Turks & Caicos Restaurants
Providenciales is the culinary center of the Turks and Caicos. There are over 60 great restaurants and cafés to discover, with cuisines ranging from timeless local seafood dishes to international favorites.
Several fine dining restaurants are led by award-winning international chefs, who combine unique dining backgrounds from around the world with Turks and Caicos tastes.
You'll also find a range of ambiances and settings, from breezy oceanfront restaurants that are perfect for getting drinks to upscale gourmet establishments ideal for date nights or special occasions.
Fine Dining
While you can find gourmet dining on the other main islands, Providenciales (also known as Provo) offers the best range of gourmet restaurants. There’s always a great restaurant, café, or bistro to explore and new dishes to try.
As you might expect from the many luxury resorts in the area, Grace Bay is home to most of the island’s restaurants. Many restaurants are within walking distance of the hotels or are on the properties themselves.
Although the Turks and Caicos is a small tropical archipelago with limited agriculture, local food and produce is fresh, as it’s either imported via a short journey from the United States or locally grown in one of the hydroponic or organic farms. Some restaurants even grow produce and herbs onsite.
Many restaurants offer a tantalizing menu of desserts, which can include crafted gourmet ice cream and sorbet, crème brûlée, chocolate and fruit fondue, and more.
Reservations are recommended for dinner at most of the Grace Bay and fine dining restaurants (Coco Bistro, for example, often books tables several weeks in advance). During the winter high season, availability may be limited at popular establishments, so it's best to book well in advance.
A great experience is going deep-sea sport fishing on a local charter and having a restaurant expertly prepare your catch. It’s difficult to surpass fresh tuna, mahi-mahi, and wahoo when it’s cooked right.
Dining at Resorts
If you're looking for a resort that has great dining choices onsite, a few properties stand out.
The Ritz-Carlton, located in central Grace Bay, offers four excellent restaurants and several bars. There’s BLT Steak, the fine Italian Casa Nonna with its extensive wine list, Coralli Restaurant, and Noori, which offers sushi, raw foods, and light fare. The resort also has an elegant lobby bar, a beachfront bar, a café, and the Beach Buggy, which serves refreshments in a casual and fun retro Volkswagen van.
The expansive and family oriented Beaches all-inclusive resort undeniably has the widest selection of onsite dining, with over 21 dining options representing a full range of cuisines.
Seven Stars also has nice dining options, with Seven, The Deck, and The Farm located on the grounds of the resort. Just down the road is The Terrace, which serves everything from conch salad and nachos to juicy burgers.
Featured Dishes from Local Restaurants
International Influences
You can find a wide array of cuisines and countries represented at local dining establishments.
All of the European flavors can be found here, including Italian, French, Mediterranean, and contemporary fusion cuisine.
There are quite a few Asian cuisines to choose from as well, from traditional Japanese sushi, Thai food, and Indian food to kebabs.
Many Providenciales hotels and resorts include free breakfast. Alternatively, you can grab a light meal of a croissant and coffee at one of the several bakeries and cafés.
Providenciales has a wide range of lunch and family options too, including places to get a burger, pizza, pasta, or sandwich.
There’s one dining aspect of the Turks and Caicos that very few other countries can boast: there are no chain fast food restaurants. You won't find a McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, or KFC here.
Turks and Caicos Cuisine
The favorite dishes and foods of the Turks and Caicos have traditionally been prepared from freshly caught seafood, local greens and produce, and imported rice and grains. These ingredients were used to make fish stews, pan-cooked fish with peas n' rice (actually beans and rice in most cases) and flavored rice, and seafood chowders, among other dishes.
The ocean provides a lot to the Turks and Caicos, and fishing has always been good. Grouper, snapper, jacks, tuna, mahi-mahi, and wahoo are commonly caught fish. Lobster is a very popular catch that's harvested seasonally.
The most popular seafood of the Turks and Caicos is the queen conch. This giant sea snail thrives in the shallow seagrass beds of the Caicos Banks and is prepared in a number of ways, including fried as conch fritters, served raw in a conch salad (the acids in the added lime juice essentially “cook” the meat), and boiled as conch stew.
You can try conch, lobster, and other local seafood at one of the local cuisine restaurants. Many of the top island dining restaurants and bars are beachfront in the old settlements of Blue Hills and Five Cays, so you’ll also be able to get a drink and enjoy the view and sunset while enjoying your meal.
Caribbean Fusions
The Bahamas has had the greatest influence on the dishes of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and there's quite a bit of overlap in food and recipes borrowed from one another. For example, fried conch fritters was a largely unknown dish in the Turks and Caicos until the latter 1900s, when Turks and Caicos Islanders who emigrated to the Bahamas for work after the salt industry's decline returned with new ideas for the kitchen.
Although the Turks and Caicos can’t quite claim the invention, Caribbean-style BBQ is done by many of the local eateries. These dishes aren’t quite as sweet as the famous varieties from the United States, yet they’re just as good. Although commonly known as an American flavor, barbecue actually originated not far from the Turks and Caicos in the northern Caribbean and on the island of Hispaniola. The indigenous peoples would slow-roast meat with green wood fires, and early European explorers adapted this cooking method.
Another Caribbean classic is spicy Jamaican jerk. There are several great spots on the island to try jerk chicken, pork, fish, and beef. If you want to try Jamaican-Chinese fusion, look no further than Chinson’s on Leeward Highway. There has also been an emergence of Haitian restaurants, where plantain, fish, rice, and vegetables are combined in spicy flavors.
The weekly Thursday Fish Fry is a great place to sample Caribbean and Turks and Caicos foods from over a dozen local vendors.
Where to Eat
Providenciales has many restaurants to choose from. Most establishments are located in the Grace Bay area within walking distance of many resorts and the world-famous Grace Bay Beach.
Dining prices tend to be higher than equivalent restaurants in much of the United States, yet are on par with cities such as London, Toronto, and New York.
Looking through the local Dining Guide magazine published by the editors of Where When How magazine is one way to narrow down your search. This thorough guide has a listing of all restaurants on Providenciales and includes a sample menu with prices. It’s also free. You can find the Dining Guide at your hotel and at many local businesses.
Minimum Drinking Age in Turks and Caicos
The minimum drinking age in the Turks and Caicos is 18 years old. Persons appearing younger may be asked for an ID.
Private Chefs
The Turks and Caicos has numerous private chefs who prepare food from a range of cuisines, including local and Caribbean meals to European and Asian dishes. A private chef can be the perfect complement when staying at a villa and, of course, is likewise ideal for accommodating dietary and allergy restrictions.