All activities / Culinary / Cooking / Bridgetown
Culinary / Cooking in Bridgetown
Bridgetown is the capital of Barbados and its historic port, set around the Careenage inlet on the south-west coast. The old town and its garrison are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with British colonial streets, the Parliament Buildings and Broad Street's shops. It is the island's commercial and cultural hub, home to the Mount Gay rum visitor centre, and the finishing point each August for the Grand Kadooment parade of the Crop Over festival.
Why here
Bajan food is a Caribbean cuisine of its own, and a walking food tour of Bridgetown is the fastest way into it. The national dish is cou-cou and flying fish, cornmeal and okra under a gravy of the small silver fish that once shoaled around the island, and the everyday classics run from the fish cutter, a fried-fish sandwich in a salt-bread roll, to macaroni pie, pudding and souse, and rum-shop plates washed down with a local beer. The historic capital, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hides its best eating in market stalls, old rum shops and hole-in-the-wall kitchens that a guide can open up, sampling as you walk the colonial streets and the Careenage. The island's other great food ritual is the Friday-night fish fry at Oistins on the south coast, where vendors grill marlin, tuna and flying fish under the lights beside a lime of music and dominoes. A guided tour turns a plate of flying fish into the story of the island.
Best months
Food tours run year round, on foot through Bridgetown by day and as evening dinner-and-cocktail tours in St. Lawrence Gap, so the weather rarely matters. The walking tour covers a UNESCO city on foot, with a few hours of easy strolling and plenty of stops to eat, so come hungry and in comfortable shoes. The Oistins fish fry is busiest on Friday and Saturday nights. Tours are small-group and popular, so book ahead, especially in the December-to-April high season and on cruise-ship days.
Getting there & around
Lickrish Food Tours runs its flagship walking tour through historic Bridgetown, an easy taxi or bus ride from the south and west-coast hotels, plus an island-wide coach tour and an evening dinner-and-cocktail tour in St. Lawrence Gap. Book in advance and come with an appetite, as the tours include many tastings and a lot of walking. The Oistins Friday fish fry is a separate, independent scene on the south coast with no single operator; go on your own for grilled fish, music and a rum.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Lickrish Food Tours
GuideLickrish Food Tours has run guided Bajan food experiences for around ten years, led by local guides who mix eating with island history. Its flagship Original Bajan Walking Food Tour spends three hours on foot through Bridgetown, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sampling local dishes at market stalls, bakeries and hole-in-the-wall kitchens. It also runs Round de Towns, a four-hour coach tour across the island's towns, and a St. Lawrence Gap dinner and cocktail tour.