PRICE CHART
Note that prices, unless otherwise noted, are in US dollars.
RESTAURANT
Restaurant prices indicate the price of a meal,
drink and gratuity for one person.
$ = up to $15 per person
$$ = $15 to $30 per person
$$$ = $30 to $45 per person
$$$$ = over $45 per person
Asian Restaurants
ORCHID ROOM
Devon House, 26 Hope Road, New Kingston
876-968-2098
($$$)
This dinner-only restaurant serves authentic Thai cuisine. Pad Thai, pepper steak, curried dishes, stir-fried chicken and satay fill the menu.
Continental Cuisine
BLUE MOUNTAIN INN
Gordon Town Road
876-927-1700 or 876-927-2606
($$$$)
Reservations are required for this beautiful eatery half an hour out of Kingston in the misty Blue Mountains, tucked behind a bougainvillea-draped entrance. The menu features beef and seafood, all served in a classic English-inn atmosphere. White-glove service makes this a truly elegant evening. The restaurant is open for dinner only.
Ice Cream
I SCREAM
Devon House, 26 Hope Road, New Kingston
($)
We normally wouldn’t put an ice cream parlor in a restaurant section, but I Scream doesn’t serve up your typical dairy dessert. You can find grapenut, guava, mango, soursop and even Devon stout ice creams. Need we say more?
Jamaican Restaurants
GROG SHOPPE
Devon House, 26 Hope Road, New Kingston
876-929-7027
($-$$)
This excellent restaurant offers both indoor and open-air seating in a pub-like setting. Just steps from Devon House itself, the restaurant menu includes pub lunches such as roast beef or corned tongue as well as escovitch fish or steamed fish in white wine, onions, tomatoes and herbs. Many Jamaican specialties are offered, including curried goat, ackee and saltfish, roast suckling pig, baked crab backs, curried chicken, jerked chicken and stuffed cho-cho.
HOT POT
2 Alamont Terrace, Kingston
876-929-3906
($-$$)
This favorite local hangout serves three meals a day: Jamaican favorites such as ackee and codfish, rundown and escovitch fish. Wash it all down with fresh juices – tamarind, coconut water and, if you visit during the holiday season, sorrel. This popular place offers a real taste of Jamaican food and a genuine Jamaican atmosphere to match. Very casual.
IVOR GUEST HOUSE
Jacks Hill
876-978-3476 or 876-978-3479
($$-$$$)
When you’re ready for a break from continental or Jamaican food, this elegant restaurant serves Cantonese and Thai delights. Don’t miss the dim sum on Sunday afternoons.
LA FRESCA BAR AND GRILL
Terra Nova Hotel, 17 Waterloo Road, New Kingston
876-926-9334 or 876-926-2211
($$$$ )
We enjoyed an elegant dinner at La Fresca just days before Christmas one year. It was our last night in Jamaica, and we dined outside on the great house verandah. Local residents, decked in their holiday splendor, filled most tables. The restaurant and the hotel were lit by tiny white lights and the dinner was one we’ll never forget.
Menu selections include peppered shrimp, grilled lobster tail, fish escovitch, fish soup, conch fritters and fried fish.
PEPPERS
31 Upper Waterloo Road, Kingston
876-969-2421
($-$$ )
Want to feel like a Kingstonian? Then do as the locals do and head to this casual restaurant, grab a picnic table, and order up some jerk and a Red Stripe. This is an open-air affair, completely casual. Specialties of the house include jerk chicken, jerk pork and jerk fish. Garlic crab and grilled lobster are other favorites. There are two bars here, as well as a dance floor. The site is a popular after-work place for Kingstonians, who come on Wednesday and Friday nights for seafood, Tuesday for wine and cheese accompanied by live country music, karaoke on Thursdays, and oldies tunes on Sunday evenings. Like the Hot Pot, we recommend this casual eatery for a real taste of Jamaican food and a real Jamaican atmosphere.
STRAWBERRY HILL
New Castle Road, Irishtown
876-944-8400
($$$)
The open-air restaurant at Strawberry Hill serves a continental breakfast daily followed by lunch and dinner featuring new Jamaican cuisine. These innovative dishes are the creation of Jamaican-born Chef James Palmer. The Sunday brunch is a Kingston event; look for diners in their Sunday best. Dinner dishes include blackened sirloin steak with red onion marmalade; grilled jumbo shrimp brushed with rum molasses; and grilled chicken breast with roasted corn.
Strawberry Hill also offers a spa menu. Items such as grilled yellowtail snapper with mushroom-tomato broth and free-range grilled chicken breast on a bed of steamed callaloo with peanut wine sauce liven the palate without adding unnecessary calories or fat. We recommend this restaurant both for its spectacular view and for its innovative cuisine featuring Jamaican dishes with a culinary twist.
Seafood Restaurants
EL DORADO RESTAURANT
Terra Nova Hotel, 17 Waterloo Road, New Kingston
876-926-9334 or 876-926-2211
($$$)
El Dorado is the fine dining option at Terra Nova, known for its seafood dishes as well as steaks. The air-conditioned restaurant is a favorite meeting place for the power lunch crowd and is open noon to 2:30 for lunch and 7 to 11 pm for dinner.
Steak House
BLUE MOUNTAIN INN
Gordon Town Road
876-927-1700 or 876-927-2606
($$$$)
See listing under Continental Cuisine, above
