2007 Trip Report
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:16 pm
Without doubt, the biggest disappointment of our 2007 trip was dining out.
I apologise to my many friends in the Tobago hospitality industry, but the following comments are only voiced after a very considerable discussion with visitors and residents. It pains me to make these comments, but they need to be said - and heeded if Tobago is to become a serious Caribbean destination contender.
To be totally frank and brutally honest, we got fed up with paying London prices for quality that could, at best, be equalled or surpassed in pub restaurants in any UK town or village.
I discussed the subject at length with several restaurant owners and have heard all the arguments. Yes, almost everything has to be imported. Yes, labour costs have soared in the past three years. However, these arguments equally apply to most other popular Caribbean islands. In the words of one widely-travelled European who lives in Trinidad and visits Tobago regularly, why are Tobago restaurants twice the price and half the quality of equivalent establishments on the bigger island? I can’t comment on this claim as I have no recent experience of dining out on Trinidad.
It was perfectly clear that the restaurants were nowhere near as busy this year. This is partly a result of a downturn in tourism due to security scares, but that is not the total answer. Speak to the car rental agencies; see the number of tourists on the roads and on the beaches. There are lots of visitors. Where were they all eating? Well, obviously many of them were staying at all-inclusive hotels and dining in. However, the answer was clear every time we visited Penny Savers at Canaan or Carnbee, Morsheads or the Golden Grove Meat Shop – more and more visitors are simply buying their own produce and self-catering. I’ve never seen as many white faces in the supermarkets as I did this year.
The bottom line is that the public expect more for their money. Buying fresh fish at the Mount Irvine fish stalls and then slapping it on the barbie can be a hugely entertaining experience in its own right – and more fun than sitting in an empty restaurant eating frozen king fish at inflated prices.
Without doubt the restaurant scene on Tobago is in a state of flux. The popular restaurant, Indigo, at Pleasant Prospect is apparently due to close next month (unconfirmed as I have had no reply to my emails requesting confirmation) and, most surprising of all, La Terrazza closed for evening meals a couple of weeks ago. They are open for breakfast and lunch until 31st March but will then close permanently. Owner Stefano Monti tells me that he will be opening a new dine-in pizzeria, wine bar and deli called La Cantina in Crown Point in April. Over and above that, I also know of two top restaurants that are currently for sale.
So, who impressed and who failed to impress? Well, time prevents me from giving a full list here, but our views and impressions will be reflected in our restaurant listings over coming weeks.
Dining along the Caribbean coast can be pretty dire at the best of times. Few visitors appreciate Creole cuisine night after night, so needless to say the few local restaurants are invariably empty. The one blessing was Adam Hanlon’s new small restaurant on the outskirts of Castara – Sandcastles. We dined there twice and the food was every bit as good as we claimed in 2006. Talking about restaurants with a shop owner at the other end of the island a few weeks later, we were not totally surprised when they said that they’d heard such good reports about Sandcastles that they were even thinking it would be worth the drive up to Castara from the Scarborough area, given the lack of choice in the south-west.
We had two lovely meals at the Mot Mot Restaurant near Buccoo Junction. Offering a cross between International and Creole cuisine, the restaurant is unpretentious, welcoming and reasonably priced. We recommended it to friends a few weeks later. They thought the cuisine and cost good, but said that the restaurant suffered from lack of ambience due to an absence of customers. Pity, because it was full on our two evening there.
Finally, the only other public restaurant that impressed us was the Speyside Inn. We took to dining there because evening dining at the Blue Waters Inn, where we were staying, was seriously deficient. The Speyside Inn proved an excellent choice – friendly service, good food and reasonable prices. Whilst talking about Speyside, I must mention Jemma’s Treehouse. Regular readers will know that I am pretty anti this restaurant. However, I have to declare that I am impressed by the number of ‘good’ contacts who, over the past couple of months, have urged me to try it again and said that the food there is now REALLY good. Sadly lack of time prevented us from checking it out. I guess my best advice to readers would be to try it – provided that there are no tour buses parked outside.
Restaurant disasters? Well there were a couple. One was down to bad timing and bad luck and so it would be unfair to name them. However, I am keeping a close watch on that restaurant to make sure that our rating is still valid.
The main ‘disaster’ was Caribbean Choula – the ‘Indian’ restaurant above Melange in the Shirvan Road. I called in their one night wanting an Indian take-away. Having eaten at Caribbean Choula for the first time a year ago, I confess that it was something of a last resort. However, it was a Sunday evening and I had searched Scarborough and Crown Point for a take-away, but nothing was open and/or tempted. The Fortune Chinese at Bon Accord was closed for a private function and all other Chinese restaurants were closed. One look at the chicken in any of the Church’s turned my stomach and almost put me off food for good – but Jill was back at the villa waiting to be fed. So, Caribbean Choula it had to be.
After determining that they still did take-aways, I was presented with a menu and made my choice. Anybody used to excellent British curries should totally forget T&T equivalents. Anyway, having ordered my meal I wandered the gardens while the food was prepared. Fifteen to twenty minutes later the waitress approached and showed me to a table. I explained that I was waiting for a takeaway. She explained that my meal was ready but they had no take-away cartons, so I would have to eat it there. I am delighted to say that I kept my cool and did not voice what was going through my head. We ended up with a pizza for the second night running!
I apologise to my many friends in the Tobago hospitality industry, but the following comments are only voiced after a very considerable discussion with visitors and residents. It pains me to make these comments, but they need to be said - and heeded if Tobago is to become a serious Caribbean destination contender.
To be totally frank and brutally honest, we got fed up with paying London prices for quality that could, at best, be equalled or surpassed in pub restaurants in any UK town or village.
I discussed the subject at length with several restaurant owners and have heard all the arguments. Yes, almost everything has to be imported. Yes, labour costs have soared in the past three years. However, these arguments equally apply to most other popular Caribbean islands. In the words of one widely-travelled European who lives in Trinidad and visits Tobago regularly, why are Tobago restaurants twice the price and half the quality of equivalent establishments on the bigger island? I can’t comment on this claim as I have no recent experience of dining out on Trinidad.
It was perfectly clear that the restaurants were nowhere near as busy this year. This is partly a result of a downturn in tourism due to security scares, but that is not the total answer. Speak to the car rental agencies; see the number of tourists on the roads and on the beaches. There are lots of visitors. Where were they all eating? Well, obviously many of them were staying at all-inclusive hotels and dining in. However, the answer was clear every time we visited Penny Savers at Canaan or Carnbee, Morsheads or the Golden Grove Meat Shop – more and more visitors are simply buying their own produce and self-catering. I’ve never seen as many white faces in the supermarkets as I did this year.
The bottom line is that the public expect more for their money. Buying fresh fish at the Mount Irvine fish stalls and then slapping it on the barbie can be a hugely entertaining experience in its own right – and more fun than sitting in an empty restaurant eating frozen king fish at inflated prices.
Without doubt the restaurant scene on Tobago is in a state of flux. The popular restaurant, Indigo, at Pleasant Prospect is apparently due to close next month (unconfirmed as I have had no reply to my emails requesting confirmation) and, most surprising of all, La Terrazza closed for evening meals a couple of weeks ago. They are open for breakfast and lunch until 31st March but will then close permanently. Owner Stefano Monti tells me that he will be opening a new dine-in pizzeria, wine bar and deli called La Cantina in Crown Point in April. Over and above that, I also know of two top restaurants that are currently for sale.
So, who impressed and who failed to impress? Well, time prevents me from giving a full list here, but our views and impressions will be reflected in our restaurant listings over coming weeks.
Dining along the Caribbean coast can be pretty dire at the best of times. Few visitors appreciate Creole cuisine night after night, so needless to say the few local restaurants are invariably empty. The one blessing was Adam Hanlon’s new small restaurant on the outskirts of Castara – Sandcastles. We dined there twice and the food was every bit as good as we claimed in 2006. Talking about restaurants with a shop owner at the other end of the island a few weeks later, we were not totally surprised when they said that they’d heard such good reports about Sandcastles that they were even thinking it would be worth the drive up to Castara from the Scarborough area, given the lack of choice in the south-west.
We had two lovely meals at the Mot Mot Restaurant near Buccoo Junction. Offering a cross between International and Creole cuisine, the restaurant is unpretentious, welcoming and reasonably priced. We recommended it to friends a few weeks later. They thought the cuisine and cost good, but said that the restaurant suffered from lack of ambience due to an absence of customers. Pity, because it was full on our two evening there.
Finally, the only other public restaurant that impressed us was the Speyside Inn. We took to dining there because evening dining at the Blue Waters Inn, where we were staying, was seriously deficient. The Speyside Inn proved an excellent choice – friendly service, good food and reasonable prices. Whilst talking about Speyside, I must mention Jemma’s Treehouse. Regular readers will know that I am pretty anti this restaurant. However, I have to declare that I am impressed by the number of ‘good’ contacts who, over the past couple of months, have urged me to try it again and said that the food there is now REALLY good. Sadly lack of time prevented us from checking it out. I guess my best advice to readers would be to try it – provided that there are no tour buses parked outside.
Restaurant disasters? Well there were a couple. One was down to bad timing and bad luck and so it would be unfair to name them. However, I am keeping a close watch on that restaurant to make sure that our rating is still valid.
The main ‘disaster’ was Caribbean Choula – the ‘Indian’ restaurant above Melange in the Shirvan Road. I called in their one night wanting an Indian take-away. Having eaten at Caribbean Choula for the first time a year ago, I confess that it was something of a last resort. However, it was a Sunday evening and I had searched Scarborough and Crown Point for a take-away, but nothing was open and/or tempted. The Fortune Chinese at Bon Accord was closed for a private function and all other Chinese restaurants were closed. One look at the chicken in any of the Church’s turned my stomach and almost put me off food for good – but Jill was back at the villa waiting to be fed. So, Caribbean Choula it had to be.
After determining that they still did take-aways, I was presented with a menu and made my choice. Anybody used to excellent British curries should totally forget T&T equivalents. Anyway, having ordered my meal I wandered the gardens while the food was prepared. Fifteen to twenty minutes later the waitress approached and showed me to a table. I explained that I was waiting for a takeaway. She explained that my meal was ready but they had no take-away cartons, so I would have to eat it there. I am delighted to say that I kept my cool and did not voice what was going through my head. We ended up with a pizza for the second night running!
a vast proportion of the places we ate in were very poor with the worst service we found being the "Blue Crab", 
believe me it's not worth walking up the hill for at all, we will be returning to Tobago but not for the food thats for sure. Ok we did not try many of the better class restaurants as we ate at the appartment a fair bit (one reason for that was we were often looking for food mid afternoon. . . . Ha ha ha no chance !) but of those that we did try the "Bamboo Mile" faired very well both at lunchtime & evening.