Ambergris Restaurants
 

Hi, all - I would love to know your favorite restaurants in Ambergris. Were there any that you particularly enjoyed? Probably looking more for casual spots, anything along the water with a nice view would be a bonus. We love to eat outside. Would love to know your favorite spots and recommendations!

Also, are there any dishes in particular that Belize is known for?

Belize is certainly known for stewed chicken with rice and beans. Great dish. Can be found around town for about US$5.00.

As for restaurants, here's my list. Upscale, and south of the bridge--Wild Mango's-on the beach, wonderful coconut shrimp, ceviches, mojitos, different menu than a lot of places. Hidden Treasure-it is hidden back in a residential neighborhood. Excellent food, romantic setting, it's not really hard to find, you just won't wander by if you aren't looking for it. Red Ginger-I've just had lunch there, it was good and expensive. No views, seems a bit too 'cityish' for my taste. Blue Water Grill-on the beach. I mainly eat lunch there, the sandwiches are excellent. Dinners have been getting mixed reviews. Sunset Grill--on the lagoon, love the 'mango tango snapper' dish they serve. You can feed the tarpon while you're there.

More moderate places--Caramba-very good fresh fish. Also good Mexican, if you're in the mood. Across the street is the Reef, also fish and such. I prefer Caramba, others will disagree. El Divino at Banana Beach-I've eaten dinner there a couple times recently, it's been good. No views. Fidos-large palapa on the beach. Mostly we stop in for appetizers. I've never eaten dinner there, lunches are good. Caliente-on the beach, very good Mexican dishes, once again we usually eat lunch there, the menu changes at night and doesn't thrill me.

Other places on the beach are Estel's (I always spell it wrong), very popular, especially at breakfast. Also Lily's, I haven't eaten there in a while. Playa Lounge seems to be trying to re-invent itself into more of a restaurant, I've never eaten there.

For local food, El Fogon, just north of the air strip, Antijitos San Telmo, about a mile south of town on the main road, Neris Tacos, Warugama on Middle Street, at night try the Papusas.

This is too long. I'll stop now. I haven't mentioned anything north of the bridge, and there are some great places to eat.

We really liked the Blue Water Grill, which was on the beach and had a nice view. I loved Mambo, which is the restaurant at Matachica. I think my favorite meal we had in Ambergris was there. Fidos was great for lunch, again right on the beach. I did like the restaurant at Portofino a lot and there seemed to be a lot of people who came there from other hotels. I wanted to try Sunset Grill, but we ran out of days!!!

This is probably more divey than what you had in mind but for local carry-out, Aunt Verns was our favorite -- friendly and she seemed accustomed to occasional guests from Caye Casa. Her chicken and rice was best I tasted and she also cooked us hudut (Garifuna?) -- whole red snapper simmered in coconut milk with pounded plantain mash as the starch (you could ask for rice instead). This was the best meal we had on AC and needs to be requested early (like at lunchtime if you want it for dinner) as it takes awhile to pound the plantains (which is why i'm sure she'd be thrilled if ppl would rather have rice!). We had this a couple of times, think it was around $10-12 (enough for 2) although i would have happily paid $20 for this dish.

Aunt Vern's was close to the main road (just one street over, few buildings down) so if you end up near South of the bridge it's definitely worth checking out. There was also a wonderful bakery that made bacon rolls and these great loaves of cheese bread. We'd buy them in the morning to have with our coffee and take the rest for snacks on snorkeling trips.

IIRC, the bakery is off the main road on the corner -- walking North towards bridge pass Caye Casa on left and take left at next street/path. It's a large 2-3 story building at the corner, i think. This might be more useful info for someone staying near that area already but thought I'd throw it in. Have fun, AC is now one of my favorite spots!

I think it might have been Miss Vern's (not Aunt....) -- it's a little white house with a handmade looking sign neatly written in black lettering. There were specials posted outside so it was clear that it was a restaurant.

Wow, lots of fun suggestions here - I think we're going to have fun exploring. If you go to a fancier place, do you need to dress up at all?

I keep reading about golf carts to get around - is that something that you rent?

Please keep all the great restaurant info. coming - I love it! You guys are a big help.

I wouldn't say any of the restaurants we went to were "dressy". But some people did dress up more than others. I think that was more of a personal choice though. I noticed at Mambo, which is the one at Matachica, there were more dressed up people, same with guests coming TO Portofino to eat - but not so much the guests staying there. Mainly if I was eating dinner out, it was capris and a nicer top. But we did see people in dresses - but nothing fancy. I think it was they honeymoon crowd mainly who seemed to be dressed up :)

Thanks, shell!

So as far as getting around, what's the best way to do it? We haven't booked a hotel yet, but are taxis fairly cheap and easy to get?

Since we didn't stay right in San Pedro, we only used the water taxi, which I think is around $7 each way or you can get a weekly pass. The actual town of San Pedro is small. You can walk to anywhere you'd need to go or ride a bike or get a golf cart I suppose. We walked anywhere we'd need to go when we were there. It's when you stay outside the edges of the town that you need to get transportation to the town. I don't think I'd want to stay right in the town - too crowded for me.

We stayed a little ways south of town and rented a golf car, which we used at least twice a day to get to San Pedro's restaurants. This may have been an extravagance, in retrospect, but it was convenient.

We only used a cab to get back and forth from the airport with luggage. Other than that we walked to town. We rented a cart one day to explore which was a lot of fun.

I live a mile south of town when on the island. We've rented a golf cart once in seven years, and that was for one day, to explore the north end with a friend who had a bad knee so he couldn't bike/walk that far.

Regular cabs can't go north of the bridge. Lots of people don't mind the water taxis, but, I hate being on someone else's schedule.

A cab from downtown to my condo if US$5.00.

Thanks, guys. One of the hotels I'm looking at is Victoria House - is that in a good location? Close enough to walk to restaurants but not too hectic? Golf carts and water taxis sound like fun ways to get around.

Victoria House is about two miles south of town. If I stayed there, I'd either rent a golf cart, or walk to town when it's still light out and cab it home.

There's a beach bar/restaurant close by as well as the restaurant at Victoria House itself.

Golf carts are fun, but the town is overcrowded with them. Supposedly there's a moratorium on bringing more carts to the island, but I suspect people are buying them anyway and getting a permit. It can be a hassle to park them.

I think I would come down, check out the situation, then decide if you need a cart. They certainly are handy at times, and do rent one for at least a day to explore.

Sounds like good advice, Jean - do you happen to remember the name of the bar/restaurant that's close to VH?

It's called the Sandbar. South of Victoria HOuse is a beautiful private home, then Royal Caribbean Resort, then the Sandbar. I've never been able to figure out if the restaurant is part of the resort or not. I think it is, I've seen people charge drinks to their rooms.

I haven't eaten there since it opened. Some of the stuff I saw come out of the kitchen recently looked like decent bar food.

Thanks for all the good advice, everyone. We ended up having a great time. The food at Victoria House was great; we ate once at their more upscale restaurants and other meals at the beach bar. Also went to Wild Mango's and loved it. And to a little custard place - is it called D and E's? We didn't get to try all the spots we wanted, but we're planning a return trip! Does anyone have any other restaurants that they enjoyed? Places that are a combo of good casual food and a scenic view would be great. Thanks for all the help!

I glanced through this thread from a few years ago. Just want to say that the Sandbar no longer exists.

We tend to go out more for lunch than dinners. This past winter our go to places seemed to be El Fogon and My Secret Deli for lunches. No views, but, great food.

Last week we were on the island, we decided to check out Wet Willie's. Had a very nice lunch, good barbecue, my chicken sandiwch was excellent. Really good fries. North of downtown, on a the end of a pier.

I don't know if Hurricane's was open when last you visited. Another place out on a dock, just a bit north of Ramon's. Great views, good food.

For a more upscale dinner, though with no views, we really enjoyed our meals at Casa Picasso. It was great several years ago, went downhill for a while, and, now is awesome again.

For decent bar food, Carlo and Ernie's Runway Bar is good. Just south of Tropic Air, it really is right by the runway.
Sunday barbecue is good. When we were there, they were doing 'Wacky Wednesday', really, really cheap beer and rum. Not sure if that's still happening now that it's low season.

What part of the island are you staying at? I didn't mention any place north....

Thanks for all the good tips, Jean; we're going to stay at VH again since we enjoyed it so much last time.

I was also curious about Caye Caulker - if we go over for the day, are there any casual restaurants you guys would recommend? Thanks for the good advice.