Since 1976, Cosmo Brown has been packing them in at long wooden tables on this beachside concrete pad under a thatched Polynesian-style hut right on the sand of the public Seven Mile Beach.

It is un-fancy, un-fussy, and thoroughly genuine. Service is on island time, so don’t come expecting fast food. There are hammocks strung between the surrounding trees where you can relax before or after your meal.

Most people go for the catch of the day—grilled, steamed, fried, or in a brown stew—though there is also the requisite jerked chicken, plus curried conch, shrimp, or goat and a host of daily specials: stew pork on Wednesdays, curried chicken Thursdays, Jamaican oxtail on Fridays.

The only dishes that go for more than J$270 (US$2.45) are the lobster—when in season, caught in the waters a few dozen feet away—at J$630 (US$5.65). Get a side of rice and peas (actually beans), festival (cornmeal fritters, a bit like hush puppies) or bammy (casava flatbread).

 - Reid Bramblett