The Hunt for Inexpensive Caribbean Dining

When in Rome, eat spaghetti.

Dining in Paris, have steak-frites.

Hungry in London, go with fish & chips.

The general rule of thumb, in any city, (and restaurant even), is eat their specialty!

But what exactly is Anguilla's "specialty"?

Anguilla certainly provides a wide spectrum of restaurants from French to Italian to Japanese to even Thai-French fusion!

But our absolute favorite, none-match-by-even-the-slightest-of-comparisons, have always been the eateries that provide Caribbean dining.

Koal Keel... Oliver's...

They really are staples in the Caribbean dining experience! But no way could our family afford to dine on such divine food every evening.

Surely, a plate of pasta in Rome doesn't cost a couple hundred dollars to feed a family of four!

There had to be less expensive restaurants that provided Caribbean dining, other than the local weekend BBQs.

And so began a deep excavation through the jungle of all the Anguilla restaurants... It was our mission to unearth a delectable, yet moderately priced, Caribbean dining experience...

Ta-Da!

We didn't have to dig deep before we hit gold!

Our prize restaurant had been staring us in the face this whole time.

E's Oven... of course!

We would only pass it every day, on our way to and from the West End, as it's located on Anguilla's main road.

And, friends from the island certainly have raved on and on about it to us.

But somehow my immensely dense tribe of family members and I were blind and deaf to E's Oven...

Until now!... Those past conversations with E's Oven enthusiasts and glances out the car window at the enigmatic red and yellow restaurant, all came rushing back...

We approached the very familiar West-Indian style eatery, with intrigued looks on our faces.

Would our pallets be pleased like those of our friends?

Would E's Oven become the best moderately priced, Caribbean dining?

The answers lay moments away...

Upon stepping inside the red and yellow building, we were enveloped in its warm, open and inviting atmosphere.

Dark wood chairs and tables covered the dining room floor, and different Caribbean artifacts hung from the walls.

But the most amazing of all, was the bar.

This woman, the bartender, stood roughly three-four feet below everyone else.

The bar was built a level lower than the dining room, right next to the chef's mother's old stone oven.

I was snapped from my daze, in awe of the different knick-knacks, when my sister grabbed me by the arm...

Our waiter was seating us.

We sat a little removed from the restaurant's interior atmosphere, on a picturesque white and sea-green painted deck, just off of the central dining area.

As we flipped through the menu, the local sounds of inland Anguilla filled our ears... Crickets were chirping, kittens were crawling through hedges and the occasional chicken (that was still awake!) would cluck, as a warm, gentle Caribbean breeze ran through our hair and cooled our skin.

Our waiter returned shortly.

In exchange for our orders, he gave us a complimentary appetizer... chicken spring rolls!

If heaven had a shape and a taste, it would be E's Oven chicken spring rolls.

They were out of this world!

It wasn't too long before the waiter made a return visit to clear the empty plates, and place our entrees in front of us.

My sister chose seafood pasta, I opted for a shrimp salad, and my Mom and Dad went with pan seared yellow tail snapper.

The food was sensational!

We all sampled a little bit of each others plates, and only had one thing to say... give our compliments to Executive Chef Vernon Hughes!

Even though we came to E's Oven in search of real Caribbean dining, we passed on the traditional meals like creole conch and curry Anguillian goat meat.

But the bottom line was the food we did have, at a restaurant that provided Caribbean food, was delicious and not over-priced!

Next time we return, we'll try the goat and conch!