Even if you’ve been to St. Lucia’s Marigot Bay before and stayed at one of our villas, you may have passed by this little gem and not even realized it – for you won’t find it on TripAdvisor and won’t see any signs for it around the bay. It’s what we consider to be one of the most overlooked – but best, food spots in the bay!

In fact, it doesn’t even have an official name – let alone a sign, but to the locals it goes by the name of “Bernice’s Food Shack”. It’s a small – well, shack. It’s located just off to the side of the main dock in Marigot Bay where you catch the ferry to go across, tucked behind the brightly-colored fishing boats lined up along the beach.

At first glance it’s not much to look at, and you may even be skeptical of giving it a try. But trust us when we say that Bernice cooks up the best local island grub in Marigot Bay, and despite the shabby look of the place – she is renowned for being meticulously clean!

Here’s Bernice herself cooking up some delicious local island grub on the oil drum barbecue grill.

This is where many of the locals working in the area go for breakfast and lunch., but tourists are absolutely welcome!

Bernice is an incredibly kind woman, so you shouldn’t feel intimidated at all to give it a try. In fact, you’ll probably be happy you did.

There’s no particular hours or days of the week that she’s open though, so you just have to swing by at the right time. From Monday to Friday, especially from morning to lunch time, she should be there with freshly made local food for sale.

My favorite though – and what I highly recommend you try, is a saltfish johnny cake and a “cocoa tea” for breakfast – the local specialty.

Every time I’m in St. Lucia I always make sure to get this breakfast combo at least once while I’m there! The cocoa tea is warm and soothing, and is the local version of the North American morning coffee, and the saltfish cake is a perfect morning sandwich!

And you can’t go wrong with the price. The saltfish cake itself is only $3 EC. (That’s like $1.25 US).

Who knows, maybe McDonald’s will start offering this combo on their morning menu!

For lunch they have some great options. If you’re really adventurous, they have stewed pig’s feet and snout sometimes (a local favorite), but if you’re not quite into that, the stewed goat is absolutely delicious!

Here’s a plate of stewed goat, rice, plantain, fig, banana, breadfruit, carrots, and some other veggies – that’s right, you get a bit of everything! Bernice is not cheap with the portion sizes!

The outer lackluster appearance of Bernice’s shack may cause some travelers to overlook this little treasure, but it’s too bad because for anyone looking to try some real authentic St. Lucian food, this is probably the best place in Marigot Bay! As they saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover!

So next time you’re in Marigot Bay, you have to try Bernice’s!

~Oasis Team

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