Seven tables from Le Marin to Tartane, with their exact address and real opening hours — plus what to try, what it costs, and the day everything is shut.
Martinican cooking is found in three different places, and you should do all three. The restaurants, listed further down this page. The markets, for spices, infused rums and fruit you have never heard of. And the food trucks that set up along the roads at lunchtime — often where you eat best, and for a third of the price.
This page gathers our seven tables, with their exact address and real opening hours, plus what you need to know before sitting down anywhere in Martinique.
Book, and check the day. Many good tables here have few covers, and most close one or two days a week — usually Monday, and often Sunday evening too. Three of the seven restaurants on this page are closed on Mondays. A call the day before saves a wasted drive.
Service does not run at mainland pace. Nobody hurries you, the bill does not arrive until you ask for it, and lunch easily takes two hours. That is not carelessness: it is the rhythm. If you have a boat to catch, say so when you sit down.
Listed from south to north. The hours below are the ones we have checked, but they shift with the season: a phone call remains the only certainty.
On the seafront, facing one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean. Contemporary Creole cooking, fish of the day bought from the fishermen, and a sunset over the yacht masts that is worth the drive on its own. This is the most polished table in the south.
11 boulevard Allègre, plage du bourg, 97290 Le Marin
Phone: +596 596 74 08 46
Tuesday to Sunday, 12–2.30 pm and 7–10.30 pm. Closed Monday.
A beach shack on the seafront, unpretentious, specialising in grilled lobster and conch. You go for the grill and the seaside atmosphere, not for the finesse of the service.
71 boulevard Kennedy, seafront, 97228 Sainte-Luce
Phone: +596 696 80 78 75
Tuesday to Thursday 11.45 am–2.30 pm and 6.45–9.30 pm · Friday until 10.30 pm · Saturday
11.45 am–3 pm and 6.45–10.30 pm · Sunday 11.45 am–3 pm, lunch only.
Closed Monday.
Up in the hills above Les Trois-Îlets, the restaurant of the La Suite Villa hotel. Contemporary cooking, local produce, a view over the bay of Fort-de-France. This is the table for a dinner that matters, not for a quick lunch.
Route du Fort d'Alet, 97229 Les Trois-Îlets
Phone: +596 596 59 88 00
Evenings only, Wednesday to Saturday, 7–9.30 pm. Sunday lunch only, 12–2 pm.
Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Watch that point: many visitors turn up for lunch on a weekday and find it shut.
A teak terrace facing the bay, inside the grounds of the B&B hotel at Étang Z'Abricot. Reinvented Creole cooking, a serious cocktail list and a fine selection of agricole rums. Views over the commercial port and the marina, with the sunset lined up in front of you.
Rue Cadastre, ZAC de l'Étang Z'Abricot, 97200 Fort-de-France
Phone: +596 596 54 28 16
Monday to Saturday, 12 noon–11 pm. Closed Sunday.
A terrace built up in a tree, feet in the sand of the northern Caribbean coast. Fresh fish tartare, cocktails, and a beach-bar atmosphere that does not close between services — useful when you arrive at an awkward hour.
Rue de la Plage, 97222 Case-Pilote
Phone: +596 596 66 37 91
Every day, 11 am–11 pm, continuous service.
A lounge bar with its feet in the sand, on Saint-Pierre beach, facing the bay and Mount Pelée. It is the only proper table in town, and therefore the place to break up a day in the north — between the 1902 Memorial in the morning and the Le Prêcheur road in the afternoon.
3 rue Gabriel Péri, 97250 Saint-Pierre
Phone: +596 696 75 56 28
Every day from noon. Closing varies: 5 pm Monday, 6 pm Sunday, 7 pm Wednesday, 9 pm Tuesday, 10 pm
Thursday to Saturday. Takeaway 12–3.30 pm.
On the road out to the lighthouse, the only proper table on the peninsula. Reinvented Creole cooking, open since 1999. This is where you have lunch when you spend the day at the Caravelle — between the morning walking loop and Tartane beach in the afternoon.
1 route du Phare, 97220 La Trinité
Phone: +596 696 58 08 48
Tuesday to Sunday, 12–3 pm and 7–10 pm. Closed Monday.
| Restaurant | Where | Closing day |
|---|---|---|
| Zanzibar | Le Marin | Monday |
| La Baraqu'Obama | Sainte-Luce | Monday · Sunday evening |
| Le Zandoli | Les Trois-Îlets | Monday and Tuesday · evenings only |
| Le Zest Bar | Fort-de-France | Sunday |
| Le Shell's | Case-Pilote | Open 7 days |
| Bela Beach | Saint-Pierre | Open 7 days · closes early Monday |
| Le Phare | Tartane | Monday |
They set up at lunchtime by the roadside, in car parks, at the entrance to villages. You eat standing or sitting on a wall, for a few euros, and it is often the best meal of the trip.
What you find: chicken and chips, steak and chips, sandwiches, paninis, bokits and pizzas. The bokit is the most interesting for a visitor: deep-fried bread dough filled with salt cod, chicken or ham and cheese. It is filling, cheap, and eaten one-handed.
Do not worry about hygiene: these vans are inspected like restaurants, and the turnover is such that nothing sits around. The best indicator is the queue — the one where locals line up at noon is the one to choose.
The covered market in Fort-de-France, rue Isambert, is the most complete: loose spices, colombo, bay rum leaves, vanilla, infused rums, preserves, and fruit you will not recognise — soursop, custard apple, star fruit, passion fruit. Go early, before the heat settles under the hall.
There is little haggling but plenty of tasting: the stallholders will always offer you infused rums. Bear in mind that some are over 40 degrees and that you are driving.
Village markets — Le Marin, Sainte-Anne, Saint-Pierre, Le Lamentin — mainly run on Saturday mornings, and that is where fruit and vegetables are cheapest.
Accras de morue. Spiced salt cod fritters, served with drinks. The reliable test of a good restaurant: if they are soft or greasy, be wary of what follows.
Colombo. Chicken, goat or pork simmered in a spice blend brought by Indian workers in the nineteenth century. Nothing like a curry: softer, rounder.
Boudin créole. Spiced blood sausage, served hot with drinks or as a starter. Found everywhere, including at roadside stalls.
Blaff. Fish poached in a court-bouillon with lime, garlic and chilli. The simplest and truest way to eat fish here.
Féroce d'avocat. Avocado, salt cod and cassava flour mashed together. The name means "ferocious", and it is.
Chatrou and lambi. Octopus and the big Caribbean conch, in a fricassee. Lambi is expensive and often frozen out of season — ask whether it is fresh.
It is the aperitif, not the digestif. White agricole rum, cane sugar, a twist of lime — and no ice. You make it yourself: the waiter puts the bottle, the sugar and the limes on the table, and everyone pours their own.
The local saying goes: "each prepares his own death". It is a way of noting that the measure is personal, and that Martinican agricole rum runs between 50 and 55 degrees. If you are driving, one — or none. Checks are frequent, and the roads at night are unforgiving.
Allow €25 to €40 per person at a good table in the evening, starter and main, without wine. At lunch, set menus run €15 to €20. At a food truck, €6 to €10 is enough.
Tipping is not expected: service is included, as in mainland France. Leave a few euros if the service was good, never a percentage.
Cards are accepted almost everywhere in restaurants, far less so at beach stalls and food trucks. Always keep €20 to €30 in cash in the car.
Finally, almost all of these tables are reached by car and rarely otherwise: Le Phare, Bela Beach and Le Shell's are served by no regular evening transport. For the detail of the drives, see our page on driving in Martinique.
There are three circuits to do: the restaurants, the markets for spices and fruit, and the food trucks by the roadside at lunchtime. Our seven tables run from Le Marin in the south to Tartane in the east, by way of Fort-de-France, Case-Pilote and Saint-Pierre.
Accras de morue with drinks, colombo of chicken or goat, boudin créole, blaff of fish, féroce d'avocat, and chatrou or lambi in a fricassee. All preceded by a ti-punch, which is an aperitif and not a digestif.
Allow €25 to €40 per person in the evening at a good table, starter and main without wine, and €15 to €20 for a set lunch. At a roadside food truck, €6 to €10 is enough, and it is often the best meal of the trip.
Almost all of them. Monday is the most common closing day, and many also close on Sunday evening. Some open only in the evening: Le Zandoli at Les Trois-Îlets serves lunch on Sundays only. Check before you drive.
Deep-fried bread dough filled with salt cod, chicken or ham and cheese. You find it at roadside food trucks alongside chicken and chips, steak and chips, sandwiches, paninis and pizzas. It is cheap, filling and eaten one-handed.
No, service is included as in mainland France. Leave a few euros if the service was particularly good, but never a percentage. Do carry cash, though: cards are poorly accepted at beach stalls and food trucks.
All-inclusive rates, insurance and unlimited mileage included, delivery to the airport, the cruise port and the Express des Îles terminal.
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