Island basics
What to eat in Roatán: the island's own food
The dishes that belong to Roatán rather than to the mainland are machuca, a Garífuna stew of mashed plantain in coconut milk with fish, sopa de caracol, conch soup in a coconut broth, and pan de coco, coconut bread. The baleada, a folded flour tortilla with beans, cheese and cream, is Honduran and is everywhere.
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Roatán eats differently from the rest of Honduras, and the reason is the Garífuna community, whose cooking is strongest here. Coconut milk turns up where the mainland would use something else, and the sea does most of the rest.
Machuca is the one worth going out of your way for. Green and ripe plantains are mashed into a dough and served in a coconut milk broth with fish. It is a Garífuna dish and it is not a tourist invention.
Sopa de caracol is conch simmered in coconut broth, usually with other seafood in it, seasoned with garlic, onion, peppers and cilantro. It comes with bread or fried plantain and a wedge of lime. If you order one thing on the island that you cannot get at home, order this.
Pan de coco is coconut bread, baked in rounds, slightly sweet, sold warm by vendors and home bakers. People eat it for breakfast, carry it as a snack, and use it to finish off a fish stew. It costs very little and it travels well in a bag.
The baleada is the Honduran staple rather than an island one. A soft flour tortilla folded over refried beans, cheese and cream, with eggs or avocado or meat added if you want it to be lunch instead of breakfast. It is the cheapest real meal on the island and you will see them sold everywhere.
Then there is the fish, which is the obvious answer and still the right one. Grouper, snapper, wahoo and yellowtail all come off the reef and get cooked plainly, usually fried whole or grilled, with plantain on the side.
Two things we do serve ourselves. The island tour with the monkey and sloth park stops at a chocolate and rum tasting, and that tour is 50 dollars per person. The version that adds West Bay Beach afterwards is 60. The rum is made on the island and the tasting is a counter with bottles on it, not a show.
One practical note about a port day. Eating well in Roatán and being back at the ship on time are both achievable, but not if you go looking for a specific restaurant with two hours left on the clock. Ask your guide where the van is stopping and eat there. The stop is chosen because it is on the way back.
Still deciding how to spend your port day?
Send us your ship and date. We answer from the island, usually within minutes.