The Veranda (reservations required for nonguests, 7am-10am breakfast, noon-4pm lunch, 7pm-9pm dinner, daily, US$20-50). On Saturday the hotel’s semi-formal Mike’s Supper Club boasts live cabaret music and specials that include whole lion fish, jerk pork, curry goat, and a Portland seafood platter. Regular entrées include grilled rack of lamb, spinach and mushroom ravioli, surf and turf, and mutton vindaloo.
Call or email for assistance planning your trip: +1 (212) 203-0064 | reservations@moonjamaica.com
Port Antonio
Food
The Italian Job
Launched by Gianmaria Pedroli, a native of northern Italy who came to vacation in Portland and fell in love with the area, cozy restaurant The Italian Job (noon-10pm Tues.-Sat., US$7-20) has pizza, salads, calzones, lasagna, carbonara, and seafood spaghetti.
Wilkes Cuisine Seafood Restaurant & Bar
Wilkes Cuisine Seafood Restaurant & Bar (10am-9pm daily) serves seafood dishes as well as chicken, beef, and pork.
Juice'Is'
Dr. Aris La Tham is the owner of Sunfired Ra Foods and www.sunfired.com. He, along with his partner, Verona Rowe, own Juice'Is'. Juice'Is' is Moon Jamaica's top pick for delicious, raw vegetarian food and fresh natural juices in Portland. Enjoy splendid eatery, a beautiful view of the hills and free wifi!
Yosch Cafe
Yosch Cafe (9:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m., Mon-Sat, 1:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m., Sun).
Mille Fleurs
Mille Fleurs (entrèes run US$25-40 ) is open daily for breakfast (8-10:30 a.m.), lunch (noon-2:30 p.m), and dinner (7-9:00 p.m). Mille Fleur changes its menu on a daily basis, serving creative dishes that emphasize the use of local, fresh ingredients, like jerk meat with papaya salsa or a pimento-roasted steak with rum-honey glaze served alongside grilled banana or pineapple. Reservations strongly recommended. Local jack fruit is also infused into salads and pesto dishes served with cassava flour pasta.
Wi Yard Anna Banana
Anna Banana Restaurant (11 a.m.11 p.m daily) serves seafood and meat items prepared with Jamaican, Caribbean and soul food flair. Fish dishes cost about US$12/pound, with the pepper shrimp (highly recommended) at US$16/pound. There’s a happy hour 6-7 p.m on Fridays, offering a 25 percent discount on all drinks and a selector playing music to keep patrons entertained till closing.
Soldier's Camp
Soldier’s Camp (6 p.m.-you say when), better known as Soldji’s, draws a healthy cross-section of locals on Wednesday and especially Friday nights for deliciously seasoned janga, or crayfish, as well as jerk chicken, pork, and curry goat. Special order can be arranged on any other night. The bar is open daily 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Everold "Soldji" Daley, a former soldier with the U.S. Army, opened the joint in 2003 after returning to Jamaica in 1998 from the US. Entrees run US$6-15.
Woody's Low Bridge Place
Woody’s Low Bridge Place (10 a.m.10 p.m daily), run by Charles "Woody" Cousins and his charismatic wife Cherry, is definitively the coolest snack bar and restaurant in Port Antonio; it serves what is quite possibly the best burger (US$2.50) in Jamaica. Woody’s Low Bridge Place opened in 1986 but Woody has been in the tourism business since 1963.