Authentic flavours at Boggy Sand Caribbean Kitchen

The district of West Bay has much to offer visitors and residents, being home to one of Cayman’s main tourist attractions, the Cayman Turtle Centre, and a whole host of great restaurants. One of the newest kids on the block is Boggy Sand Caribbean Kitchen, located at possibly one of the prettiest parts of the island, just off the picturesque Boggy Sand Road overlooking Seven Mile Beach. The restaurant itself is situated next to the new Jacques Scott liquor store in a shopping plaza that also includes Foster’s Food Fair supermarket, an up and coming area that is feeding the needs of the local population and visitors alike.

Upon entering the restaurant you are immediately impressed with its clean, modern feel that still retains the charm of the Caribbean, with greenery everywhere and tasteful lighting to add to the contemporary look. Choose booth seating or regular tables and peruse a menu that will certainly please if you are looking for some true flavours of the Caribbean. In fact, it feels as if they have infused every dish with some kind of West Indian touch or other.

We thought we ought to try the sweet reggae chips, because they sounded so good - thinly sliced deep fried sweet potato with their secret recipe scotch bonnet mayo. They were really crisp and delicious and had a great bite as well as spicy flavour – a great start! They accompanied our main choice of a Rasta veggie burger, a vegetable patty with lettuce, tomato, papaya slaw on a toasted sesame bun. The vegetarian among us proclaimed this a real winner and ate the lot before we were able to even try a bite for ourselves.

Appetisers that caught our eye included the spinach dip with sweet potato chips, the garlic and scotch bonnet shrimp and the BSC seafood lettuce wrap served cold with a full seafood helping of shrimp, calamari and lobster with mango, peppers, red onion tossed in creamy mango dressing, wrapped in crispy lettuce. I opted for the fish cakes, served with a lemon aioli and a little sweet and spicy papaya salad on the side, which was a very nice accompaniment to a fresh and zingy mixed greens salad, full to the brim with cucumber, carrots, tomato and onions and my choice of creamy mango dressing or passion fruit vinaigrette (I chose the former, which was sweet and tasty.) I also thought I would have a dabble with the pepper pot that was conveniently sat on our table. I spooned a teaspoon or three of the fruity hot vinegar over the salad and it brought the whole dish alive.

Other dishes that we need to try next time include the Cayman style beef - pulled beef, lettuce, tomato, sautéed onion on coco bread and the escovitch fish sandwich - deep fried snapper, coleslaw, lettuce, mayo and escovitch sauce also on coco bread. There’s a selection of pizzas that sounded good and the Jamaican curry chicken, served with pumpkin rice, island greens and plantains, was also noted for next time.

The restaurant is also open for breakfast and serves up goodies such as a BSC daily porridge, no less than five pancakes stacked and a real Caribbean breakfast of three eggs, plantains, bacon and coco bread, as well as with the perhaps more familiar classic American breakfast of two eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and roasted breakfast potatoes.

The Boggy Sand Caribbean Kitchen is well worth the drive for some tasty local flavours.