Da Conch Shack restaurant in Blue Hills, Providenciales which serves local Turks and Caicos Islands cuisines.
Many people on vacation like to try new foods prepared in the local way. Providenciales offers
a few local restaurants serving traditional cuisine, but the fact is
these are mostly dying out. Most restaurants serve a wide
selection of international cuisines, from traditional Japanese sushi to
Jamaican jerk chicken.
The one thing that completely sets us apart is the lack of fast food restaurants. There is no McDonalds, BurgerKing, Subway, or KFC in Providenciales or any other island in the Turks and Caicos.
The local cuisine mostly revolves around seafood, primarily conch. Common methods for preparation are fried as conch fritters and served within a salad. Restaurants do serve local fish, but much of the fish at stores and restaurants is imported.
Traditional dishes reflected the difficult life of islanders, with "peas
& hominy" being a common plate on the dinner table. Surprisingly, conch
fritters and conch salad (which is made with raw conch) are relatively
new dishes and wern't part of the cuisine 100 years ago.
Deciding where to eat
Providenciales truly has a wide extent of restaurants to choose from, and most are located in the Grace Bay area, with the
remaining few mostly located in the Turtle Cove area. Prices are higher than US
equivalents, but are at par or lower than London.
We recommend you look through the local
Dining Guide published by the editors of the
Where When How magazine. This excellent guide has a listing of all
restaurants on Providenciales, and includes a sample menu with prices. It's free and
is probably in your hotel room when you arrive.
Due to the number of restaurants, we have split them into three price
ranges. Please note that these are rough categories.
Expensive Restaurants >
Moderately Priced Restaurants >
Low Priced Restaurants >