This Grand Cayman Hotspot Is the Best New Beach Bar in the Caribbean, With Spectacular Food, Colorful Cocktails, and One of the World’s Top Stretches of Sand 

It was stunning. And it was unexpected. One of the best meals I’d ever had in the Caribbean. At a relatively unknown new beach bar in Grand Cayman. 

Sure, Grand Cayman is one of the true culinary capitals of the Caribbean, replete with myriad high-level eateries. But this was different. It was that combination of surprise and culinary ecstasy. And it was glorious. 

The scene? Bonny’s Moon, a beach bar that is set on what was once one of the best-known beach bars in the Caribbean, the former Calico Jack’s on Seven Mile Beach. 

The breezy hotspot, named after the female pirate Anne Bonny, has a plum perch on a beautiful stretch of this iconic beach, one that remains one of the best on earth — and certainly in the pantheon of Caribbean beaches. (If you’ve been here, you know. If you haven’t, well, start planning).

It’s just across the sand from the similarly-new Hotel Indigo (which also opened in 2024), where I stayed this week and is also rather impressive (more on that in a forthcoming story), and functions as both a standalone beach bar and as the de facto beach club of the hotel. 

It’s beautiful designed, with a woody, chic-shack aesthetic, a plethora of loungers and a bar that’s always filled with energy. 

The Meal 

But then there’s the food. As I discovered shortly after biting into the Callaloo and Spinach Fritters, the current chef, Charlene Dion, is a veteran of many a Michelin-starred eatery around the world, and has taken that culinary wizardry to this beachside kitchen. And I do not understate how unbelievably good the fritters were — a marvelous fusion of sweet and spice, exquisitely crispy on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside, all married with a vibrant spicy aioli. 

That was followed up by what seemed like something almost pedestrian: a caesar salad with snapper filet. 

But, again, the result was outrageous — some of the most perfectly prepared fish I’ve ever had, almost impossibly so, on the bed of an expertly crafted caesar. 

I’ve written in these pages about some of the best eateries in the hemisphere, multi-course meals that would rival any Michelin eatery on the Continent. It’s hard to believe I’m even writing this about some fritters and a fish salad. But it really was that good — and it was just a small sample of an impressive, diverse menu that is an shining example of why foodies have always flocked to the Cayman Islands. 

It’s no hyperbole to call this the best new beach bar in the Caribbean, and the best to have opened its doors in the region in a number of years, equal parts gourmet eatery and toes-in-the-sand beach bar. 

The Joy of Seven Mile Beach 

And then there’s that coastline. If you’ve been to Seven Mile Beach, you know: the water that always seems to be the perfect temperature, so clear it seems to defy science; the soft, endless sand. Some locals say there’s a mystical, curative quality to the water here, and after an hour bobbing in the sand here with a rum, it’s hard to disagree. 

And it means that when you pair this beach with a startlingly good restaurant, well, you really have something. 

And that’s the beauty of this place. Sure, you can come here for a memorable lunch or dinner. But you can also bring your flip flops, find a chair and spend all day savoring the sea, a legendary Caribbean beach as your afternoon living room. 

On the wall of Bonny Moon, there’s a mural that reads “they found an island on the moon.” 

I can vouch for this — it’s definitely out of this world.