The Ultimate Guide to Dining in Castara

[Paul Tallet]

Eating in Castara … plus a Suggested Restaurant Crawl

During our 3 week holiday we ate at the following restaurants in Castara:-


Café Delight
Marguerites
Cascreole
The Boathouse
D’Almond Tree


Comments are as follows:-


Café Delight

This is part of the Naturalist Beach Resort and is situated at the northern end of the main beach with lovely views to the south over the beach and out to sea … an ideal spot to watch the world go by.

At the back of the café is an air conditioned room where internet access is available via 2 PC’s at the rate of $20TT per hour.

The café is open from around 0800 to 1700, give or take an hour. It re-opens on Friday and Sunday evenings for barbecues and entertainment.

The food is basic, good value for money and freshly cooked to order.

The barbecues on Fridays and Sundays are excellent and the price of $100TT per person includes all the drinks and food until it all runs out.

The daily menu ranges from breakfasts to lunches that provide a small range of sandwiches, burgers chicken and chips or salad.

The café also sell soft drinks, tea and freshly ground coffee.

Prices range from $20TT to $40TT per person for a meal.

To sum up … lovely views, slow pace, very convenient being right on the beach.


Marguerites

Situated on the main road, across the river from the school.

This is a lovely, atmospheric little restaurant that feels all the more welcoming when graced by Marguerite’s presence.

I understand that this Restaurant is only open for evening dinner.

There is a good range of food and it is very well cooked and tasty. The strong point is the Lamb which was outstanding for me.

I am not a great sea food fan but my wife assures me that the fish was very good. The children fully endorse the Fried Chicken & Chips.

Unfortunately we never had the opportunity of trying the home made pizza’s.

Soft drinks are available plus a selection of home made wines such as Aloe Vera, Ginger, Carrot and Celery.

Ice Creams are home made and very good.

Prices range from $40TT to $85TT per person and could be higher if a special delicacy is on offer.

To sum up … try the excellent Lamb dishes and eat in a nice cosy atmosphere.


Cascreole

A large bar/club/restaurant situated right on the southern end of the beach next to the river. In addition there is the Tree House which is the best part of the Cascreole to eat.

The Cascreole is quite diverse in the services it provides. The Treehouse is the best place to eat in peace with lovely views up and down the beach and out to sea.

Inside the main Cascreole building there are several pool tables and table tennis so it can be a bit of a youth/social club atmosphere hence my recommendation to reside in the Tree House for meals.

In previous years I have found the food to be inconsistent (i.e.; one night it is good, another night bad and sometimes we waited over an hour after giving food orders) … I have to put this down to experimentation because …

… this year … it was excellent and I was particularly blown away by the garlic bread, WOW … was it garlic bread? It had chillies in it as well, YUM YUM … brilliant.

Otherwise … good portions of meat and an excellent macaroni pie and not piles of rice, veg and other clobber that you get at other establishments.

Prices seem to average around $60TT per person.

To sum up … Garlic Bread … Garlic Bread … Garlic Bread … Garlic Bread … and a big improvement on previous years.


The Boathouse

Tough one this.

The Boathouse is situated in Heavenly Bay and is virtually hidden from view behind the Palm Trees.

Inside is an array of colour … the loving attention given to the décor is immediately evident.

Nearby, there are new apartments; the Sea Breeze and a brand new 3 storey development with a swimming pool … so the business opportunities for this restaurant look pretty good.

The fantastic location, the lovely décor, the amazing ambience … all these marvellous features are sadly let down by the quality of the food and service.

I have seen many good reviews on the myTobago forum about The Boathouse and therefore I have taken great care to choose my words carefully.

My family went to a party which included a steel drum band and a 3 course dinner.

Soup was served in plastic bowls and a tea spoon was provided … it was like having baby food.

The main course came between 30 minutes and 120 minutes after the soup … a disaster. We were one of the first to receive the main course of chicken and a range of veg. My wife had a vegetarian dish.

Being one of the first to receive the main course, much of the food was raw and very salty … too salty … of my family, 4 out of 5 declined to eat, we left and paid $440TT and went somewhere else.

Needless to say, the one member of my family that ate his food was Jim … he was very ill for the next 24 hours.

I guess that those who waited longer would have had properly cooked food.

I do not mean to be negative here, this is only my experience, it could have just been a bad night, so let us look at the positives …


1. This is a great location
2. The atmosphere and décor is quite brilliant
3. They do very nice Rum Punch
4. They only need to work on the food preparation


Despite the unpleasant food experience I really think that this place has a lot going for it … so please do not feel discouraged.

To sum up … Go there for the ambience; enjoy their Rum Punch; take care with the food.


D’Almond Tree

An obscure looking place, behind the palm trees at the north end of the main beach and close by the Naturalist … under the great Almond Tree.

Vera runs the show and, even as I left, her husband was putting the finishing touches to an extension to bring more seating and a special area for the sale of Vera’s amazing home made ice cream.

This establishment is basically creole cooking.

You can have Roti or a dish which is basically ‘rotified’. It is good food. But let us examine the strong points …

… on the first visit we were treated to Rum & Raison Ice Cream … oh lordy … this was ice cream that one hath never clasped said laughing gear around.

Ok … off we go to check out Ciao Café in Scarborough, the zenith of ice cream experience (so we are told). We try the Ice Creams at Marguerites and we try the ice cream of the Ice Cream Man from the rainforest who you will hear screaming ICE CREEEEEEAAAAAAMMMMM in Englishman’s Bay when you are sat comfortably in Castara.

Having undertaken our research we concluded that Vera does the best ice cream in Tobago by a distance that can only be measured when humans really understand the time it takes to travel from the earth to the planet of Zog in the outer reaches of Seventh Heaven.

And then … before we could tell anyone of this amazing discovery … Vera comes up with her next recipe … Pastachio Ice Cream … now this was a little below the belt … we couldn’t sleep, it was awesome and we were back for more the next day and more and more until it ran out.

Prices … as little as $18TT for a Roti … no more than $30TT for anything else.

To sum up … Go for the Ice Cream.


Summary

The availability of good food around Castara has improved enormously over the last 2 years as new establishments have opened.

Here is a tip if you are looking for that veritable evening feast … go on a ‘Restaurant Crawl’ …


1. Go to the Boathouse for pre-dinner drinks … Rum Punch is excellent.

2. For starters … after the Rum Punch, stagger to the Cascreole and have your taste buds twanged and your eyeballs poached by their amazing Garlic (chillie?) Bread.

3. For the main course … move on to Marguerites and go on an orgy of Lamb, marinated in her delicious sauces. She does veggie too. Try the Aloe Vera wine while you are at it.

4. For Pudding … walk back down the Beach and invade D’Almond Tree and be blown away by the sheer succulence of those addictive and refreshing ice creams.

5. After dinner coffee at the Café Delight would be the perfect end to an evening of culinary abuse … yet sadly, the Café Delight is closed most evenings.


Have fun with your plans.

Regards

[Jill M]

Pau,

Great reviews, thank you. Do you have to book at any of these restaurants ?
Jill

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Jill

Yes, sometimes you need to book or you should arrive early ... for the 'crawl' you may need to make special arrangements !!

Regards

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Paul,
fully endorse De Almond Tree, Ice Cream. The rum 'n' raison was superb, never got to try the Pistachio.

The roti was pretty good too, lovely personal service from Vera as there was only seating for about 12, how big is the extension.

Regards
Kevin

[Paul Williams]

Great report Paul
Can endorse your comments whole heartedly with regards to Cafe Delight, D'Almond Tree and Marguerites which we thoroughly enjoyed on our visit in October but we cannot make comments on Boathouse or Cascreole as they were not open (the tree house had suffered damage from Ivan).
We are hoping that they will be open when we return early next year and even though we had some great food at Vera's I have to say we did not realise that she made such good ice cream.
You are correct in saying that the options are getting better and with the new apartments opening they will need to offer good food as the numbers of people staying are on the increase (hope this does not affect the wonderful nature of the village).
Regards

[Julia C.]

A very enjoyable report Paul, though I'd like to see someone try your ‘Restaurant Crawl’ and still be able to walk!

Just like to add -

The Boathouse - we ate here twice once at lunchtime and once for diner. Service was slow, but no slower than many other places. Lunch was fine, nothing amazing but well cooked. Diner was great, 10tt a head, I had the prawns which were delish and others at our table had lobster. Evening entertainment was suberb - you have to see Brenton limbo! (Take insect repellant with you when you go here, the interior is amazing, but the mossies love it too)

D'Almond Tree - Love this place and great to see Vera and her family again. Food always good, great location and very friendly.

Cascreole - Again great location, had stag there a few times, only ate there once and if you like spicy food try the stuff crabs.

Margarites - Great food, friendly place and lovely to see Margarite again. I celebrated a birthday whilst on holiday and Simon ordered a cake from Margarite - it was delicious, light, fruity and gingery. YUM! Also had lobster here for birthday diner - very good indeed. Do try the home made wines.

Cafe Delight - Great location, spent some lovely hours here just chillin' and drinking juice. Didn't eat here except for a BBQ night, which we would certainly recommend. Good food, good company and great drumming.

Clay Kitchen (at the Blue Mango) - Ate here twice. Rum punches were the best. Food a little bit more pricey than elsewhere, but not by much and there seems to be more choice. We had steak on our second visit and they were very good and made a nice change.

There was generally more places open on this our second visit, which was great, but I too am concerned how Castara will cope when the new appartments are open. However we found that the portions are so large we could only eat out once a day, not many places do snacks, which is sometimes all we wanted.