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What's incredible about the Bermuda restaurant scene isn't so much the number or quality of restaurants, but the sheer variety of cuisines represented on the menus, especially considering that Bermuda is such a tiny island. It hosts a medley of global cuisines—British, French, Italian, Portuguese, American, Caribbean, Indian, Chinese, and Thai—palatable reminders of Bermuda's history as a colony.
Many superior independent and resort restaurants attract a constant and steady stream of internationally acclaimed chefs, assuring that the latest techniques and trends are menu regulars. At the same time, virtually all restaurant menus list traditional Bermudian dishes and drinks, so you have the opportunity to taste local specialties at almost any meal.
As you might expect, methods are not all that's imported. Roughly 80% of Bermuda's food is flown or shipped in, most of it from the United States. This explains why restaurant prices are often higher here than on the mainland.
Nevertheless, there are a number of delicious local ingredients that you should look for. At the top of the list is extraordinary seafood, like lobster (best during September through March), crab, oysters, mussels, clams, red snapper, rockfish, tuna, and wahoo. Additionally, many chefs work with local growers to serve fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, leeks, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, and Bermuda onions (one of the island's earliest exports); and in the fruit department, strawberries, cherries, bananas, and loquats (small yellow fruit used for preserves). Imports notwithstanding, Bermudian cuisine really begins and ends with local ingredients and traditional preparations, and therein lies the island's culinary identity.
While in Bermuda, try to eat like a local and put a couple of traditional dishes to the test. Bermuda is a seafood lover’s paradise, with favorite dishes including mussel pie, shark hash, and codfish and bananas. As for soups, you can go for fish chowder, conch chowder, or traditional Portuguese black-eyed bean soup. Don’t forget to kick back and relax after your meal with a rum swizzle, a Black and Coke, or a Dark ’n' Stormy. Ginger beer—which is quite different from ginger ale—remains the island’s most popular soda for the kids.
When you want a quick coffee or a gourmet sandwich in Dockyard, this is the place to stop, just across from the Visitor Services Centre. Focusing on simple, familiar dishes and delectable house-made pastries, the charming little bistro offers afternoon tea (add Champagne if you wish) under the golden Bermuda sunshine.
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