A Taste Of The Bahamas

For my eighth wedding anniversary, my husband and I spent a week in the Bahamas on the island of Nassau. We asked a few locals where they would recommend us to eat to get some local cuisine, not tourist food, they all said the same place: The Fish Fry.

The only thing to me is that if that's what they all said, then they probably all told tourists that Fish Fry was the place to go... so wouldn't that make it tourist food? I don't know, but we went there anyway to check it out.

Pulling up, we were a little early for lunch, just before 11 a.m. so they weren't serving lunch quite yet, but the hostess still seated us and we ordered mango lemonade and I just got regular lemonade and water. The waitress seemed to really push the bottled water even though we insisted on tap, but she ended up bringing us tiny plastic cups of ice water that were gone in seconds because it's so hot and humid there. I know Kansas is pretty humid, but this was ridiculous. It felt like 75-80 percent humidity while it was around 91 degrees. The waitress wasn't quick to refill our waters, either.


The restaurant seemed outdated, but most things on the island were that way so it just felt local. There was a lot of construction going on all over the island. Everywhere we went there were buildings halfway built and crews building. Even next to our hotel there were at least two other resorts being built. I spent some time watching them work at the tops of high buildings on cranes. Scary. Anyway, it was like the entire island was in the process of updating. The restaurant included.

The lemonade was extremely sweet and I couldn't even drink the entire glass. The mango lemonade was even sweeter. All the drinks I got while on the island were sweeter than back home. My husband and I decided it was because they used real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. When I bought a bottle of Sprite, I looked and sure enough, it was made with real sugar and even had "Sprite Bahamas" on it. Crazy how much difference the real thing makes.

Conch fritters. Yum.

Service was pretty slow for being one of two tables that we could see were eating lunch.

For an appetizer we ordered the conch fritters, which are pretty popular in the Bahamas. Conch is a shell fish that seems to be used in everything there, and it's pretty good. (See video below). Although it seemed a little chewy sometimes, I think that's just the nature of the fish. These conch fritters reminded me of hush puppies with chunks of conch throughout. They were served with a sauce that was creamy and spicy and reminded me of Sriracha hot sauce. The fritters were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside and the fish wasn't overpowering either, they really blended in. The chunks would kind of pull them apart and eating them could get messy, but they were worth it.

I ordered a fish sandwich. There didn't seem to be much on the menu other than a Conch burger, fried fish and burgers. The fish sandwich was tasty: fried white fish, lettuce, tomato, (I took the onion off), with a side of fries. I put tartar sauce on it, too. The fish was crispy and the bun was soft, although it was a little greasy. I mean, it was fried, but it wasn't a fish steak, it was pieces of fish so it seemed to be a little greasier than if it were just one piece. I couldn't eat the entire sandwich, the portions were pretty good size, there was a lot of fish.

I would say it was a good fish sandwich, but I was a little disappointed, honestly. I was expecting some fresh fish tasting of the sea. This fish tasted just like any fish I could order back home. The only exciting thing, to me, was the conch fritters because I couldn't order them anywhere else. I was also hoping to try other types of fish than just fried, but that just didn't happen, they didn't really have much of a selection.

Because it cost $20 each way to get anywhere in Nassau it was hard for us to want to try any other restaurant while we were there -- especially while staying at an all-inclusive resort where we didn't have to pay more for food. So, I was a little disappointed.

I would probably try to find a different restaurant next time I visit Nassau. Fish Fry was good, but I am curious to see if I could find some fish that isn't fried.

If you're not sure what conch is, or how they prepare it, watch this video of two fisherman in the Bahamas.