On a small island teeming with high-quality restaurants, finding a good meal isn’t hard. But on one as pricey as Grand Cayman (the only Caribbean territory with a dollar worth more than the U.S. dollar) finding a good meal at a great price has sometimes been a challenge.
Until now.
At Camana Bay, a slick retail, residential and commercial village bordered by Seven Mile Beach and the North Sound, foodies can join the Flavour Tour, a weekly progressive dinner that wends its way through a quartet of fine restaurants, offering four small plates and six cocktails for just $89 per person.
The two-hour culinary journey begins each Wednesday evening with a champagne toast at West Indies Wine Company, purveyors of the Caribbean’s largest selection of wine by the glass, dispensed from state-of-the-art machines that offer one-, three- or five-ounce pours.
Then it’s on to Waterfront, an “urban diner” where the tour’s first course (when we visited, a hearty pumpkin soup dressed with bacon) is served with a North Sound view. The odyssey continues at Ortanique, where chef Cindy Hutson’s “cuisine of the sun” never fails to impress, and the Spicy Passion Mango Martini, made with a scotch bonnet-laced simple syrup, wowed our crowd.
Rapidly filling stomachs will find room for a contemporary Caribbean main course (paired with a signature cocktail) at Abacus, a hopping spot on the village’s main thoroughfare, The Paseo.
You’ll likely want seconds of the chef’s special, prepared using local ingredients from Camana Bay’s farmers’ market held that morning.
The tour often includes superb dishes like this snapper ceviche at Ortanique
But do resist. Because dessert at Mizu Asian Bistro + Bar, and a return to West Indies Wine Company for a festive digestif, are in your future.
Flavour Tours can accommodate a maximum of 20 diners, and private outings can be arranged for groups of eight and more people.
“We’ve been so successful since we launched in March 2014,” said tour guide Tawnie Farinez, “that we’re considering adding lunchtime tours next year. $89 including service charge is a great value for what really is a filling meal: we’ve had grown men leave rubbing their bellies with satisfaction!”
So if your culinary curiosity has no limit but your budget does, Camana Bay’s Flavour Tour is one worth tasting.
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By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor