Most visitors to Punta Cana eat at their all-inclusive resort, which is fine for volume but rarely for quality. The better independent restaurants concentrate in the Bávaro and El Cortecito areas, where fishing boats still come in and the seafood is as fresh as anywhere on the coast.
El Cortecito, the old fishing village at the centre of the beach strip, has a cluster of mid-range restaurants serving Dominican classics — tostones, sancocho, fresh grilled fish — at prices that feel like a different economy from the resort menus. This is the most useful area for independent eating.