Hemingway's Caribbean Cafe — Restaurant in Antigua

Very overpriced, a rip off, not as classy as they pretend. Very fake and dishonest. I had the whole lobster thermidor, big presentation but very little lobster. They remove the lobster meat, cook it in a white sauce, which the server called "cheese", then placed the lobster meat back in each side's shell. But they cheated on the amount they put back. It had a thin, runny consistency of sea food chowder, NOT stuffed back in tightly but very loosely, with very little lobster meat. I bet they loosely refill both sides using the lobster meat from just ONE side, essentially ROBBING you of half of the lobster meat. Very disappointing. No chunks of lobster, all very thin and watery like a soup. No satisfaction. And the lobster took almost an hour after the appetizer. And EC$185 is a big rip off. Other disappointments...... The appetizer of sea food chowder, small portion in an enormous plate, no salt and the "show " of adding "freshly ground" black pepper was awkwardly done. The two little pieces of bread without butter had to be asked for several times and arrived AFTER I had finished the chowder......no class. The second bloody mary tasted different from the first, with parsley garnish in the second which the first did not have, and without lemon juice AS REQUESTED, indicating that the first one clearly did have lemon juice inspite of my request not to have lemon juice. Two bloody marys but two very different tasting drinks, no consistency. $50 for two very average room temperature bloody Marys is a rip off and I had to ask for more ice. The girls were polite but lacked class, embarrassingly obvious when they tried to READ the menu items word for word like primary school recitation. Overall a very disappointing experience and I felt cheated and ripped off. $300+ for a meal, utterly without satisfaction....

My family of five decided to have lunch at Hemingway’s on 1/16/19 at the suggestion of our tour guide. We were sat relatively quickly on the balcony and were given our drink orders within minutes. Shortly after we ordered a serving of conch fritters and all of our main courses. We waiting over an hour and 15 minutes just to be told by the owner that the kitchen got mixed up and our food hadn’t been made. Meanwhile, we watched three other tables receive their conch fritters and food. The only reason the owner came over was because our waitress relayed to her that we were unhappy — rightfully so. We received our order of fritters 7-10 minutes after the owner came to speak with us. After making it clear to her that all of our time allotted in St. John was spent in her restaurants, she told us she was doing “the best she could” with the kitchen and we should be happy because our food would come out hot. Five more minutes pass and we have yet to receive our main courses. I asked our waitress to send the owner over once again and upon her arrival explained that the service was unacceptable. She did not offer for our drinks to be on the house or discount the bill until I asked if she was planning on doing anything to makeup for our inconvenience. Once the food arrived, it was acceptable but not worth waiting almost 2 hours for. To make matters worse, one of the entrees had a long piece of hair in it which we brought to the owner’s attention. She rolled her eyes, laughed and walked away — no apology, remorse or offer to replace it. When we received the receipt, a mere 10% off was given still leaving the bill above $150 USD. I do not advise patronizing this establishment unless you have endless amounts of time and are willing to deal with an...

I always enjoy trying to find small or quirky places to try local cuisine and when our ship stopped in St. John’s, Antigua I figured I’d have lots of restaurant options.

Just outside the neat and somewhat expensive cluster of cruise shops was the rest of downtown, with lots of really interesting restaurants and local shops.

I wandered up the steep and fairly narrow stairs to Hemingways Caribbean Cafe, which as the name implies has some direct connections to Papa Hemingway, who used to visit the place.

Unfortunately, they were out of the conch fritters, which I really wanted to try, as well as one of the local beers, but the manager came out to suggest a couple other options, specifically the fresh pumpkin soup, and lobster eggrolls. Taking her advice, I tried both, and while the pumpkin soup was good, the lobster eggrolls, usually on their dinner menu, were unbelievable and delicious! Flavorful, perfectly cooked, and with an amazing taste and texture, if I hadn’t filled up on the soup, I would have gotten a second order. These were some of the best surprise appetizers I have ever had anywhere, so do try them out! if you like things, spicy, ask for a small side of their local chili, which is hotter than hell, 🔥 and quite delicious!

The servers and manager were quite friendly, and filled me in on the details of their association with the building, which goes back over 100 years, back when it was a larger piece of property, including residential units.

Resist the temptation to go to the very pretty, and frankly a little boring eateries, right where the ships dock, and walk an extra hundred yards to Hemingways: you will be...