Punta Cana for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

Punta Cana's dining map is easy to misread from a resort lobby. The coast is stitched with all-inclusive buffets, and it is tempting to conclude that the peninsula cooks only for tour buses. It doesn't. Between Bavaro's plaza kitchens, the neighbourhood rooms tucked off Calle Kiev and Calle Los Claveles, and a small Higuey pocket where a Spanish cook has planted a flag, there is a real restaurant scene here for anyone willing to leave the wristband behind. The nine rooms below are chosen for that reader: someone who will order the fish the waiter recommends, sit past the last hotel shuttle, and pay a bill that arrives without a mandatory 18. They range from a 24/7 American room on the airport road to a Caribbean kitchen with a 10:30 opening, from a beach club that runs until midnight to a seafood place that closes on Mondays. Between them they cover regional Dominican, Caribbean, Spanish, and yes, American steak, and they sit at addresses the taxi driver will find without the resort name.