Gouyave Restaurants

Eating in Gouyave…

Restaurants, Eateries, Snackettes

One of the hidden secrets of this quaint little town called Gouyave is its reputation as a “center of cuisine” featuring daily access to all of the local favorites.

There isn’t a single Gouyave restaurant in which you can use a credit card. However, the cosmopolitan nature of the town allows for free spending of major currencies with the confidence that the locals know the exchange rate verbatim.

Whether it is Euros, Pounds, Barbados, Canadian or US Dollars, you can whip out any note and be assured of the correct converted change in EC dollars. The essence of that transactional knowledge speaks to Gouyave’s increasing reputation as a tourist destination not only for Fish Friday but for day tours and stay over guests.

The fishing industry provides the basis of the emerging “food culture” that is creating a cottage industry of small cafes of “snackettes” as they are called locally. Gouyave is divided into two main business segments that split between the south side and the north side of D’lance Bridge. The locals simply refer to the two segments as D’lance, and Downstreet. Both segments are part of what is officially named Depradine Street.

Gouyave Breakfast on D’lance

D’lance has eight eating points that serve regular meals or pastries or snacks at various intervals. Many duplicate each other with operating hours from as early as 7:30 a.m. with breakfast offerings to as late as 2 a.m. on weekends…with the final closing hour often dependent on the whim of the crowd or the flow of business.

Breakfast is often the usual fare of:

  • Baked or fried bakes
  • Hot bread
  • Fried fish or jacks
  • Cod-fish fritters or souse
  • And the local beverages from passion fruit juice to cocoa tea (hot chocolate made with locally grown cocoa beans).

Locals somehow prefer cold drinks with breakfast and “a juice”, often served in a plastic bag with a straw, is a local favorite. Most of the small snackettes offer some kind of breakfast offering.

Lunch Downstreet Gouyave

Downstreet by contrast is less of a morning hub and more of a mid-day operation. Step In Delight near the police station, post office and Bank, is the one exception that features the typical Gouyave breakfast.

When my friend and two colleagues stepped in to Step In Delight, they enjoyed a standard breakfast of fried fish and bakes. And they each had a shandy, a local drink combination of ginger ale and beer. This remarkably tasty and filling breakfast cost then $20 EC or 7.50 US total for all three. That general price rule holds true for most meals in Gouyave.

The primary lunch in Gouyave, served at the long standing Kelly’s Hot Spot, the closest thing to an established restaurant with seating for more than 30, cost less than $5 US. This can be a full compliment lunch with meat or fish, vegetables and drink. Roti, a local favorite is even less and can be served with sides.

Oil Down, regarded as Grenada’s national dish, can be had daily in Gouyave at one of the snackettes. It is a once per week offering at Step In Delight, and is often featured at the other “down street” lunch spots.

Dinner in Gouyave

Dinner in Gouyave is less formal. Often, the “heavy” food, in this fisherman’s town, is served in the mid-day hours. Locals, and invariably local establishments, tend to offer the lighter fare of hot breads and bakes, along with fried plantains, fritters, and soups at night.

A visitor to Gouyave, other than a Friday night, can expect to find available food outlets open at any hour that there is activity. The prices are reasonable, the handling is clean and legally sanctioned, and the vendors take particular pride in keeping the prices reasonable for the local market.

Stretch your dining budget and enjoy a delicious variety of food as you sample the cuisine of the town that never sleeps.

More Gouyave:

  1. Gouyave Fish Fridays
  2. Gouyave Fisherman’s Birthday
  3. Gouyave Dougaldston Estate

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