Places to eat in Vieques

There is a local bakery just northwest and uphill from the Maricon tourist strip in downtown Esperanza which serves really, really good breakfast sandwiches. The savory sandwiches are made to order so they're incredibly fresh. It's also fun to watch the baker singing as she prepares the bread.

They also make pizzas which are also very good, but I like their breakfast items better.

Favorite Dish: Everything is awesome! The ham, egg and cheese sandwich is huge, unbelievable delicious and very cheap at only $2.50. Had it for breakfast almost every day. All the sugary pastries are really good too. The only hard part is figuring out what to order and finding the appetite to eat it all.

Our second day we ate at Banana?s beach bar in Esperanza, and maybe we went on an off day, but my salad was wilted and rank (OK, OK who orders a salad at a beach bar anyway- I should have gotten a burger) and my medella beer wasn't very cold (?!) Lee got the buffalo wings and thought they were fine. Our waiter was very aloof and would turn his back when I would ask a question or make an order. It was very strange. Plus the bar of soap on the sink in the bathroom had fallen on the floor and I spent 10 minutes debating whether to pick it up or go without. (I picked it up- but regretted it when it flew on the floor again). The people watching was fun though. I probably just needed about 5 more medellas.

Day 6 we drove to Isabel II and walked around, watched the sun set at Al’s Mar Azul, Highly recommend this bar- its right on the water and everyone is friendly, plus the decor is fun. Lee sat at the bar with the locals, (5 middle aged women and 1 man). I was told that I had to wait to order my second round until after jeopardy was over because everyone at the bar (including the bartender) was watching it. It was funny. Very good drinks.

On our third day we went to Isabel to walk around and try to find a late lunch. We stopped to eat at El Patio at 2:30pm- we were the only people there and the cashier was also our cook and waiter. They didn’t have any appetizers or smallish dishes so we just ordered the “seafood platter” to share. Our waiter told us that all he had was conch and shrimp, so we said OK. So for $17.95 we got conch chunks and boiled shrimp on a bed of shredded lettuce with some type of onion in oil sauce. It also came with fried plantains. Since it was 2:30 everything else was closed, and we were the only patrons there, but I thought the "platter," was a bit pricy but the Medella beer was cold!

Day 5 we went to dinner at the Crow's nest -Island Steak House. It was a Tuesday- and that's the weekly happy hour from 5-7, so the bar upstairs was mobbed with locals (transplanted Americans); lively crowd, but plenty of seating outside. We were seated at our reservation time without a wait for dinner. We got a good table near the edge of the railing. We ordered the conch fritters which were fantastic, with some really spicy creamy dipping sauce (aioli?) It was really good and I couldn?t stop eating it even though it was really hot. Their wine list was great and we ordered a bottle of 2001 stag's leap Chardonnay for either $28 or $32, either way it was a good price. I couldn't believe it because it's one of my faves and it was fantastic with the food. I ordered the caesar salad with my surf/turf dinner-churrasco with Carribean lobster (no big claws); It was fantastic and came with a baked potato and spinach, just a ton of food. Lee got the 1/4 head iceberg /blue cheese salad (similar to Sullivan's in Austin/Houston) with the tenderloin, it was huge and thick and looked gorgeous. My churasco was soooo good, very tender perfectly cooked- medium with a cilantro lime marinade. Zingy and yummy. We had to bring home both steaks after just a few bites- we were stuffed. Definitely the best meal we had and the best value on the island.

Favorite Dish: Churrasco!

Our fifth night we had dinner at M Bar- off the charts delicious fusion food menu. The decor was Tangerine orange and Lime green and has a very modern, big city feel even though it?s open air dining. We loved the food there and I think we ordered some type of spring rolls that were just incredible, really good sauce for dipping. Our waiter was incredible and we ordered about 3 mojitos each- they were really good! I had the beef filet with frites, and Lee had the seafood casserole. It had mussels, shrimp, scallops, monkfish, it was just really good, very well done. M Bar was close to our villa in Pilon so we wished we had found it before Thursday!

Favorite Dish: Spring rolls!

Day 7- We had dinner at Media Luna (reservations recommended), our villa care taker Bill (ex chemical engineer for Shell) is a bartender there, we ate on the balcony upstairs- which I recommend because it wasn?t so hot out there, and you could watch all the people below. It was a Friday night so there were local teenagers cruising and going out for the night.
Chef Monica cooked up wonderful fusion meals in an open kitchen upstairs where everyone could watch. The smell was intoxicating! Dinner was pricey ($18-$25 per item) but good- they have a tapas style menu, so we ordered 5 items. We started with the pear salad, then had the shrimp tempura, (Lee orders it all the time but says it was one of the best he?s had), then had the beef filet - small but perfectly cooked with a few frites on the side, lamb in filo, and tuna spring rolls. Each item had some fantastic sauce and they were smallish portions so you got to try lots of things without getting too stuffed. We finished up with the chocolate mousse cake with coffee ice cream. Yum!

Favorite Dish: Lamb in filo.

Our first night in Vieques we had dinner at The Blue Macaw- at the Inn on the Blue Horizion. Their menu changes daily so we ate there again at the end of the week, too. We loved that they had mojitos and they were really tangy and sweet- but not too tart- just like I like them. I started with the seafood gumbo and it was the best I have ever had, (new orleans excluded) with big chunks of scallops- yum! My husband loved the bread- that night it was olive bread. For dinner the first night I had the thai basil scallops on thai noodles. It was really good. I also tried the “tasty roots,” one of their specialties which is a mixture of yams, carrots, turnips, parsnips? It’s the consistency of mashed potatoes but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. Admitedly I don’t like any of the vegetebles that it’s made with, but I was trying to warm up to it because it looked like orange mashed potatoes. Lee (my husband) had the ribs and said they were good- not off the charts, but good. We finished off with the vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate.

Our second visit on Day 6 of our vacation, I got the seafood gumbo again but it was totally different than from Sat. Nite, different fish, and shrimp instead of scallops. Really good both times. For an entree I got the veal, it was like a stew and had been cooking with the chopped vegetables for over 8 hours our waitress told us, the meat just fell off the bone. Lee had the seared tuna and just loved it. We had to get the ice cream and chocolate sauce again (the sauce reminded me of that chocolate crackle stuff from when I was a kid).
Open air dining, octagon bar. Reservations recommended.

Favorite Dish: seafood gumbo