Gloria's Rendezvous in Port Royal is the most famous fish restaurant in the Kingston area — not because of its setting or service but because the cooking is genuinely excellent and the fish is as fresh as anywhere in Jamaica. The restaurant sits on the waterfront at Port Royal, reachable by ferry from Downtown Kingston, and the combination of the boat ride and the meal makes for one of the best afternoons available from the capital.
The menu is built around what came in that morning: snapper, grouper, conch, shrimp, and lobster in season, typically served escovitch-style or fried, with festival (a fried cornmeal dumpling) and bammy (cassava flatbread). The portions are large, the prices are modest, and the outdoor tables on the waterfront are as atmospheric as any restaurant in Jamaica. It is common to arrive and find a wait — the restaurant is well known locally and on weekends it fills up with Kingston families who make the ferry trip specifically for the meal.