Is Coco Bistro one of the hottest restaurants in Turks & Caicos?

Our most recent visit to Turks and Caicos was with 3 different families, and several in our group really like to experience the best cuisine possible when they travel. (Personally – I love the “real” local food like street tacos, food trucks, and finding the dives where the locals eat, but with a wife with Gluten allergies, that’s not often a choice.)

Anyway, Yelp and Google had Coco Bistro at the top of the list in terms of amazing places to eat so that’s where we went.

I couldn’t agree less (and that’s not the food-truck/street-taco guy talking). There were 13 of us, and every single one of us enjoyed what we ordered (for about half the price) the night before at Mr Grouper’s.

Don’t get me wrong, the ambiance was great, but if ambiance is what you’re after, get it over happy-hour, and then head over to Mr Grouper’s for dinner (or somewhere that is on the water.)

Overall, here are my ratings:

  • Ambiance: 8/10 (with the only reason for docking them two points being that they’re not on the water.)
  • Service: 9/10 (Serving 13 people in a restaurant that is booked to the gills is a tough job, and they handled us swimmingly.)
  • Food: 7/10 (It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great for the price and it didn’t live up to the hype. Every one of us liked what we ate at Mr. Grouper’s better – and that’s not even taking price into consideration.)

 

Turks and Caicos – Mr. Grouper’s

We rented a beautiful waterfront house during our stay, so we ate-in for all but two meals. Our “fancy night”, was at Coco Bistro, and our other night was Mr Grouper’s.

The restaurant itself was nothing fancy.  It was next door to an abandoned gas station, and it reminded me of the cinder block soccer field snack-stand I went to growing up.  “quaint” and “tacky” were common adjectives thrown around about the restaurant itself (which is right up my alley).

Despite the rough description of quaint and tacky from our group of wanna-be restaurant critics, every single dish we ate was the complete opposite of quaint OR tacky.  Each of us (including 6 adults, and 7 very picky kids) thoroughly enjoyed our dinner.  I believe every word Phillip says in the video about where he gets his fish (In fact, we’re pretty sure he got the fish we didn’t take home from our amazing fishing excursion.)

Highly recommended.

Overall, here are my ratings:

  • Ambiance: 6/10 (Unless you’re looking for the rustic island feel – in which case it’s a perfect 10/10)
  • Service: 7/10 (Which would be expected for the affordability of this place.)
  • Food: 10/10 (Best dining out we had during our stay.)

PS – I had the coconut encrusted grouper he mentioned in the video. Delicious!