Eat
Budget
- Crandall's, main road west of Road Town, serving Johnny Cakes and Patties. Very popular with local Tortolans. Open Monday to Friday 5:30 am to 5:00 pm.
- Capriccio's, on the Waterfront in Road Town. A proper Italian cafe with pizzas and daily pasta specials. Arguably the best food on the island.
- Indigo Moods, near the Roundabout. Offers vegan fare - tofu in different ways served plated or in a roti.
- Roti Palace, Main Street in Road Town, offers roti (Indian flat bread) wrapped around various curries from vegetable to goat.
- The Road Town Bakery, Main Street offers sandwiches and really fantastic pastries. There are only a couple of tables outside here so it's primarily take-away.
- Serendipity Bookshop Cafe, in an old West Indian house on Main Street. Offers espresso, paninis, wraps and has internet access.
Outside of Road Town, there is Palm's Delight in Carrot Bay also the very strange North Shore Shell Museum which has home-grown soursop daiquiris, good barbeque and a very large number of shells although not much variety in them. In Cane Garden Bay, Stanley's serves burgers and chicken at a budget price and lobster at quite a bit more. The Camp Ground in Brewer's Bay has a very limited menu, but it's not expensive. Cruzin's, also in Carrot Bay, has a wonderful island-style atmosphere and great food on the inexpensive side.
Mid-range
- Pussers on Frenchman's Cay caters to a sailing and local crowd. Its far superior for eating to its sister restaurant in Road Town.
In Road Town and its environs, Nexus, Village Cay Marina, the Pub, and Le Cabanon have good but unremarkable food at mid-range prices. Le Cabanon and Village Cay Marina are more popular as loud and fun bars.
Myetts in Cane Garden Bay has good food a really great bar with the best bartenders in Cane Garden Bay, and some say the best "happy hour" values in Cane Garden Bay, right on the beach with great views. Happy hour usually includes live entertainment with some local artists and artists from the USA and Canada.
Elms in Cane Garden Bay has very good food, on the beach with good views and excellent Caribbean barbecue on Fridays and Sundays. Live entertainment at dinner on Fridays's and Sundays.
Stanleys in Cane Garden Bay is located right on the beach, good food and a great place to hang out for hours, especially in the afternoon.
BananaKeet on Windy Hill in Carrot Bay has hands down the very best sunset views on Tortola. Great bar and great food. Live entertainment on Wednesdays and Fridays provided by the 12 string guitar and vocals of the well-known local artist Rubin Chinnery. The downside is that this place also has the worst service; you will wait for hours for food that never shows up.
The Jolly Roger located in the West End has very good food and is located right on the water. It has a great Caribbean barbecue every night and lots of good musical acts.
Peg Legs located in Nanny Cay has good food and is popular with expats.
Splurge
- Secret Garden situated in Josiah's Bay in a beautiful garden, Suzanne serves some of the best food in the Caribbean.
- Brandywine Bay Restaurant above the Bay is a beautiful place in a fabulous location.
- Sugar Mill restaurant in Little Apple Bay, part of a beautiful hotel.
- Dove, Road Town. For sale.
- Oscar's, on Frenchman's Cay. Taken over by owners of "Dove" and renamed "Watermark" it has now been taken over again by Paul Spicer.
Drink
Alcohol is immensely popular in the BVI, both beer and island cocktails, most notably rum. For beer, dark beers are rare. Red Stripe and Carib are the local beers, and other popular beers you'd expect to see are available as well. Roadside stands offer ice-cold beer for two or three dollars each, and bars offer beer at a comparable price to what you'd pay in an average-guy bar in the U.S. Rum Punch and Painkillers are two popular drinks. It is not at all unusual to chat up strangers and both buy and receive drinks. Remember to say "Cheers."
Restrictions on alcohol are very light. Bars usually stay open as long as the business is booming, frequently about 3 AM on weekends. It is acceptable to leave a bar with your beer, and if you know the bar well, not too unusual to walk in with one, either. Smoking is absolutely taboo in every business and public area in the BVI and cigarettes, though sold in the supermarkets are kept in locked cabinets since a recent law in July 2007. Drinking and driving is not actually illegal, but if you are involved in an accident you can be prosecuted for careless driving (on account of intoxication). Police generally do not stop cars until they have crashed, if you are found to be drunk you will be prosecuted for it, and if you were to injure or kill someone you could potentially face a long period of imprisonment - just because drinking and driving is not illegal doesn't mean that it is not stupid.
The roads on the island are at best "basic". Roads that have straightaways have large speed bumps and many of the speed bumps are not clearly marked. Many of the roads through the island have a width for no more than one and a half cars and are in a state of disrepair with numerous switchbacks and grazing livestock. These are not roads that you want to face any level of intoxication. Le Cabanon, casually known as "The Cab." An excellent bar with a great crowd in the heart of Road Town, the Cab has great, friendly bartenders, and a clientele composed mostly of ex-pat workers and tourists. Revelry here is par for the course from Thursday to Saturday night.
The Royal BVI Yacht Club, just west of town. This is mostly frequented by English ex-pats rather than the local populace and hosts races and the local rugby club. The Club hosts different nights - taco, sushi, trivia among them.
Red Rock Restaurant & Bar, Penn's Landing Marina, East End, Tortola, (redrockbvi@hotmail.com). 4-10 PM. Casual waterfront dining with dingy access. Fresh seafood, certified Angus beef, homemade pizza, vegetarian dishes, daily specials. Red Rock Restaurant & Bar, located at Penn's Landing Marina on East End. Expats and tourists together with a few locals blend to hear the latest island gossip and share stories of adventures past & present.
Three Sheets, Road Town. A wild party scene and when it's not wild it's a sports bar. The clientele is mainly young expats settled in the BVI and a few locals. Owned and run by the same people as the Bat Cave and Spaghetti Junction. Other good bars and party spots: Bomba Shack in Apple Bay, The Bat Cave near Village Cay in Road Town(hot nightclub), Myett's and Quito's in Cane Garden Bay. In Road Town: the Virgin Queen is a sports bar and serves pizzas, Pussers, next door to Le Cabanon offers wild happy hours, ladies' nights and its own blend of rum and rum-based drinks and also draught beer (sometimes). To the east of the island is the Last Resort (fusion dining and an interesting, eclectic cabaret on weekend nights) situated on a small islet off Trellis Bay in the East End (there is a free water taxi).