
The Best Dinner In Virgin Gorda: Why Coco Maya Is Worth The Hype
If you’re looking for the absolute best meal and dinner experience on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, look no further than Coco Maya. I had read some reviews, and folks at the resort recommended this place, but I typically have relatively low expectations for restaurants at the top of popular “best-of” lists. Coco Maya is a huge exception to this rule, and you should not hesitate to book dinner here. You do need reservations, so make sure you take care of that in advance, because this restaurant is extremely popular. We had a lovely dinner here in early June, 2025.

Coco Maya is located right on the beach near the Virgin Gorda marina. It faces due southwest, so you get phenomenal sunset views here. You can even book a special table (for an extra fee) to sit just about directly on the beach with the best views. Luckily, this table wasn’t booked when we ate here, so our views were unobstructed. The restaurant has several sections including a restaurant and a bar, but there’s also beach club/dance floor where you can dance the night away on the weekends.

Service here is top-notch, and the food comes out relatively quickly and as soon as it’s prepared. Since it’s mainly shared plates, this is pretty ok, but they don’t really pace things out for you so I would recommend considering ordering slowly as you go, rather than all at once. Drinks and cocktails are handmade and extremely good. The vibe is lively and fun, and you just can’t help feeling good watching that gorgeous sun go down.

The food here was some of the best we ate on the island, including the food at our luxury resort, Rosewood Little Dix Bay. It can best be described as Asian-fusion but there’s definitely an island vibe to the food as well. Everything we ate was extraordinarily delicious and with every dish that came out, we oohed and ahhed with the presentation and the flavors. Between the four of us, we were able to taste a lot of stuff on the menu, so here are some of the highlights!

Starting off the show, we tried the amazingly flavorful sunset dragon rolls (with tempura shrimp) and the bountifully colorful tuna ceviche. We were quite hungry and so these dishes were inhaled quickly.


My favorite two dishes of the evening came next: The Bang Bang Chicken skewers were extremely tender, and the bang bang sauce/marinade was just the right amount of spice. I also loved the totally unusual plantains, which were prepared with labne and charcoal, and looked like little pucks of charcoal, but were extremely soft, sweet and savory at the same time. These were served with a sweet chili syrup. I’ve never had plantains prepared like this and it was a real surprise. This would be the dish I would recommend not skipping, mainly due to the fact that it is not only innovative and unusual, but addictingly delicious. I wish I had the whole serving to myself!


The salt and pepper calamari was also unusually tender and mouthwatering, not chewy at all. The breading was light and they were served, unusually, with a nam jim thai dipping chili sauce. So tasty! More substantial was the order of pad thai which was easily some of the best pad thai I’ve had in a while. A light peanut sauce and all of the proteins made it extra special.


Finally, and because the kids were still hungry, we enjoyed the fluffiest pulled pork bao buns, and loaded buddha fries. Each were seasoned and garnished flawlessly, and the fries were crispy and delicious.


Coco Maya was easily one of the best dinner experiences we had in Virgin Gorda, and with the epic sunset views and mouthwatering menu, don’t hesitate to book!
