seafood – Pilot Life for Me

While this island is teaming with eating options around every corner, we went ahead and compiled a list of our favorites for you! This way you can have a list of everything all in one place and can spend your time exploring instead of yelping 🙂

Hungry Grouper: Hungry Grouper is located in San Pedro. It was only a 10 minute golf cart drive from where we stayed, but it was a local open-air spot with only 6 tables and a sand floor. The specialty is Snapper, served a variety of ways. We tried the lemon garlic snapper and the blackened snapper plate, both of which came with rice and salad/coleslaw for a total of $26.

Robin’s Kitchen: Robin’s is another local outdoor spot located in San Pedro that specializes in an island specialty – jerk chicken. Jerk chicken is basically marinated chicken with Caribbean “jerk” spices, grilled on a charcoal grill for about 30 minutes, and served with BBQ sauce. He also offers a few other dishes, some of which is fish, which is also fabulous. This was one of our favorite meals on the island, and we only paid $17 total! Robin is the owner and grills everyday and is super friendly. Half the experience is just hanging out with Robin and is worth the trip for that experience alone! Pro tip: bring your own alcohol if you want it, Robin’s doesn’t have it on the menu but allows you to bring your own.

Boogies Belly: Boogie’s Belly is breakfast-only local joint in San Pedro that you have to check out once while you’re there! Their specialty is meat pies (you can get 3 palm/muffin sized pies for $1), which comes in chicken or pork (maybe more, those were the only options the day we went though). They are essentially meat and a sauce baked inside a mini dough pie and are definitely worth a try!

Belize Chocolate Company: The Belize Chocolate Company is an adorable little shop right by the water in San Pedro that is great for a quick stop-in! It’s like a cute little coffee shop, except for chocolate – what’s not to love?! If you have the time, you can even schedule chocolate “tours”/classes which I’m sure are great!

The Dive Bar: The Dive Bar was our first meal in Belize near where we stayed in the Tres Cocos area where we had fantastic fresh seafood dishes, but the atmosphere and location were even better! They are located right on the water and have several hammocks you can relax on, a dock, cornhole, beach chairs, and a swing set in the water itself! If it wasn’t a seaweed year it would have been absolutely perfect and we would have returned every day, but unfortunately since the seaweed was bad at the time we visited no one was getting in the water there. Any other time though this would have been our favorite spot so check it out!

Estel’s: Estel’s is located in San Pedro (shocker, I know) and is right by the water taxi dock, so it’s super convenient to visit on your arrival or departure day! We visited for breakfast on the day we left right before we caught the water taxi and tried the Mayan Special – it’s a plate of flapjacks (fried dough), topped with eggs, ham, and beans.

Elvi’s Kitchen: Elvi’s is a cute little place in San Pedro with a wide range of options. We got wonderful seafood basil pasta and coconut curry dishes and loved them!

Caroline’s Cookin’: Caroline’s Cookin’ is another local spot in downtown San Pedro that is known for their fish tacos and fish fillets, which are fabulous! A little spicy, so be prepared, but wonderful flavor!

Taco Bar at PUR: This is where we stayed (read more here), but they also have a pool with a full swim-up bar, and serve food that is great for snacking if you’re in the mood for snacks and drinks! Stop by for a huge plate of nachos for only $7, taco bar, or their footlong breakfast burritos ($6). Since it’s north of the bridge in the Tres Cocos area, it’s a great spot to stop for breakfast if you’re headed up to Secret Beach, which is only about 30 minutes away from PUR.

Paradice Cream: Paradice Cream is a cute little ice cream shop in San Pedro where you can grab chalk and write on the walls as you wait. We tried the coffee and absolutely nutty flavors, which were full of flavor and super great! We had 2 double scoops for $10 total…would be a great place to bring kids to!

Secret Paradise Beach Bar: Secret Paradise Beach Bar is in Secret Beach, obviously, and is pretty much in it’s own private cove. The people at this cove are usually only the ones at this bar/restaurant. Try the ceviche – it’s fabulous!

Flight Cafe: Flight Cafe is right in downtown San Pedro across from the airport and is a super cute little coffee shop that is aviation-themed. We got 2 iced moccachinos for $8 total, which were great! Be sure to stop in for your morning coffee fix!

Random “Fast Food”: Both on the island and on the mainland we stopped at several random places for “fast food”, which often times are locals who cook food in their house and run it out to you, or have a grill right in front of their house that they sell food from. Sounds sketchy, I know, but it was the best way to try the most authentic Belizean food, and it was all so great! The food was mostly Belizean staples like tacos, empanadas, tamales, etc. and we enjoyed it all, plus, it was SO CHEAP! I’m talking, like, fifty-cent tacos cheap, can’t be that! Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone a little and try something new!

To read more about our Belizean activities and excursions check out my post here!

To read more about where we stayed visit our reviews for the island stay and the jungle stay!

If you haven’t already heard, French food is absolutely HEAVENLY. There’s a reason why the French are regarded so highly in the cuisine industry, and, from what I’ve experienced, rightfully so! We visited Marseille, France in the Fall of 2017 (read more about that trip here) and I’ve got to admit, of every country we’ve been to, the food in France takes the cake, literally 😉 While we were only able to visit for 2 days, we tried as much food as we could…in fact, we tried enough food to warrant its very own article! I’ve listed some of our favorites for you below! Bon Appetite!

Bouillabaisse – this is a fish stew that contains at least 3 varieties of fresh local fish. The fish is typically served on its own platter, and the broth is served in its own pot, so you combine them together as you’d like. It’s normally a
pretty big portion – usually enough to share! Bouillabaisse is different everywhere you go because different restaurants in different towns use different seafood based on what is available in the area, so you get a different experience each time! This stew actually originated in Marseille, so Marseille is said to have some of the best Bouillabaisse in the country…definitely check it out if you’re in the town!
Moules Marinier Frites – this is another popular French dish that consists of fresh mussels, tossed in a white wine sauce and served with french fries on the side. Again, this is often large enough to share, and is absolutely AMAZING. Then again, I’m a big fan of white wine sauces, so I may be a bit biased 😉 This is definitely a French staple in the town of Marseille, and you see people eating this in every restaurant as you walk through Vieux Port, which is always a good sign!
Wine – it’s French. And Wine. Need I say more? This one is obvious.
Cappuccino/Espresso – again, another obvious French staple. Everywhere you go you see locals siting in cafes sipping on an espresso or a cappuccino. If you’re not huge on coffee flavor then go for the cappuccino, which has milk/cream in it. If you’re a fan of coffee and like it strong then do it like the locals do and drink straight espresso….bonus – the espresso comes in those adorable little espresso mugs! Everywhere you go you see the French sipping on espressos and smoking cigarettes. I’m not a smoker, but apparently the flavors go well together….then again, what DOESN’T go well with coffee?!
Croque Monsier – I can’t believe I don’t have a picture of this for you…it must have been too good to stop and pull out the camera and we just dove right in. This can be made several different ways, but the way we had it consisted of ham and cheese between 2 pieces of toast, coated with toasted crunchy shredded cheese, and topped with a runny fried egg. To be fair, I am a breakfast person, and breakfast is always my favorite meal, but I was a huge fan of this dish! How can you go wrong with cheese and eggs and toast?!
Macaroons – macaroons are these adorable little French cookies that are iconic of France. We searched all over town for them and finally found them in a chocolate shop….and then found out that they were not made locally but rather shipped in. Come to find out, macaroons are more of a PARIS thing than an actual FRENCH thing. Still fun try if you’re in France, but don’t get too excited about them unless you’re actually in Paris, and don’t waste half a day trying to find them. Moral of the story – if you can’t find them easily then they probably aren’t a popular staple, which means there’s probably a good reason why 🙂
Scallop Risotto – this was hands down the BEST dish we ate in France, and quite possibly the best meal of my life. I’m not really a scallop person, but it sounded good and I gave it a shot and it paid off to try something new! The risotto was perfect, the scallops were plentiful, and the white sauce was fabulous. I don’t know the name of the restaurant, it was just a random waterfront restaurant in Vieux Port, but it was absolutely fantastic, as I’m sure any scallop risotto would be in that area. Be sure to try it out if you’re a fan of amazing meals.
Pesto Pasta – we tried this at one of the waterfront restaurants in Vieux Port and it was amazing! I know pasta is really an Italian specialty, but the French certainly give them a run for their money…especially when fresh homemade pesto is involved!
Quiche – again, total breakfast girl here, so naturally I’m a big fan of quiches. We had several mini quiches from the bakery next door to our hotel and in other random places we found, all of which were magnificent! One odd thing to note though – all quiches seemed to be served cold, which was odd to us. While I think I still prefer them warm, I was certainly not disappointed in the fresh French quiches!
Croissant – again, obviously. The French just don’t go wrong with buttery, flaky, light, airy croissants. And with all the air in there, it’s really only half the carbs, right?! In fact, with all the carbs you’re saving you can even justify filling your croissant with chocolate Nutella!! Sold!
Bread and cheese – whenever you find a bakery, or even a grocery, be sure to stop in and get yourself some bread and cheese…these make for great picnics or for cheap but filling snacks/lunch on the go! If you have the room, wine and chocolate never hurt either 😉 We packed our bread and cheese and hiked to Calanque de Sugiton to picnic (best day of our trip), which we ended in Vieux Port with the scallop risotto for a perfect day.
Crème Brulee – while France, Spain, and England all claim to be this classic dessert’s originating country, the first printed recipe for this dessert is from a 1691 French cookbook…so we’ll call it French 🙂 This rich dessert consists of baked custard, usually vanilla flavored, that is then sprinkled with sugar and caramelized to a hard brittle top with a blowtorch. We found ourselves to be big fans of crème brulee (which is big for me since I’m a total chocolate girl) and shared this dessert every night we were in France. Highly recommend trying it!