Short answer: Don’t leave Belize without eating rice and beans with stew chicken, fry jacks for breakfast, salbutes and panades from a street stand, grilled lobster or conch ceviche on the cayes, and hudut, the Garifuna fish and coconut soup. Add a few drops of fiery Belizean habanero sauce and a cold local beer, and you have tasted the country.
Belize is small, but its food tells the story of many peoples. Kriol (Creole) home cooking gives the country its everyday plate of rice and beans cooked in coconut milk; Mestizo and Yucatec Maya families brought corn snacks, tamales and slow-cooked soups from the north; the Garifuna on the southern coast cook with coconut, cassava and plantain; Maya villages in the south grow corn and cacao; and Mennonite farms supply much of the country’s chicken, dairy and produce. The barrier reef and cayes add lobster, conch and fresh fish. Almost every table has a bottle of habanero pepper sauce, made in Belize, for those who like heat. For the bigger picture, see our Belize travel guide.
Everyday plates
1. Rice and beans with stew chicken
The national plate: red kidney beans and rice cooked together in coconut milk, served with stew chicken, browned with Belizean red recado (achiote paste) and simmered until tender, plus potato salad or coleslaw and fried ripe plantain. Note the difference with “beans and rice”, where white rice and stewed beans are served separately. It is the classic lunch, especially on Sundays, and every local restaurant and lunch counter has it. Ask for fish or pork instead of chicken, or just rice and beans with plantain for a meat-free plate (the beans are sometimes cooked with pig tail, so ask).
2. Fry jacks
Pieces of dough fried until they puff up into golden pillows, served at breakfast with refried beans, eggs, cheese, ham or jam, or drizzled with honey. You will find them at every breakfast spot from Belize City to the cayes. They are best eaten hot, straight from the fryer, and some stands sell them stuffed like a sandwich.
3. Johnny cakes
Round, dense biscuits made with flour and coconut milk, split and filled with ham, cheese or beans. They are a Kriol breakfast and snack, sold at bakeries and from baskets in the morning. Pair them with coffee or a fresh juice.
4. Salbutes, garnaches and panades
The holy trinity of Belizean street food, from Mestizo and Yucatec Maya cooking. Salbutes are puffy fried corn tortillas topped with shredded chicken, cabbage, tomato and pickled onion; garnaches are crisp flat tortillas with refried beans, cheese and cabbage; panades are corn pastries filled with fish or beans, served with an onion and pepper relish. They are sold by the half dozen from stands and small restaurants in the evening. Garnaches and bean panades are vegetarian.
5. Tamales and ducunu
Belizean tamales, also called bollos, are corn dough with chicken in red recado, wrapped in plantain leaves and steamed; they are sold from coolers and street stands, often in the morning. Ducunu (tamalito) is a sweeter fresh-corn tamale wrapped in corn husk. Both make a cheap, filling snack for a bus ride.
6. Escabeche
A Mestizo onion soup with chicken, seasoned with vinegar, black pepper, allspice and habanero, served with warm corn tortillas. It is tangy, peppery and very good on a cool, rainy day. It is a common dish in the north of the country and in Belize City’s local restaurants.
7. Relleno (black dinner)
A Yucatec-style dish of chicken and stuffed pork meatballs in a black sauce made with burnt chiles (recado negro) and spices, eaten with corn tortillas. It is festive and rich, traditionally served for celebrations, and some local restaurants offer it on certain days. Its deep, smoky flavor is earthy rather than very spicy.
8. Boil-up
A Kriol one-pot meal of boiled fish (or pigtail), eggs, cassava, plantain, sweet potato and other ground foods, served with a tomato sauce and “dough boys” (boiled dumplings). It is a family dish for weekends and gatherings. If you see it on a menu board, try it; it is a real taste of home cooking.
From the sea
9. Lobster
The Belize Tourism Board says the Caribbean spiny lobster season opens on July 1, and in July the season is celebrated with lobster festivals in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, in Placencia and on Caye Caulker. During the season, lobster is grilled with garlic butter, stewed in coconut, chopped into ceviche or folded into burritos. Outside the season, lobster is not served, so plan a lobster trip for summer or later in the year.
10. Conch fritters and ceviche
Conch, a large sea snail from the reef, is chopped into ceviche with lime, onion, tomato, cilantro and habanero, or minced and fried into crispy fritters. Shrimp and fish ceviche are just as common and are served with tortilla chips as a beach snack. Conch also has a closed season, so ask what is fresh; the cayes are the best places to try it.
11. Hudut
The signature dish of the Garifuna people: fish cooked in a rich, seasoned coconut broth (sere), served with a mound of mashed green and ripe plantain (fufu) pounded in a wooden mortar. Tear off pieces of plantain and dip them into the soup. The Belize Tourism Board points to Hopkins, the cultural hub of Belize’s Garifuna community, as a place to try hudut and learn Garifuna drumming; Dangriga and the villages near Placencia also serve it. Cassava bread, a thin, crisp flatbread, is the other Garifuna staple to look for.
Sweets and drinks
12. Coconut sweets and bakery treats
Coconut is everywhere in Belizean desserts: coconut tarts (flaky pastry with a sweet coconut filling), sugar-coconut candy, cassava pudding and bread pudding. Look for them at bakeries, market stalls and on boards outside homes in the villages. Powder buns, sweet spiced buns, are another bakery favorite with afternoon tea or coffee.
13. Seaweed shake and fresh juices
The seaweed shake is a creamy drink of seaweed (a gel-like extract), milk, condensed milk, nutmeg and cinnamon, often blended with ice. It sounds odd and tastes like a spiced milkshake. Fresh juices of lime, watermelon, orange, soursop and other fruits are sold everywhere, and the national lager is in every cooler for the beach.
14. Belizean cacao and chocolate
The Maya villages of the far south grow cacao, as their ancestors did, and family-run farms and small chocolate makers in the Toledo District and around Punta Gorda show visitors how beans are fermented, roasted and ground into chocolate. Some offer a cup of the traditional spiced cacao drink. Bars made from Belizean cacao are an easy souvenir to take home.
Where to eat: the cayes and beyond
Ambergris Caye. San Pedro on Ambergris Caye has the widest choice, from fry jack stands and taco carts in town to beach restaurants serving lobster and ceviche, plus the biggest lobster festival in July.
Caye Caulker. On Caye Caulker, beach grills set up along the main street and the waterfront in the evening, selling grilled fish, chicken and lobster in season by weight or by the plate, with rice and beans on the side.
Placencia and the south. Placencia has seafood restaurants along the Sidewalk and the village, with Garifuna cooking in Hopkins to the north and Seine Bight nearby. Further south, Punta Gorda is the base for Maya villages and cacao farms.
Hopkins and the Garifuna coast. The Belize Tourism Board calls Hopkins the cultural hub of the Garifuna community, and the village is the best place to sit down to hudut, cassava bread and fried fish, often with drumming in the evening. Garifuna Settlement Day on November 19 is celebrated in Hopkins, Dangriga and other Garifuna towns, with reenactments, music and plenty of home cooking, and it is a memorable time to visit.
Belize City and the mainland. Belize City has plenty of lunch counters serving rice and beans and stew chicken, and street stands for salbutes and panades. In the west, San Ignacio’s Saturday market is a lively place to buy fruit, vegetables and street snacks before heading to the Maya sites.
Food etiquette and tipping
Local restaurants are relaxed: you order at the counter or from a board, and lunch is the big meal of the day. Restaurant bills carry the 12.5% general sales tax, and some restaurants add a service charge, so check the bill. If there is no service charge, a tip of about 10% is usual, and tour guides, boat captains and dive crews are commonly tipped at the end of the day. Our tip calculator works in Belize or US dollars.
English is the official language, so ordering is easy, but a few Kriol words are fun to learn, and Spanish is widely spoken in the north and west; our phrase cards help. Taste the habanero sauce before you pour; Belizean pepper sauces can be very hot.
Eating on a budget
Belizean home cooking is filling and good value. Our cost guide puts a meal at an inexpensive restaurant in Belize City at about BZ$12.65 ($6.30), while island restaurants, resorts and imported goods cost much more. Stick to rice and beans at lunch counters, street salbutes and panades, bakery johnny cakes and market fruit, and keep lobster dinners for a treat. For daily budgets, see how much a trip to Belize costs. Cooking classes, chocolate-making visits and food tours are easy to book through our tour finder.
Plan your trip
Fit your meals into the bigger plan: our top places to visit in Belize shows where each food stop lives, the Belize itinerary links the cayes, the west and the south into a route, and the best time to visit Belize covers the dry and wet seasons, lobster festivals and holidays such as Garifuna Settlement Day on November 19. Or let our AI trip planner build a day-by-day plan with food stops included, and check the Destination weather tool before you pack.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Belize?
Rice and beans with stew chicken is the dish most Belizeans would name: red beans and rice cooked in coconut milk, with chicken in a red recado sauce, potato salad and fried plantain. It is the classic Sunday lunch.
Is Belizean food spicy?
The food itself is mostly mild, but every table has habanero pepper sauce, and some dishes, such as escabeche and ceviche, include habanero. Taste before you add more.
What do people eat for breakfast in Belize?
Fry jacks or johnny cakes with refried beans, eggs, cheese and ham, with coffee or fresh juice. Tamales from street stands are another quick morning option.
Is Belize good for vegetarians?
It takes some asking. Garnaches, bean panades, fry jacks, johnny cakes with beans and cheese, plantains and fresh fruit are easy to find, and tourist areas on the cayes and in San Ignacio have vegetarian options. Rice and beans are sometimes cooked with pork, so ask before you order.
When is lobster season in Belize?
According to the Belize Tourism Board, the Caribbean spiny lobster season opens on July 1, and lobster festivals follow in July on Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker and in Placencia. Lobster is not served during the closed season, so check before a trip in the first half of the year.
What is hudut?
Hudut is a Garifuna dish of fish in a seasoned coconut broth, served with mashed plantains. The Garifuna village of Hopkins on the southern coast is one of the best places to try it.