954-924-2202

Caribbean, American, Menu

4 articles

Lovey's Roti

8336 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Sunrise Plantation

954-741-9212

Caribbean, Indian, Recommended

Lovey's Roti is the place to go for West Indian-style roti and curry with a Trinidadian bent. Roti comes three ways (dhalpourie is with lentils, sada is thick like naan, and "buss up shut" is thin and ribbon-like), each made fresh to order. Chicken, duck, goat, and pork curries abound, as do some truly awesome "straights" - that's vegetarian dishes like channa aloo (chickpeas and potatoes), bhagie (spinach), and sweet orange pumpkin. Lovey's also serves excellent Trinidadian street food like doubles and aloo pie, two sandwich-like specialties made with fried bread and stuffed with chickpeas or potatoes and garlicky mango kuchela. Prices are cheap, but cash only.

4 articles

Lucky City

5574 W. Sample Rd. Margate

954-972-1880

Chinese, Guyanese, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Recommended, Menu

Lucky City, tucked away off of Sample Road in Margate, masquerades as a normal Chinese restaurant but includes a number of interesting Guyanese specialties. "Chicken in de ruff" is a Guyanese party food that's basically thickly breaded, bone-in fried chicken spiked with a sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce. Here, it's served over fried rice with plenty of shredded cabbage. A typical West Indian menu with duck, chicken, goat, pork, and - yes - beef curry and roti is scrawled on a dry-erase board over the front register, which is often festooned with plastic containers full of Guyanese pastries such as flaky rolls filled with currants. The laid-back Caribbean vibe pervades to a fault, however. The restaurant's red booths and framed paintings of pastoral China look like they came with the place, and service is virtually nonexistent.

Paradise Tiki of Dania Beach

90 N Bryan Rd Dania Beach

954-391-7384

Caribbean, Hawaiian

Paradise Tiki of Dania Beach is a family-owned and operated tiki restaurant behind the Dania Beach Offshore Marina. The eclectic menu is influenced by Hawaiian and Caribbean cuisine--try the Steak and Shrimp Satays or the Tuna Poke Bowl.

Rainforest Cafe

12801 W. Sunrise Blvd., Sunrise Plantation

954-851-1015

American, Caribbean, Best Of, Menu

Rainforest Café has been at Sawgrass Mills for more than a decade, but for tykes and the young at heart, the restaurant's gimmicks still seem fresh. Lightning flashes. Thunder cracks. A thin mist wafts. Monkeys chatter. Drums beat out an African rhythm. It's all simulated, of course, but there's enough going on to keep even the squirmiest children amused long enough to eat a meal. The Disney-esque animals are naturally a big hit with the little ones: Thanks to animatronics, a python wiggles, a larger-than-life butterfly flaps its wings, and an elephant charges through the brush. The menu is amusing, too: For kids there are items like "Jurassic Chicken Tidbits," which are dinosaur-shaped nuggets, while for weary moms and dads there are signature cocktails like the Tropical Toucan and the Margarilla and an enormous selection of dishes from appetizers to desserts. For those searching for extra sensory stimulation, on Wednesday evenings kids can get balloon animals, get their faces painted, and hang with a guy in a green tree-frog costume.

1 article

Shalama's Halal Roti Shop

1432 N. State Road 7 Margate

954-977-6753

Caribbean, Trinidadian, Best Of

Step into Shalama's Halal Roti Shop, located along the ethnic food haven that is 441 in Margate, and you'll instantly be transported to the islands thanks to Trinidadian tunes and the wafting smells of freshly griddled roti (Indian flatbread) and bubbling curries. At Shalama's, the peppa is hot and the curries are too; daily-changing specials keep the food as fresh and vibrant as the jams. Try straights (vegetarian potato and chickpea curries served with rice or roti) for a starchy, spicy meal without the guilt. Or check out the roti stuffed with boneless, white meat chicken -- perfect for non-Trinis looking for a taste of the islands without the sharp bones. Prices are as low as the bass drones blasting from the kitchen.

1 article

Soulfully Good

6320 Miramar Parkway Miramar

954-894-7694

Soul Food, Caribbean, Menu

Sugar Reef

600 N. Surf Rd. Hollywood

954-922-1119

Caribbean, French, Best Of

Anybody who dropped in to Sugar Reef years ago could go back today and suffer no future shock: Nothing seems to change - the open-air restaurant on the Hollywood Broadwalk still follows a rhythm as soothing and predictable as the sea its ocean-colored rooms open out on. Paper-covered tables offer jars of crayons for doodling, and a French-Caribbean menu features dishes beloved by the Reef's many return customers: Jamaican pork with authentic French-style gratinéed potatoes, a tropical fish stew redolent of coconut milk and green curry, and roasted duck topped with mango salsa. An eclectic wine list offers lots of vin by the half bottle. The staff patters in polyglot tongues - Spanish, French, Russian, and if you show up twice, you'll find yourself inducted into a coterie of beloved regulars.

3 articles

The Bahamian Pot Restaurant

1413 NW 54th St., Miami Central Dade

305-693-5053

Caribbean, Recommended

A ton of perks come with being the official "gateway to the Americas." We are blessed with access to restaurants serving awesome food from exotic locales beyond the home of processed cheese. One such place is the Bahamian Pot, a trip to the Caribbean that doesn't require a passport - just your hungry belly. The menu is overflowing with island favorites like conch chowder, oxtail, plantains, stewed fish, and Johnny Cake; and as an ode to good ol' American eatin', the menu is also home to soul-food staples like fried chicken, pork chop sandwiches, and an awesome lemon cake. The chefs at the Bahamian Pot have perfected the art of just-right spice; never ever bland, yet nothing that will knock your taste buds from your tongue. And since nothing at the Pot is more than $15, your wallet will still be as full as your tummy. The entire menu is sublime, but a must-try is the guava duff, a boiled fruit-filled ball of dough.

Caribbean in South Florida

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