28 Best Restaurants in Belize

This little open-air restaurant near Xunantunich has won many fans who come for hearty Maya and Creole dishes at rock-bottom prices. You'll find mostly locals here, many from San Ignacio, Benque Viejo, and other parts of Cayo District. Most items on the menu are BZ$12 or less, including chilimole (chicken with mole sauce), cow-foot soup, Belizean escabeche (marinated fish or meat), and stew pork with rice, beans, and plantains. You can make a meal of the mestizo appetizers including salbutes (puffed fried tortilla with meat), tostadas, and empanadas, most under BZ$2 each. The classic Maya pibil (pork cooked in an underground oven) is sometimes on the menu. The banana and mango licuados (milkshakes) are delicious, and you can also enjoy the official national drinks of Belize, Belikin and Fanta.

Fry jacks are those puffy pillows of fried dough served at breakfast; here they come stuffed with a slew of options, from egg and ham to chicken and beans, all for a U.S. buck or two. Just one makes a filling breakfast. Pull up a stool on the pink-and-green porch, or take your fry jacks near the water. At the stand next door you can pick up a liter of fresh watermelon juice (in a repurposed Crystal bottle) for BZ$7. Yet another example of a great female entrepreneur in Belize, Errolyn does it right. She also holds a barbecue most Saturdays.

Cash only.

A well-run option in Orange Walk Town, Maracas Bar and Grill has one of the town's most scenic settings overlooking the New River---you might even spot a crocodile. Sit in the covered riverside patio or in the air-conditioned dining room and start your meal with an appetizer of shrimp, conch, or lobster ceviche (lobster is available mid-June to mid-February and conch is usually October to late April). Indulge your comfort food cravings with pizza, fajitas, tacos, quesadillas, or a beef or fish burger. Escabeche is offered Sunday only. Occasionally local parties here get loud, but you'll probably be welcome to join the festivities.

Patty's Bistro (sometimes spelled Patti's) serves some of the best food in town, the service is sprightly and friendly, the atmosphere is no-frills, and prices are low. For a local treat, try the hearty conch soup (in season, usually October to late April).

Open since 1984, the Caladium is one of the oldest businesses in this young capital. Most Belizeans know it, since it's next to the bus station at Market Square. Here you'll find many of the country's favorites on the menu, including fried chicken, tender barbecued pork ribs, traditional rice and beans with chicken, beef, or pork, and conch soup. It's authentic, clean, affordable, well-run, and air-conditioned.

A fun dining experience on an open-air porch adjoining the Coconut Row Hotel features a menu using local and organic ingredients. Coconut Husk truly shines at breakfast with filling pancakes or fry jacks with toast and natural fruit juices. The small lunch menu gives way to tacos and a variety of wraps. Bar snacks and lighter fare, rather than a full dinner, make up the evening menu, which is in effect only three nights a week.

Friendly service, local atmosphere, good food simply prepared, modest prices, ice-cold beer—what more could you want? Dawn's Grill 'n Go is in a small no-frills building behind the soccer field in Placencia Village. These folks are open only for dinner; go for the grilled or fried chicken, or the fish of the day.

Nothing fancy here, just down-home Belizean dishes at moderate prices, and that's exactly why it's popular. Go for the traditional beans-and-rice dishes or a fish platter; the ceviche is good, too. If you're in the mood for something else, you can get a pizza. It's a couple of blocks off the main drag, so it's quieter and more relaxing here, whether you dine on the veranda or inside in the homey dining room.

An established spot, Grace's has genuine value, a down-home feel, and hearty plates of beans and rice and other Belizean staples on the menu. Get a seat near the entrance and eye the town's street life. This is a good place for a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, fry jacks (a Belizean version of a Mexican sopapilla), and, of course, beans. For lunch and dinner you can always get chicken, but you can usually get fresh fish, too, plus pizza, chow mein, hamburgers, and several dozen other dishes.

Hode's is often the busiest place in town, with its large shaded patio next to a citrus grove, swings, slides, and ice-cream bar (it's much bigger than it looks from the outside). The fried chicken with French fries is some of the best in the Cayo. Prices are very reasonable, and there's a full bar.

At Innies, as at most local restaurants in the village, you're eating in a spot that was once somebody's house or back porch. Here you can dine inside or outside and get the full flavor of village life. The food is authentic (though some dishes cater to the taste of tourists), delicious, and inexpensive. Traditional Garifuna dishes such as hudut (fish cooked in coconut milk and served with mashed plantains) and ereba (grated cassava bread) with bundiga (a gravy of grated plantains and coconut) are available, but more familiar dishes like fried chicken and rice and beans with stew chicken are also served. You'll find the staff very friendly.

Named after the owner's three children, Jo-Mel-In has been a pillar in the Corozal community since 1987. Guests will be happy to learn recent renovations have led to a closed-in, air-conditioned dining area, which is much needed in the summer months. You will want to come here if you're craving real Belizean food with that unmistakable influence from the Mestizo and Maya cultures. Daily lunch specials include a classic rice and beans with stew chicken that won't be outdone by any other one in town. Jo-Mel-In serves breakfast on Sunday every mid- and end of month. 

The buses all stop at this roadside restaurant along the Hummingbird Highway on the way to Dangriga for the hearty tamales boiled by a family in the tradition of their mother, the late Bertha Lisbey. A tamal—that’s the singular—is a self-contained meal of vegetables, with or without meat, wrapped and steamed inside a banana leaf. Psst. You untie the leaf, but you don’t eat it.

This longtime local favorite serves simple but tasty Belizean dishes such as stew chicken or pork with beans and rice. Sit at tables with oilcloth tablecloths under a covered patio, open to the breezes, and enjoy genuine Belizean hospitality at lunch and dinner. Some days there's a buffet of Belizean foods at lunch.

Orange Walk Town may be the last place you'd expect to find an upscale restaurant like this, with its Maya-inspired decor, well-prepared food, and extra-friendly servers. Nonetheless, it opened here, on a corner behind the Shell station, to rave reviews. Sit in the tropical gardens in the back and admire the jungle-esque foliage, or sit in air-conditioned comfort in the main dining room and enjoy a cold drink and a delicious shrimp or conch (in season) ceviche appetizer. For a main course try the curry ginger shrimp or one of the Yucatán-inspired dishes such as poc chuc, grilled pork sauteed with onion and sweet pepper and served with corn tortillas. 

Often packed, Nerie's is the vox populi of dining in Belize City. The many traditional Belizean dishes on the menu include fry jacks for breakfast and cow-foot soup for lunch. Stew chicken with rice and beans and a soft drink is always an economical choice. There's another location on Douglas Jones Street.  You're in the heart of the Commercial District, so a taxi to and from is a must if you come here for dinner.

The most popular place for breakfast in San Ignacio is here at Pop's, where it's served all day from 6:30 am to 3 pm. You can get an American full breakfast here, but you can also try a Belizean breakfast such as a cheese-and-chaya omelet, Belizean bacon, refried beans, and fry jacks.

The Creole and Garifuna dishes here are hearty, tasty, and prepared fresh. The restaurant is often busy with fishermen and the guys who run boats out to Tobacco Caye and other offshore cayes, but it's basic and clean. If you're going to the islands you can arrange transportation while sipping a beer or having breakfast or a plate of rice and beans.

With sizzling spices, this restaurant transforms basics like chicken or pork chops beyond standard fare. Try the pork in brandy-mustard sauce, the coconut chicken, or the piña colada fish. Eat in the casual dining room or out on the covered deck, with views through the vines and flowers. In a residential area off Benque Road, the place can be hard to find, especially after dark so consider taking a taxi.

The less rowdy competitor of Lazy Lizard, Sip n' Dip is a playful spot to kick it in the water, rum punch in hand. Though the swimming here isn't as good or deep as at the Lizard, you're a stone's throw from that area; plus the inner tubes and submerged tables make up for it. It's more family-friendly, with a modest playground and a little upcycled water slide into the sea. The basic lunch menu is surprisingly tasty. 

Burritos are the thing here, and in fact usually just about the only thing, except for smoothies, shakes, coffee, and the occasional daily special. You get a selection of fillings and type of flour tortilla. The huge breakfast burrito easily serves two. This is primarily a take-out spot. You'll find a few tables on the patio for open-air dining, but the view is only of a neighboring parking lot.

This fairly new Corozal eatery has already earned a reputation as the cutest place to have brunch when up north, serving artful breakfast dishes with a Maya and Mestizo twist. Chaya empanadas are the size of your palm, and when topped with the locally made hot sauce, they will have you finishing every bite. While the food may take some time to prepare, it's only because everything is made fresh and then plated perfectly. 

Long-established Wendy's—no, not that Wendy's—always delivers good, no-frills food at reasonable prices. The Belizean breakfast of fry jack (the local version of beignets without the sugar), bacon, eggs, and refried beans is nearly perfect. The grilled fish is fresh and delicious, and at lunch there are many dishes to choose from on the lengthy menu, including Creole items like cow-foot soup or mestizo soups like escabeche or chirmole with fresh flour tortillas. Dine inside or outside on the veranda; both are pleasant.

We don't often include airport restaurants, but Global Spice, a no-frills restaurant near the "waving gallery" on the second floor of the main terminal, will leave you with a nice taste of Belize. It's not a gourmet restaurant, just a good place to get that farewell plate of stew chicken with rice and beans and a cold Belikin.