Kuyaba on the Beach

Description:

• The setting is about as rustic, laid-back, and funky as you'll find -- the perfect venue for slugging back two or three of the house special cocktails, which include "screaming bananas" and a party-colored, rum-based concoction known as a "kuyaba rainbow." Tables are set on a wooden deck, built on poles buried deep in the sands of the beach. The menu has been considerably improved -- better market-fresh ingredients and more flavor. Starters that are specialties include jerk sausage served with shrimp wrapped in bacon, or a bowl of "real Jamaica" -- a choice of red peas (actually beans), cream of pumpkin, or pepper pot. Pasta dishes are winning, especially conch-laced spaghetti with a garlic, wine, and tomato sauce, or angel-hair pasta studded with cream. Caribbean lobster is a standard feature. Some of our favorite dishes include crab and pumpkin cakes with a papaya mustard, or coconut curried conch with a mango-and-papaya chutney. For dessert, there's nothing finer than the Jamaican rum cake or the mango cheese cake. Kuyaba is an Arawak word that means "feasting, drinking, and dancing," something that happens whenever a musician drops by to play some live reggae or soca.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010