Santo Domingo has a genuinely good restaurant scene, concentrated in the Zona Colonial and in Piantini. Dominican cooking at its best centres on the bandera — the "flag" of rice, beans, and stewed meat that anchors most local lunches — along with fresh seafood, plantains in every form, and dishes with African, Spanish, and Taíno roots.
In the Zona Colonial, the outdoor restaurants on the Plaza España (Plaza de la Hispanidad) serve reliable Dominican and international food with colonial courtyard settings. El Mesón de la Cava, built inside a natural cave in the Mirador del Sur area, is one of the most memorable dining experiences in the Caribbean — the setting alone justifies the trip.
For inexpensive local food, the Mercado Modelo in the Zona Colonial sells fresh produce and has a row of small comedores (local lunch counters) serving the bandera for a few hundred pesos. Eating here at noon is a genuinely local experience.