Caicos Cafe Turks and Caicos | Eating With Ziggy

Ladies and gents, brace yourself. Its the moment you’ve been waiting for. Ever since you discovered the Turkey and Cascos Islands as your co-workers call them (“You back… how was Turkey and Cascos”), the question you always wanted to ask but were too afraid for some reason; What to order at Caicos Café, the top restaurant in Providenciales. If you agree, great. If you disagree, even better. You just need a little help that’s all.

Although I live 1300 miles away, and have a serious eating disorder (NYC did this to me), I’ve written about Caicos Café more than any other restaurant in the world (trying to sound dramatic, but really it doesn’t mean anything. I could have said NY but I chose not to). I’ve written stories, reviews, blog posts, mentioned them in every WWH Seven dishes column, and children books (“Goodnight Grouper”). So instead of writing yet another boring blog post about our recent meals there, I decided to write about what dishes you should target on your next visit (which is really the same thing, but sounds much more interesting, doesnt it?).

Resume: somewhere between 15-20 meals. Here are the up to date standings of the most visited restaurants:

1) Pure Thai Cookhouse (NYC) 60-70 meals

2) Chicken Over Rice Guy around the corner (NYC) 50

3) Caicos Café (TCI) 15-20

4) Mom (Brooklyn) 12

We often joke that we could potentially eat every dinner of a week’s long trip at CC, and have a great and different meal every night. One day we may finally do it. And you can bet your sweet tooches that we’ll have some sort of combination of the following

Grilled Calamari Skewer – Starting with the no-brainer. On the menu since pretty much day one, and something we must have on just about every visit. Spiced grilled Calamari on a skewer, sitting on top of cannellini beans, mussels, grilled bread with the most perfectly complimentary light sauce. Great dish

Gnocchi – Another must for us. A dish that saw many iterations, but the result is always the same. Fresh homemade potato Gnocchi, whether with tomato sauce, mushroom sauce, bigger Gnocchi, smaller Gnocchi, doesnt matter. Pillowy, melty goodness without fail each time.

Lobster Salad (Seasonal) – A delicious recent discovery. Not sure what took us so long

Escargot – Rivals the former Caicos Cafe, and the current Le Bouchon du Village for best on the island

Wahoo Carpaccio – An occasional special, and another absolute must. This is the only way I can truly enjoy this firm dude, and now I have to order more because my entire family is into it. Like eating sea butter

Lobster Fra Diavolo – Possibly the most popular dish during lobster season. Flambeed with Brandy, along with chili, parsley, garlic, light tomato sauce, and most importantly plentiful of tasty, tender, never chewy lobster morsels. Other similar dishes on the island pale in comparison

Seafood Tagliolini – Another one of those menu staples. Pernot flambéed with various fish and shellfish, spices and a hint of parsley and lemon juice. Love the flavors in this one

Orecchiette – A seafood break for the meat lovers. Orecchiette means “small ears”, normally mixed with sausages and Broccoli rabe. Here Chef Max blends in a sweet and spicy sausage ragu with Broccoli and Parmesan cheese. Another menu staple

Pumpkin Ravioli – A new favorite in the Ziggy familia. I normally hesitate ordering it (its pumpkin ravioli!), but one bite is like a shock through the system. Roasted pumpkin, 5 various cheeses, pecans, brown butter, thyme, and more Parma cheese to top it all. More flavorful than all the Tortelli di Zucca we’ve had in Parma.

Seafood Casserole – This is a very popular dish outside of the Ziggy circuit. The only time I ordered it I was too sick to eat anything, but I’ve enjoyed similar creations by Chef Max.

Baby Back Pork Ribs – This is where that crazy versatility is showing. I imagine a full blown Italian style scheduled transport strike if this is taken out of the menu. Its that popular. Marinaded with Jalapeno, honey, paprika and lime juice, wet rubbed with Bourbon BBQ sauce… Winner

Grilled Local Grouper – Only available as a special, which means you are getting a fresh locally caught grouper. Not Swai, not Tilapia, not Carp! Simply grilled to perfection with vegetables sauteed in lemon-mint extra virgin olive oil, fresh tomatoes, capers, olives & basil salsa, mashed potatoes. Hint: notice the weather is lousy? Guess what, no grouper today, as the weather is lousy for the local fishermen as well. What you’ll get on the other menus is the frozen or [Enter your favorite Vietnamese catfish here]

Anything with Octopus – Pay close attention to the specials here. When he gets those Portuguese Octopuses via Miami, oooooh boy, watch out. Grilled just by itself, or as part of a pasta like Troccoli alla Chitarra utilizing his guitar (Chitarra). So so good

Affogato with Bailey’s – A traditional must for us, and something we order often in NYC as a result, leaving us almost always disappointed

Pear and Mango Tart – Honey, Butter sauce, vanilla ice cream. Sometimes apples, sometimes pear, always delicious.

Buon Appetito!

Previously on as Caicos Cafe turns

Sometime between the second and third course of the first meal, I made an executive decision. Scrapping the plan to only go to Caicos Cafe once on this trip in order to give someone new a shot. A plan I was never comfortable with, and the most likely cause of my Shingles. Crisis averted, vacation saved. Ok, a bit melodramatic I know. But Ziggy’s mind is a mysterious and complex labyrinth, that produces joy via creating anticipations on a whim.

Caicos Cafe in a way represents everything I love about eating in places like Turks and Italy. A masterful use of “backyard” ingredients by a talented chef, and the perfect formula. A formula helped by a menu that screams for repeat visits. A nice mix of old and brand new awesomeness during the recent visit….

Jumbo scallops wrapped in pancetta (bacon for those scoring at home or if you’re alone) on a bed of green pea purée. Expertly prepared, perfectly cooked scallops. Goat cheese roll and butternut squash Brie tart with walnuts, sundried apricot, mushroom vinaigrette. Somehow, I never got to try this so I can only go by Mrs Ziggy’s facial expressions and the words coming out of her mouth… “Ooh yum mmmm ooh need to go peepee”. I think it was good.

It’s listed on the menu as a yellow tail snapper but we got a fresh grouper instead, prosecco flambeed with all sorts of seafood delights including some tasty bay scallops. Another great dish showcasing Mad Max’s skills. A dish of the year nominee for me was a new addition to the menu, Troccoli with octopus. Troccoli pasta is homemade with a guitar like instrument (Chitarra) pressed against the dough sheet. It looks and tastes like the Tuscan Pici but with egg and must be cooked more al dente. With a super tender tasty Octopus (he uses another tool to tenderize the sucker) and Max’s signature roasted tomatoes to balance things out, the entire creation cooked in the locally caught octopus juices. Simply fantastic!

On the last night there it was again on the specials board, Wahoo Carpaccio. People if you ever see it on the board and you love seafood, you must order this. Whenever Max gets fresh Wahoo I believe he puts it up there. Expertly done with a touch of pink peppercorn, melt in your mouth sea butter foodgasm when harry met sally worthy of a run on sentence goodness. Another top dish nominee was the beef tartar. It was tough taking pictures of this one with the strong truffle oil (first time I see truffle oil used here) scent slapping you in the face. I was just anxious to attack this thing with full force. Served with toasted baguettes this was another killer tartar (as is the tuna we enjoyed in the past). The conch and grouper chowder while lacking the spices of Le Bouchon’s version it more than made up for it with hefty chunks of grouper and conch

Seafood Casserole was the last menu classic I haven’t tried yet, and turned out to be well deserved of the classic tag. Like a glorious bouillabaisse, with every seafood known to man in it. Or at least every seafood known to south Caicos fisherman. A sauce you just want to dip anything in, fingers, room keys, anything. Lobster linguine fra diavolo was as good as ever, but with an extra kick this time seems like. Shared Ziggy’s fave Affogato (thats what it says on the menu. Ok, not really, still working on it) and the mango apple tart, possibly my two favorite desserts at the moment.