Savanna-la-Mar, or Sav, has sit-down restaurants, a jerk stop, bakeries, a chicken counter and a few breakfast spots, and the best place to start depends on the meal you want. For a sit-down breakfast, lunch or dinner, El Gazebo's Paradise Garden Restaurant & Grill serves a Jamaican-style breakfast from 8:15 a.m., with lunch specials and full dinner service. For a quick bite, Hammond's Pastry Place Ltd on Great George Street is a bakery for patties, cakes and sandwiches, and Bridgez Jerk and Rest Stop on Big Bridge Main Road serves jerk chicken and pot-roast pork.
Sit-down meals in town
Eleven Restaurant & Lounge is at 1 Beckford Street. It opened on 11 August 2023, and the Jamaica Observer reported in April 2026 that it had reopened after Hurricane Melissa with upgraded dining areas. Those include indoor, elevated outdoor, patio and private dining spaces. The food is modern Caribbean with international influences, and the restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Its menu has included buffalo wings, shrimp quesadillas, crispy chicken wraps, shrimp Alfredo pasta, loaded fries and cocktails.
A sit-down lunch or dinner is the plan for Eleven and the other restaurants in town.
The Farmer's Kitchen is a Jamaican restaurant serving Jamaican food, open every day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mama Gwen's Dutch Pot is a family restaurant that opens at 7 a.m. from Tuesday to Saturday, closing at 8 p.m. on weeknights and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday it runs from noon to 10 p.m., and it is closed on Mondays. La Cocina de Jamie is a fine-dining restaurant open Tuesday to Saturday.
Onemilitent Cafe at 4 Cooke Street is a bar and grill open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. Island Prime Restaurant is on Great George Street, a western-style restaurant with world food, open Monday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closed on Sundays.
Jerk, chicken and seafood
Bridgez Jerk and Rest Stop is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It serves jerk chicken, Bridgez-style pot-roast pork and seafood.
Jerk chicken cooks over smoke on a roadside grill.
Guango's Jerk sits beside the Petcom gas station on Smithfield Road and serves jerk chicken with festival and red peas soup. The menu also covers fish, cooked brown-stewed, fried, steamed or roasted, plus oxtail, stew peas, curry goat and mannish water. Its hours run from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and from 11:30 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Fire Station Side Restaurant is a chicken restaurant with fast food and takeout. It is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and it is closed on Sundays. Scorpios Chill Spot is a seafood restaurant open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., serving grilled fish, lobster, crab and seafood platters. It is closed on Sundays.
Bakeries, breakfast and quick bites
Savanna Café is at 10 Lewis Street and serves breakfast, lunch, coffee, seafood and pasta. Its hours run Monday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. It is closed on Sundays.
Delious Scoops at 4 Rodney Street is an ice cream shop that also serves desserts and juice. It stays open until 7 p.m. most days, and until 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Ally's Pizza & More on Beckford Street is a pizza restaurant open every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. It serves pizza, jerk chicken pizza and seafood.
Hammond's Pastry Place Ltd is the place for baked goods, with patties, cakes and deli sandwiches, and it accepts credit cards. It is open Monday to Saturday and closed on Sundays, so phone for its hours before a special trip.
For chains, Juici Patties has a Savanna-la-Mar branch on Great George Street, open Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Tastee's Great George Street branch keeps the same Monday to Saturday hours. KFC is at 16 Lewis Street, and its number is 876-955-2976. Burger King on Great George Street has a drive-through and accepts credit cards, and in November 2025 RAL, the Jamaican Burger King operator, reported preparing 1,300 meals in Savanna-la-Mar after Hurricane Melissa.
Confirm before you go: the market and the fish vendors are still recovering from Hurricane Melissa, so check that they are trading before a special trip.
The market and the fish
The Savanna-la-Mar Market is the town's main public market, and Hurricane Melissa badly damaged it in October 2025. By December 2025, vendors had been pushed onto sidewalks and streets while the government began a clean-up. A July 2026 Jamaica Gleaner report said the market was still closed, with vendors working from the car park and nearby roads. High tides and flooding were affecting the temporary areas. Suggested replacement sites included Llandilo and Chantilly, but no replacement has been formally chosen, and no firm timetable has been set.
Fresh fish depends on the day's catch.
Before the storm, the market was already in a long, phased rehabilitation, and in January 2024 the government reported rehabilitation work costing J$17 million.
For fresh fish, the market is the first place to try. Availability depends on the day's catch, so ask the vendors what is fresh and whether the fish is sold whole, cleaned or prepared. Savanna-la-Mar also has a fishing link, with an oyster-production group in the town that received Ministry of Agriculture support in 2023, and a 2023 seafood event in the town that featured Jamaican, Italian and Chinese seafood dishes. For a coastal stop, Bluefields Beach has local food stalls serving fresh fish. In Belmont, Luna Sea Inn and Blue Ocean Sands Restaurant & Bar are further restaurant options.
The town, its fort and its roads
Savanna-la-Mar, often called Sav or Sav-la-Mar, is the capital and main commercial centre of Westmoreland Parish, and the parish's administrative, commercial, marketing and retail hub. The central business area includes Great George Street, Beckford Street, Lewis Street, Barclay Street, Barracks Road and nearby streets.
Fort George, also called Fort Charlotte in some references, is a historic coastal military site. Jamaica's Tourism Master Plan lists it as a built-heritage military site and identifies the town as a historic district. The fort sits near the old coastal and market area, not on Negril's resort strip.
Savanna-la-Mar is southeast of Negril, and the two are connected by road. Negril is the parish's principal tourist resort area, and Where to Eat in Negril, Jamaica, on a Budget covers the beach-side options. A visitor staying in Negril may need a deliberate trip inland or southeast to reach Savanna-la-Mar, rather than passing through the town on every Montego Bay to Negril trip. Frome, roughly five miles away, is one of Jamaica's remaining sugar-factory towns. For the road from the north coast, see the road from Montego Bay to Treasure Beach through Savanna-la-Mar.
What Westmoreland cooks
Westmoreland is not defined by one dish. Its food comes from sugar-cane plains around Frome, fish and seafood from coastal communities, produce from the parish's farms and everyday Jamaican cooking, as the Jamaica Information Service parish profile outlines. Visitors can find rice and peas, curry goat, oxtail, stew peas, mannish water, soup, fried fish, steamed fish, patties and festival across the parish. Jerk chicken, jerk pork and jerk fish are available too, and Eating Outside Your All-Inclusive: Local Food Near Negril, MoBay and Ochi Resorts covers local food near the Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios resort areas.
Sugar cane grows on the plains around Frome.
Find more places by parish
For the wider list of places across the island, use the Weh Fi Nyam restaurant directory, which sorts places by parish. If you are planning breakfast in town, Jamaican Breakfast: What Locals Eat and Where to Get It covers the breakfast dishes that Jamaican cafes serve.
Common questions
Savanna-la-Mar is the Westmoreland parish capital, southeast of Negril, with sit-down restaurants, jerk stops, bakeries and a market that is still recovering from Hurricane Melissa.
What restaurants are there in Savanna-la-Mar?
The most useful recent options are Eleven Restaurant & Lounge on Beckford Street, which reopened after Hurricane Melissa with modern Caribbean food, and El Gazebo's Paradise Garden Restaurant & Grill at Dunbar River, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Farmer's Kitchen serves Jamaican food every day, and Hammond's Pastry Place Ltd on Great George Street is the bakery for patties and sandwiches.
Where can visitors get jerk in Savanna-la-Mar?
Guango's Jerk on Smithfield Road, beside the Petcom gas station, is the clearest named jerk stop, with jerk chicken served with festival and red peas soup. Bridgez Jerk and Rest Stop on Big Bridge Main Road is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Smaller cookshops and roadside grills around town also sell jerk, so check which meat is on the grill that day.
Is Savanna-la-Mar on the way to Negril?
Savanna-la-Mar sits southeast of Negril, and the two towns are connected by road in Westmoreland. It is a practical stop for travellers moving between Negril and the south-western communities, but it has a different feel from Negril's resort and beach strip. A visitor staying in Negril may need a deliberate trip to reach it.
Where can visitors buy fish in Savanna-la-Mar?
Start at the Savanna-la-Mar Market, although since Hurricane Melissa the vendors have been working from temporary spaces, so fish may be sold from car-park or roadside stalls. For cooked fish, Guango's Jerk serves fish brown-stewed, fried, steamed or roasted. For a seaside stop, Bluefields Beach has local stalls serving fresh fish.
What food is Westmoreland known for?
Westmoreland is known for sugar cane around Frome, fish and seafood from coastal communities, jerk and produce from its farms. You can find rice and peas, curry goat, oxtail, stew peas, mannish water, patties and festival across the parish, and no single dish defines it.