Dining in Bermuda

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt

 

thank you for taking us along.

[Smithy]

Yes, @liamsaunt, a lot of us appreciate these trips. I would love to have access to seafood like that, prepared like that - with or without the marvelous views. Since I don't, it's nice to take a vicarious trip and ponder the possibilities of what I can do at home with shrimp or local fish.  

[liamsaunt]

I am back in Bermuda.  We are staying in a private house with views of the sound.  Here's the view.

 

 

The house is located right next to one of the largest hotels on the island, which is unfortunately closed at the moment for renovation.  When we booked this stay pre-Covid, we were planning on using the hotel's access path down to the public beaches, but it's now locked off.  Since the only vehicles for rent on Bermuda hold two people maximum, and there are five of us (there were supposed to be seven, but my brother messed up his passport renewal, and my husband's brother is unable to fly at the moment due to an ear issue), we are relying on pre-arranged taxis to get around.  Today is our "villa gravity" day.  No beaches, just relaxing and swimming in the very large pool.

 

The house is very large, with lots of spaces for relaxing and entertaining, but the kitchen is insanely under equipped for a house this size.  There are no cutting boards, no knives for preparing food, and though there are some pots and pans, there are no utensils for cooking food on the stove!  I had planned to cook some meals at "home", but it looks like we will be dining out.  It is honestly the least equipped kitchen of any vacation house I have ever rented, and we have rented a lot of vacation homes.  I think the tourism authority equipped the kitchen to ensure we would be supporting Bermuda's restaurants 😂

 

The hotel is closed, but their golf course is still open, so we walked over yesterday to have lunch at the golf restaurant.  Here's the menu.  Pretty basic, but it was a two minute walk from the house, and we were exhausted (4am wake ups will do that to you).

 

 

On Sundays they also have a smoker going.  Here's that menu

 

 

Drinks.  I neglected to ask what was in the cocktail everyone ordered

 

 

Restaurant view

 

 

Nephew ordered the elotes as an appetizer

 

 

Niece had the chicken wings

 

 

My sister, husband and I shared the trio of dips

 

 

For entrees, my niece ordered ribs

 

 

Sister and husband both ordered the fish sandwich.  Neither of them enjoyed the thick crust on the fish.

 

 

Nephew ordered the brisket sandwich from the smoker menu.  He said the brisket was tasty but the barbecue sauce was much too sweet for his taste.

 

 

I ordered the fish tacos.  Everyone agreed that mine was the best choice.  The fish was cooked "Bermuda style" (aka overcooked) but was very fresh.

 

 

Bermuda is filled with lovely flowers and plants.  This hibiscus plant was growing on the side of the road

 

 

Last night's sunset from the point on the house's lawn

 

[gfweb]

I'm guessing that that is the Princess golf course.

 

Is the Four Ways still open?

Edited July 18, 2022 by gfweb (log)

[Kim Shook]

Gorgeous!  Thank you so much for taking us with you.  We've been blessed to have been about to do a lot of traveling in our lives together, but nothing has really topped Bermuda.  It was the late 1980s and Mr. Kim had just gotten out of B-school.  His mom sent us as a graduation present and kept Jessica.  I remember chatting with an "older couple" (almost certainly younger than we are now) who said we'd made a mistake coming to Bermuda before going to any other resort islands.  They said nothing would ever measure up to it.  And they were right.  Just a lovely, lovely place and people.  We still order Outerbridge's Sherry Pepper Sauce to add to soups and other things.  

[liamsaunt]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

I'm guessing that that is the Princess golf course.

 

Is the Four Ways still open?

 

Yes, it is the Southampton Princess golf course.  

 

Yes, the Four Ways is still open.  We are not going there this trip, but my husband and I are coming back in September (so many pre-covid trips that we booked years ago are being taken now that things are opening up again) and I think we are going there then.

 

 

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Gorgeous!  Thank you so much for taking us with you.  We've been blessed to have been about to do a lot of traveling in our lives together, but nothing has really topped Bermuda.  It was the late 1980s and Mr. Kim had just gotten out of B-school.  His mom sent us as a graduation present and kept Jessica.  I remember chatting with an "older couple" (almost certainly younger than we are now) who said we'd made a mistake coming to Bermuda before going to any other resort islands.  They said nothing would ever measure up to it.  And they were right.  Just a lovely, lovely place and people.  We still order Outerbridge's Sherry Pepper Sauce to add to soups and other things.  

 

Not much has changed since your visit.   My first trip was in 1987, when I was a teenager.  I think the biggest change is that the large cruise ships come here now (I am looking out my window at two of them right now).  Horseshoe Bay is jammed when the ships are in, but it's easy for us to just keep walking to the other beaches beyond Horseshoe, which are still usually deserted or close to it.  

Edited July 18, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

[Kim Shook]

15 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

 

Yes, it is the Southampton Princess golf course.  

 

Yes, the Four Ways is still open.  We are not going there this trip, but my husband and I are coming back in September (so many pre-covid trips that we booked years ago are being taken now that things are opening up again) and I think we are going there then.

 

 

 

Not much has changed since your visit.   My first trip was in 1987, when I was a teenager.  I think the biggest change is that the large cruise ships come here now (I am looking out my window at two of them right now).  Horseshoe Bay is jammed when the ships are in, but it's easy for us to just keep walking to the other beaches beyond Horseshoe, which are still usually deserted or close to it.  

I'm pretty sure that the only cruise ships we saw were on Sunday when we went to church at St. Peter's in St. George.  And they were nowhere near the size that they are now.  

[liamsaunt]

On 7/18/2022 at 4:44 PM, Kim Shook said:

I'm pretty sure that the only cruise ships we saw were on Sunday when we went to church at St. Peter's in St. George.  And they were nowhere near the size that they are now.  

 

When we first started coming they docked in Hamilton also.  The new ships are too big to dock there now, the and harbour is not deep enough to accommodate them anyway.  I think they still might be able to dock over at St. George's too.  

 

Yesterday was our lazy day.  I am still astonishingly tired today, even though Bermuda is so close to home and I have been sleeping well.  I am chalking it up to the aftereffects of having come down with Covid--my whole family got it a few weeks ago.  We all had mild cases, but I guess it's still having an impact. 

 

Anyway, yesterday we got a grocery delivery.  The prices are higher than at home, but much cheaper than our usual island destination, St. John in the Virgin Islands.  I took a picture of the receipt since I know some people are interested in comparing prices.  They were out of some of the food I ordered, but that's OK.  My husband added more wine than I had put in the cart.  There is no way he and my sister and going to drink it all, so he's probably going to make us haul it back home haha.

 

 

For dinner, we walked to another restaurant near us. Henry VII Pub and sushi restaurant.  The sushi actually gets decent reviews, and sushi is my niece's favorite, so I figured what the heck, why not.  It took less than 10 minutes to walk over.  The menu is very long because of the two entirely different options.  

 

Drinks menu

 

 

And my nephew's, husband's and sister's choices (stormy sea, tequilatini, and pink sand)

 

 

I apparently missed a picture of the appetizer menu.  We chose tuna credo with watermelon

 

 

and smoked salmon

 

 

My nephew wanted the fried calamari too, but they fry shrimp in the same oil so he had to skip it.  

 

The sushi menu

 

 

 

 

And my niece's choices.  She started with the crispy spicy tuna roll while we ate our appetizers

 

 

and then had the excalibur roll and the pink lady roll

 

 

She really enjoyed these.  

 

The rest of us ordered off the regular menu.

 

 

 

My sister got the rockfish with banana

 

 

My husband and I both got the catch of the day, which was a wahoo steak with a sour orange beurre blanc, curried cauliflower puree, crushed fingerling potatoes, and sea asparagus (we call them sea beans at home).

 

 

The fish was not overcooked!  A Bermuda miracle!  We both really liked this and I ate almost my entire plate, which is quite rare.  

 

My nephew got a chicken curry.  It was so good!  Really spicy and deeply flavored.  The staff working the restaurant kitchen were all Indian.  Bermuda actually has some really good Indian restaurants.  (The best one is in Hamilton, but I'm not sure that we are going to Hamilton this trip).  It came with choice of naan or paratha, he chose rice.  There was  papadum too, which I realized only this morning that he probably should not have eaten since it was fried, yikes.  Luckily he was fine.  Maybe they cooked it separately for him.  

 

 

Some bonus shots.  Last night's sunset

 

 

and the cruise ships in port at night.  They are across the harbor from the house, and I did not bring a tripod, so this was the best shot I could get

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by liamsaunt
extra photos (log)

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt 

 

everything looks terrific 

 

and thank you for the menu's

[gfweb]

Steak prices actually seem low.

[liamsaunt]

17 hours ago, gfweb said:

Steak prices actually seem low.

 

I did not notice that.  Interesting.  Nobody at the restaurant had it--the curries and sushi seemed to be the most popular choices.

 

Yesterday we had a taxi drop us off at Elbow Beach.  Horsehoe Bay is by far the most famous beach on the island, but that's also where all the cruise ship people go.  Our taxi pulled into the scenic overlook to see if we wanted to go there, and it was quite crowded.  So, we continued on to Elbow.  As you can see, it was much more peaceful 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of one of Bermuda's greatest dangers (I allege that #1 is renting a moped and injuring yourself while on vacation).  The Portuguese Man o' War.  Their tentacles can stretch up to 100 feet, and their stings are quite nasty.  Something to look out for in the water.  This one was quite dead, but can still sting you!

 

 

That night we had dinner at Sea Breeze, located at the (sadly) now closed Elbow Beach Resort.  There used to be a restaurant right on the sand here, but it got wiped out by a hurricane a few years ago and has not been replaced.  This one was above the sand but still had lovely views and breezes.  The view

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of the drinks menu, but here are my nephew's, sister's and husband's selections.

 

 

The food menu

 

 

 

The manager said that they could cook my nephew a portion of the calamari in a separate pan if we were willing to wait a bit, and we happily agreed.  He was very pleased that he got to have fried calamari!

 

 

Nephew also wanted the bruschetta so we ordered one for the table.  He ate two, we split one 🙂 

 

 

My niece ordered the Breeze roll as her app.  She had to promise the manager that she would not share it with her brother since it was fried.  He hates sushi for the most part, so no worries there

 

 

My sister, husband and I split the local catch coconut seveche (it was snapper). The fish was impeccably fresh, but I would have liked the dish to be spicier.  We all found the coconut treatment a bit sweet.

 

 

We also had the local tuna tartare (delicious)

 

 

For entrees, everyone had pasta.  My niece chose the carbonara

 

 

My nephew had the crudaiola, which he devoured in about five minutes.  

 

 

and my husband, sister and I all chose the spago de mare.  This had clams, mussels, calamari, snapper, and shrimp (my sister had them omit the shrimp from hers). We all enjoyed this a lot.

 

 

Dessert menu

 

 

 

My nephew ordered the tiramisu

 

 

and the rest of us got the salted butterscotch panna cotta.  My niece got her own, and the rest of us ordered one to share.  The salt on the rim really made this dessert.

 

 

We were really happy with this dinner, and would definitely go back here again.

 

Bonus picture from this morning: invasion of the cruise ships!  They all arrived last night.  I guess Horseshoe will be jammed again today once they are all docked.

 

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt 

 

such beautiful cooling ' blues '

 

thank you

[KennethT]

@liamsauntIs that a man o' war or a jellyfish?  I always thought the man o' war were much smaller and/or orange colored...

[Kim Shook]

3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

 

 

 

The manager said that they could cook my nephew a portion of the calamari in a separate pan if we were willing to wait a bit, and we happily agreed.  He was very pleased that he got to have fried calamari!

Love fish chowder - we tried it at every restaurant we ate at!   And what a gracious gesture for them to offer to make your nephew's calamari separately so that he could have what he wanted!  

[liamsaunt]

6 hours ago, KennethT said:

@liamsauntIs that a man o' war or a jellyfish?  I always thought the man o' war were much smaller and/or orange colored...

 It's definitely a Portuguese Man o' War.  I am not sure if they are orange elsewhere, but they are always blue/purple here in Bermuda. I took the photo zoomed in.  It's only about 5 inches long or so.  It's the tentacles that are so very long, this is just the air sac that floats on the surface of the ocean.  

 

3 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Love fish chowder - we tried it at every restaurant we ate at!   And what a gracious gesture for them to offer to make your nephew's calamari separately so that he could have what he wanted!  

 

I think most Bermuda fish chowder has a beef base, and I don't eat beef, so I'm not likely to order that this trip.  I ate it when I was a teenager though--it's definitely a full flavored chowder!  The table behind us ordered some and the waiter brought out a whole tray of different sherry pepper sauces for them to add to taste.  

[johnnyd]

Delightful!

 

We spent a whole Summer in a house in Warwick when I was seven. I learned to swim in those amazing waters on Great Sound. The house next door had a salt water swimming pool cut right into the rock. All I remember having was pink lemonade and a big rash from those man-o-war that my older brothers dared me to touch...

[liamsaunt]

15 hours ago, johnnyd said:

Delightful!

 

We spent a whole Summer in a house in Warwick when I was seven. I learned to swim in those amazing waters on Great Sound. The house next door had a salt water swimming pool cut right into the rock. All I remember having was pink lemonade and a big rash from those man-o-war that my older brothers dared me to touch...

 

Nice!!  Warwick is my favorite parish.  We usually stay there or in next door parish Southampton.  

 

So, yesterday was compromise day.  We choose one day where my nephew gets to pick everything we do, and one day where my niece picks.  Yesterday was nephew's day.  He chose sleeping late, swimming in the pool, and dinner at the Frog and Onion Pub at the Dockyard because it's one of the only places on the island that brews their own beer.  I am an early riser, prefer the beach to the pool, don't drink beer, and don't like the Frog and Onion because it is touristy and there were three cruise ships in so the Dockyard was sure to be crowded, but that is why we call it compromise day.  

 

The Dockyard is actually a pretty cool place to visit when it's not crowded.  They have a wonderful museum of Bermuda's maritime history (we didn't go because it was not on nephew's itinerary), there are shops (a mix of tourist stuff and handmade art), and places to explore.

 

 

The Frog and Onion menu (sigh)

 

 

 

 

The reason for the dinner here: nephew's beer flight

 

 

My sister and husband got margaritas

 

 

Nephew could not have the fried calamari here, but my husband wanted it anyway.  We al agreed that the breading was too thick and the squid needed salt

 

 

Nephew chose the German pretzels, which he shared with my niece.  They looked like those frozen pretzels you buy at the supermarket to me, but he was happy.

 

 

For mains, my sister and husband both got the fish and chips.  They were happy with them

 

 

 I got the local catch of the day, which was tuna.  It was grilled and served over couscous mixed with apples, red bell peppers, scallions, and cucumbers, with a mango ginger sauce.  It was cooked rare and very fresh.  Some more vegetables would have been nice, but overall it was actually pretty decent

 

 

My niece and nephew both got curries.  Niece chose the vegetable masala, which she enjoyed (minus the peas)

 

 

And nephew had the chicken makhani

 

 

The kids (well they are both in their early 20s now, but still kids to me) chose dessert.  Niece had the lemon tart

 

 

Nephew had the sticky toffee pudding

 

 

We got back to the house in time for sunset.  Here's a panoramic picture of our view

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset

 

[Anna N]

25 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

We choose one day where my nephew gets to pick everything we do, and one day where my niece picks.

That is a wonderful tradition. I am glad that despite your trepidation regarding the touristy nature of the restaurant the food was pretty good. 

[gfweb]

Looks like fun.

 

Again the beef seems fairly cheap for a place that has to fly it all in.

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday's dinner was a beef barbecue on the sand at the Reefs Hotel.  It runs every Thursday in the high season.  It was a buffet setup, which I usually do not enjoy, but I figured the setting would make up for it.  Here's the dining arrangement

 

 

 

 

There's no written menu, other than the wine list, so here is that

 

 

 

And some cocktails chosen by my nephew and sister.  I wish they used reusable glasses rather than the one off throwaway kind.  I understand not wanting breakable stuff down on the beach, but they certainly make nicer reusable plastic glassware these days.

 

 

I am a pretty pathetic person at a buffet.  Here are my choices.  Salad and marinated tomato-cucumber salad

 

 

Mahi mahi skewer, wahoo steak with chimichurri sauce, a plantain, and some roasted potatoes

 

 

Vegetable skewers with more chimichurri sauce (I missed those the first trip so went back for a couple once I found out about them)

 

 

My husband offered up one of his plates for a better picture 🙂  He had steak tips, wahoo, jerk chicken, veggie skewer, green salad, tomato-cucumber salad, artichoke salad, and bread.

 

 

They had other savory food which nobody chose: baby back ribs, baked beans, rice and peas, beets, potato salad etc. 

 

A selection of desserts. mango pudding, rum cake, and coconut-guava cake.  The mango pudding was good, the others were not worth the calories.  They also had some chocolate desserts, carrot cake, and a fresh fruit display.  

 

 

Overall, I would say the experience was mixed.  The setting was superb.  My husband and nephew really enjoyed their food.  My sister and I were neutral.  My niece HATED it.  Everything about it--eating on the sand while the sun went down, the food offered, the fact that it was a buffet, the musician that was playing, just everything.  

 

We missed the sunset (the hotel beach faces the wrong way for sunset), so here is the beach we went to yesterday instead: Warwick Long Bay.  It's one of my favorites, and has the pinkest sand on the island.

 

[gfweb]

Buffets, esp outdoors, are so hard to do well. Food cools quickly and is usually overcooked. Meats have to be well chosen and carefully cooked and warmed. The chafing dishes that they fire with sterno are too hot at the bottom and too cool up top.

 

At least they had china plates.  I don't like eating on flimsy plates with plasticware or drinking from disposable plastic cups.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

The chafing dishes that they fire with sterno are too hot at the bottom and too cool up top.

 

Oh sterno! Even outdoors the smell makes me nauseous

[liamsaunt]

22 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

At least they had china plates.  I don't like eating on flimsy plates with plasticware or drinking from disposable plastic cups.

 

They were actually thick plastic reusable plates.  But, perfectly fine to eat on in that setting.

 

My sister and niece decided that they had too much sun and did not want to go to the beach yesterday, instead opting to stay back and read books at the house.  My nephew, husband and I ventured out.  This is Horseshoe Beach.  It's where all the cruise ship people go because you can rent chairs, umbrellas and towels, there is a snack bar, restrooms and showers.

 

 

The secret is, though, if you walk beyond this beach, there is a trail that leads to an entire chain of perfectly deserted coves where you can swim.  To give you an idea, here is the first one beyond Horseshoe.  Four people!

 

 

We walked to the second one. Deserted.

 

 

 

 

 

None of us were in the mood for anything in particular, and my nephew wanted to be back at the house for 8PM for an online D+D session with his friends, so we walked back to Henry VIII pub and got some Indian food.  My sister and husband got the vegetarian saagwalla

 

 

My nephew chose the chicken jalfrezi 

 

 

And I chose the butter chicken

 

 

We all asked for it to be spicy, and it was very nicely hot.

 

My niece, of course, got sushi.  She ordered three rolls.  Crispy spicy tuna, rising sun (yellowtail, avocado, cucumber, salmon in and out) and the Excalibur (yellowfin tuna, chili garlic sauce, mango, avocado, tobiko, yellowtail, eel sauce).  I was surprised that she ordered three rolls, but she must have been really hungry because she ate all but three pieces.

 

 

 

Niece and nephew wanted dessert

 

 

They split a bread and butter pudding. They said it was good and ate most of it.  

 

 

One advantage to an early dinner is that we got back to the house in time to watch the sunset.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

[Kim Shook]

I confess that I'd be right there with your nephew being drawn in by the menu of the Frog and Onion.  The food is exactly what I love to eat.  

 

That deserted beach is incredible.  I can see that if we ever make it back to Bermuda, I will have to ask you for your secrets!  

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday was another busy (for Bermuda) cruise ship day on island.  The big ships only started coming back very recently, once Covid restrictions were eased a bit. Financial services are the main moneymaker in Bermuda, not tourism, but residents still seem happy to see the ships back.  We avoided the ship people by going to another less traveled beach

 

 

This spot has a bit of a trickier entry for swimming because of the rock shelf you can see in the above picture, but once you are over it it's fine.  You just need to time getting out of the water carefully so you don't get dragged over the rocks by a wave.  There's also decent snorkeling here, if it's not too surfy.  

 

 

That evening my nephew wanted Italian food for dinner, and my niece wanted to go book shopping, so we decided to go to Hamilton, the capital city of Bermuda.  My niece found three books she wanted to buy, and my nephew got pasta for dinner, so they were both happy.  I eyed some clothing while shopping but did not buy anything.  In general, I find that everything I purchase in shops while on vacation seems like a good idea at the time, but then I get it home and think "why the heck did I buy this?"  

 

Downtown Hamilton:

 

 

On to dinner.  My nephew browsed menus online and chose La Trattoria, because they have Bermuda's only wood burning pizza oven.  Here's the menu

 

 

pasta 

 

 

pizza

 

 

main courses

 

 

We ate early, before they got busy (and they got very busy!), so the chef offered to heat up a pot of oil separately and safely fry anything my nephew wanted to have.  So, of course, he got calamari!  He was very happy.

 

 

We also ordered an antipasto platter to share

 

 

My nephew chose the orecchiette with sausage and rapini

 

 

My sister had the ravioli

 

 

My husband chose the fusilli pesto with seafood (they omitted the shrimp due to nephew's allergy so I think it just had calamari and octopus)

 

 

I chose the eggplant pizza

 

 

And my niece had a pizza special with speck and taleggio

 

 

Dessert options were tiramisu, sticky toffee pudding, cannoli, creme brûlée, almond sponge cake, and flourless chocolate cake (I think?).  Nephew got sticky toffee pudding.  I had a bite and it was really good.  He ate the rest of it in about five minutes to prevent anyone else from having some haha

 

 

Niece chose creme brulee.  It was huge!

 

 

We got back home just in time to catch the end of last night's cloudy sunset