Best Place to Eat while in Ocho Rios

[skyblueeyes742]

This will be our first time in Ocho Rios and was wondering where the best places to eat are. And what the average prices are.

 

Thanks

[Barva]

Our guide (Marva Shaw at knowjamaica,com) took us to a great local jerk shack, the White River Ranch Restaurant. Four of us ate waaayyyyy too much for about $45 USD. We are looking forward to returning there in December. :)

[Lightsluvr]

Do a search on the Jamaica forum for Lobster Daves - this may not be your cup of tea, but we loved it and plan to return next year...

 

LL

[ronkay]

Do a search on the Jamaica forum for Lobster Daves - this may not be your cup of tea, but we loved it and plan to return next year...

 

LL

 

I am definitely interested in Lobster Daves. read about it in another review, can you give me some directions? I know the area a little from 2 previous trips there.

[Psalms]

Bibibips or Almond Tree restaurand/bar. Can't go wrong with either.

[TINGnVODKA]

Bibibips is always good. There is also some jerk chicken you can get right in town, but you have to know where to go to find it becuae it is not a restaurant, it is just someone cooking it on the street.

 

If you ar there for breakfast, go to fishermans beach and find some REAL food. to enoy. Fishermans Point also has a good restaurant on property. Ask around and you can find it easily.

[skyblueeyes742]

Thanks everyone for all the info!!!

[RN7997]

ronkay--- do a search for Lobster Dave's and you'll find a review with directions on it. It is off the beach behind Margaritaville, but the directions on the review were more percise. We plan to visit in May

[decidida]

Mothers just off the main road is a fast ffod type of Jamaican spot. There was this little place we went to for 2 plates of curry chicken, rice and two drinks (one being a beer) for $7 (american) and it was filling. It's on the same side as the jamaican flea market just before the flea market over the bridge. You make a left out of the dock to get to it. It's in a shopping center in the back but worth the looking for!

[BenCruisin']

I was hoping to find an excuse to post about Lobster Dave's, which I found on these boards. We are just off our ship today and ate there about 10 days ago. It was an experience and the food was good too!

 

From the ship at the James Bond/Reynolds pier, we took a $6 each roundtrip cab ride to Island Village?/Margaritaville. (Probably much less outside the port fence with an independent since it was a short walking distance).

 

As the directions I got on these boards said, walk straight through Margaritaville to the beach. Look but do not stop (it is interesting). Keep to the fence on the left because you want to go around it, which requires walking into the ocean maybe knee deep if you are short. Sorry. This is the first stop on our cruise. At this point, my wife starts looking at me funny. Go figure.

 

Fortunately for me, several "guides" show up just as we approach the water asking if we are looking for Lobster Dave's. The first one said he was Lobster Dave's brother. (Maybe all Jamaicans are related - but his name was Dave also). All are selling necklaces. Several have what appear to be funny looking hand rolled cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. He helps my wife around the fence and up to the sidewalk. We walk 20 feet and cross a footbridge to Lobster Dave's. Dave is there under the covered shed with a chef's hat. We sit at picnic tables and he proudly shows us several internet reviews in plastic covers.

 

The lunch rush consists of us and another couple we did not know from a different ship from the other pier who got there 5 minutes before us. They also found Dave on the internet.

 

After talking 20 minutes, we asked about ordering. They told us Dave fixes what he thinks you will like. (Or what he has). The Red Stripe was cold so I did'nt care.

 

Dave brings out a huge platter of rock lobster cooked in garlic butter. (I said they were 'stoned' lobster and accused my wife of hyperventilating for second hand smoke). We ate all but two of the lobster tails. Delicious. Not at all like lobster night on Princess. And a bowl of fried conch and another of fried rice. Both very good as well.

 

When it came time for the check, it turned out the drink purveyor was a separate entrepeneur from Dave. Anyway, 4 Pepsis or 2 Pepsis + 2 Red Stripes were $10 either way. Can't believe Pepsi outbid Coke for exclusive rights to Dave's. Must be the volume.

 

Dave allowed as how the food portion of the check was normally $30 each but he would only charge us $25 each. The other couple and I were under the impression from the internet that it would be much less. (In fact, they had asked how much before we got there and Dave said he 'would take care of them'). I offered less and Dave took/feigned offense. So we paid and did not tip. In a 'real' restaurant, that would probably have been the correct price but it seemed somewhat expensive at Dave's.

 

Now. Are we sorry we went? Not at all. Sort of like a Mastercard commercial. On a 14 day cruise, probably the best story of all - Priceless. Would I go again? Yes - but I would take another couple for entertainment while Dave cooks. And I would DEFINITELY (try) to pin Dave down to a price before I ordered.

[pattymintpepper@kpunet.ne]

[pattymintpepper@kpunet.ne]

I read about Lobster Dave's on the Internet. I decided it was what I wanted to do as it sounded like something different and probably the only thing that we would have time to do after our booked tour that would not be all touristy and give us a taste of the real Jamaica.

When the tour was over, we had the option of being taken back to the tour ship dock or dropped off at a tourist trap shopping center area where Margarittaville is located and then a short walk to the pier. I figured the tourist trap area would work out great as I was curious about the famous Margarittaville and knew that Lobster Daves was close by.

We went to Dunns River falls and did the river tubing with Jamaica Cruise Excursions booked with Island Marketing. It was a great tour and would do it again. I thought about skipping the falls and finding something else less touristy, but I decided that I would be sorry if I didn't see it. I am so glad we went. The dope dealers and trinket sellers at the falls were fine with no thank you by the way. ( I was a bit leary of those types as I read about them too.)

The tubing was fun, the Jamaican kids that went with us as guides were great. We made sure to bring lots of small bills for tips and glad we did, as we wanted to make sure they all made a few bucks. Mr. Denton Prendergast, our tour driver ,and his son were really nice and funny. We had a blast and all the other people on our tour were fun too.

 

Margarittaville was O.K. I guess. Definitely a tourist spot. We didn't hang out there long as we only had a couple of hours left of our day and I was bound and determined to check out Lobster Daves.

 

We walked back out to the street, asked some local guy if he knew where Lobster Daves was and he pointed us in the same direction that I thought it should be. Facing the road it is to the right, just a short little walk out of the fenced in tourist trap, down some old concrete steps, or walk a little farther to a dirt road. Follow the steps or road down to the beach. You'll know your in the right area as the buildings are nothing like the tourist area, mostly mismated salvaged materials and no signs on anything to let you know what is in them. Homes? Storage areas?? There were people and families hanging around. I saw a woman sitting on a chair next to an old cabinet with her baby playing inside of it. I wish I would of had the nerve to take a photo. The baby was cute and seeming to be having a nice time in there where it was cool. A guy was building crab or lobster nets out of chicken wire outside of one of the places. Oh... and the gonga! You will smell that right off the bat! It smelled sooo good. I am not a stoner, but have always liked the smell of the good green weed, and that is what I could smell -- strongly! My boyfriend was a bit nervous by all this, but I told him to quit worrying ((as I looked around a bit worried!!))

 

Daves is right by the beach, in a little makeshift shack next to the creek. There were small boats on the beach next to the building.There is a sign on the outside, it isn't all brightly painted like you see in the photos listed on the web, it has faded from the ocean air and looked a bit crooked. It didn't deter me. We went in, I asked a guy if we were at Lobster Dave's, he said we were and I told him we wanted to try the lobster. He didn't say much but started in on something back behind the little walled in section of the building. ( I am still not sure if he was the real Lobster Dave or not.) I got a picture of him frying up the lobster and bananas. His cooking area was so simple. It was coals on a tile surface with tire wheels over those and an old stove racks with a cast iron skillets. The photo of him didn't turn out so well as it was kinda dim in there and he is so dark himself. Can someone tell me if that was Lobster Dave or not??

 

 

So, anyway, we were the only tourists there, there were a few loiterers in and out, no one really said much. We bought a couple of beers from a little room that is off to the right when you first walk in to Daves. I don't think there is a sign that says beer for sale or anything. I wouldn't of known what those people were doing in there if they hadn't of asked if we wanted beer. While we were waiting at a table for our lobster, another couple from our ship showed up with a local guy that they ended up hanging with.They had decided to walk around on their own and not take a paid tour. They hadn't been having that great of a time, were being hassled by locals and wishing they hadn't gotten off the boat when they somehow met this guy named Mike I think. He brought them down to Daves. We were glad to see someone else show up(( My honey especially.)) We shared our table with them and swapped stories of our day. Some guy showed up and tried to sell us mushrooms--the feel happy kind of mushrooms. The Mike guy and him got into an argument about it and for a brief minute we thought about running before someone got stabbed or something. The mushroom seller ended up leaving and the Mike guy told us that the guy was not a real Jamaican and that he was sorry about it. When the food showed up we were shocked! It was a lot! Way more than we could eat on our own. We shared with our new friends. It was soooo good. There were two huge plates covered in lobster and another big plate full of fried bananas. The lobster was tender and tasty and I want to go back for more! I must admit that food poisoning crossed our minds as the place is very very simple. I've never been in a place like that in my life.

Sorry about my bad grammar, but I really wanted to share this with folks like myself. I was curious and wanted to do something out of the normal tourist rat race. I did, and am glad. I will go back there again if I ever get the chance. I could go on and on about this experience. We are from a small island community that we have lived in all our lives. We don't get out of here often and the cruise ship, island hopping trip was a true adventure for us. We loved our trip to Jamaica, even thought we were feeling a bit out or our element while there..

[dynomite]

We went about 2 years ago and White River Ranch was great! We enjoyed it!

[coffeegirl23]

BenCruisin' - We had the exact same experience in January 2007! The same "I usually charge $30 but today it is $25 each, and when we handed him $40 (thinking $50 was too much for the experience) he acted bent out of shape, and said, "I said $25 each" - stressing the "5". So, like you, we gave him $10 more, and no tip. We watched two little boys smoking a joint, and laughing, at us we thought - we thought maybe we weren't supposed to eat the fish on the side - it was fried whole, head and all. Later in another place we were served the same type of fish so we now know that it wasn't that. Just thought we were stupid tourists, I guess. There was a woman there who continually tried to sell us trinkets while we waited and while we ate. It was rather annoying. Once would have been enough, I would think. But I am glad we went. My husband thought I was out of my mind while we were trying to find it, and everyone in the tourist trap place denied knowing where it was. But after we ate, he said "You did good!"

[marci22]

Reading these reviews, I realize that Lobster Dave's is a bit too adventurous for my blood.

[Kailyn]

I would love to go to Lobster Dave's....sounds like my kind of foodie place...except for the whole "Jamaica" element - meaning their locally grown smoking pleasures. At my job we get routinely screened for drugs, so this "contact high" I've heard so much about at Dave's....just can't get near it!

[lalanam]

The photo of him didn't turn out so well as it was kinda dim in there and he is so dark himself. Can someone tell me if that was Lobster Dave or not??

 

 

Your photo's not showing up, but here's a photo of Dave we took so you can compare. It's definitely Dave.