Locals head to this temple of taste near Port of Spain's hotel district for genuine northern Indian cooking. The extensive menu covers curry, tandoori, samosas, and other spicy culinary traditions featuring lamb, goat, chicken, seafood, and vegetarian dishes. The setting is ornate, with red walls and plenty of Indian deity icons. Staff are friendly and accommodating, and dress the part too.

Open Mondays through Saturdays 11 am to 3 pm and 6 to 11 pm.

If you didn't know that "battimamzelle" was Creole for dragonfly, you might guess from the motif's appearance throughout the bar and dining room in this boutique hotel. Outside the glass canopy, tropical plants, stone walls, and a babbling brook give the impression that you're dining in the middle of a rain forest. Battimamzelle's Scottish chef Roy MacAskill has gained a faithful following for his bold and imaginative use of local and exotic ingredients. Expect baked goat's cheese in pecan crumb with blueberry salsa as a starter, red snapper with mango chow and plum tomato-chili chokka (a local "mash") for an entrée, and white chocolate and sweet basil panna cotta with passion fruit sorbet to finish.

Open Mondays through Fridays 6:30 am to 3 pm; Mondays through Saturdays 6 to 10:30 pm.

Scarborough's best home cooks, Alison and Ken Sardinha, open their hillside villa and large terrace to visitors for lunch, afternoon tea (on Tuesdays), and dinner. It's the best place to try local dishes: vegetarian callaloo soup (pureed greens, okra, and coconut milk), chicken grilled over coconut husks, cou-cou (a polenta-like dish), cookup (rice pilaf with everything), kingfish, curry chicken, and fried flying fish. Get chatting with the gregarious Miss Alison and you'll get Tobago tips and hints on the recipes.

Open Tuesdays through Fridays 11 am to 3 pm; Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays dinner by reservation only.

Local and healthy foods are given a gourmet twist in this casual indoor-outdoor setting at Kariwak Village resort (known for its holistic approach to vacationing). Choose a table in the dining room surrounded by local art or in a thatched cabana outdoors. All the herbs and produce are grown here or nearby, and everything from the yogurt and ice cream to the breads is homemade. Be sure to try their local hot cocoa for breakfast. Lunch is a basic affair of healthy salads and sandwiches, while the dinner menu changes nightly and features two entrees such as chicken with basil and coconut with a choice of salads and side dishes, like breadfruit pie and green banana salad, plus homemade dessert.

Open daily 7 am to 11 pm.

Mélange earns its name by swirling classic French into Trinidad's cultural stew. Port of Spain's execs stop at the cozy, maison-like restaurant for weekday lunch and seafood crepes. Typical examples on the changing dinner menu would be pepper-crusted pork tenderloin with cassava and wild rice cakes or stuffed chicken breast with a coconut crust and port wine sauce.

Open Mondays through Fridays 11:30 am to 2:30 pm; Tuesdays through Saturdays 6:30 to 10:30 pm.

This two-story open-air restaurant within earshot of the swishing breakers serves some of Tobago's finest cuisine. Expect dishes with a local flavor, such as rack of spring lamb with port and guava sauce or chargrilled shrimp in Creole garlic butter sauce. For lunch try the flying fish burger. Live pan or other local music orchestrates your meal. Be sure to upgrade your flip-flop and shorts attire, especially at dinner.

Open daily noon to 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm to 10 pm.

Try the shacks on the beach for local seafood dishes, chicken, burgers, and roti. Just about all the joints are good, but if you want the local specialty, line up early in the day at Miss Jean's for crab and dumplings (they sell out fast). The blue land crabs cooked whole in the shell and served with curry sauce and doughy dumplings require a bit of skill, napkins, and noisy sucking to get to the meat; best leave your manners back at the hotel.

This long-standing lunch destination, entirely owned and run by women, continues to reap the crowds thanks to chef Allyson Hennessy (locally famous for her TV talk show as well as her sound French-Creole cooking) and her sister-partner, Rosemary Hezekiah. Cheery primary-colored chairs on pine floors, potted palms, brightly hand-painted tables, and local artwork are the backdrop for lunches and dinners comprising whatever is fresh and good at the market each morning—crab, kingfish, snapper, callaloo, pork, always something with chicken, and fresh tropical juices.

Open Monday through Friday 11:30 am to 3 pm; Wednesday and Friday from 7 pm.