The best restaurants in North Lauderdale, FL sit on three streets: State Road 7 along the eastern edge, West McNab Road through the middle of town and Kimberly Boulevard to the north. Those corridors hold Trinidadian doubles, Haitian griot, Jamaican oxtail, Salvadoran pupusas, Mexican street tacos, a Polish deli and a Cajun-style seafood boil, most of it counter service priced like a neighborhood lunch. This guide starts inside the city limits, then widens to the dressier rooms in Margate, Tamarac and Coral Springs.
How North Lauderdale’s Food Scene Is Laid Out
North Lauderdale covers 4.7 square miles and had 44,794 residents at the 2020 Census, so the entire restaurant scene fits inside a 10-minute drive. There’s no downtown, no waterfront dining and no restaurant row. Instead, you get a run of strip plazas along three roads, and the kitchens inside them are far more interesting than the buildings suggest.
The reason is demographic, and it’s the part every Fort Lauderdale listicle misses. As of the 2000 Census, North Lauderdale had the ninth-highest share of Jamaican residents of any place in the United States at 11.47%, plus top-40 shares of Haitian and Trinidadian residents (Wikipedia, citing U.S. Census Bureau). Today 47.1% of residents were born outside the country, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, and the food follows the people.
Price tiers are simple. Almost everything inside the city is counter service at neighborhood-lunch prices, the seafood boil is the one splurge, and fine dining means driving out. Visit Lauderdale, the region’s official tourism bureau, calls this a quiet residential suburb west of Fort Lauderdale.
State Road 7: Trinidadian and Haitian Kitchens and a Late-Night Bar
State Road 7, which locals still call 441, carries the two most talked-about kitchens in the city, and they sit next door to each other.
Tabanka: a Trini Kitchen, at 1645 S State Road 7, is the closest thing North Lauderdale has to a destination restaurant. The menu runs doubles, curry chicken, curry goat, roti, bake and shark and pholourie, ordered down an assembly line with a doubles station by the register. It’s counter service, and it keeps shorter hours than you’d guess: closed Mondays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, to 7 p.m. Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Le Goût Des Caraibes Restaurant sits directly beside Tabanka and cooks Haitian home food, with griot served simple or complete with rice and sauce. The dining room is small, so treat it as a lunch stop. Doing both in one trip is a Caribbean crawl few other blocks in Broward match.
Flanigan’s Seafood Bar and Grill sits on the city line at 5450 N State Road 7, with a Fort Lauderdale mailing address, and it’s the late-night option for this side of town, with sports on the screens. Its own site lists 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
McNab Road: Seafood, Rotisserie Chicken and the Cheapest Plates in Town
West McNab Road is the city’s main street, and the stretch between Rock Island Road and 81st Avenue holds the big plazas, the Caribbean supermarket and the cheapest cooking in town.
Mr. & Mrs. Crab Juicy Seafood & Bar at 7990 W McNab Rd is the sit-down seafood room inside the city. The order is a custom boil by the bag, snow crab legs, shrimp and sausage tossed in Cajun, garlic butter or lemon pepper seasoning, and the kitchen warns that its spice levels run hotter than most (Mr. & Mrs. Crab). It’s messy by design, and it’s open noon to 11 p.m., until midnight Friday and Saturday.
La Brasa Grill at 7730 W McNab Rd does charcoal rotisserie chicken by the half or whole with yuca, plantains, rice and beans and green sauce. A whole bird with sides feeds a family, which makes it the default cheap dinner on this side of town, and it runs 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily with a drive-through for takeout.
Snappers Fish & Chicken at 7150 W McNab Rd is the cheap option most guides leave out. Fried snapper, tilapia, catfish and shrimp come with the usual sides, and it’s built for takeout rather than lingering. Eat it in the car or carry it to a city park.
Broward Meat and Fish at 8040 W McNab Rd isn’t a restaurant, but no honest guide to eating here leaves it out. It’s a Caribbean and Latin grocery with butcher and fish counters stocking the cuts and seasonings local kitchens actually use, and it’s one of the city’s major employers, per the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance.
Shopping like that changes what small food businesses do, too. Caterers and one-person kitchens often keep dry goods and packaging in climate-controlled storage in North Lauderdale, because a Broward summer flattens spice and warps cardboard fast. Operators with a bigger inventory can go up to the 10×30 unit, the largest size sold in the city, which holds as much as a four-bedroom home.
Kimberly Boulevard and Southgate: Jamaican, Mexican, Salvadoran and Polish
Kimberly Boulevard holds the widest spread of cuisines per mile in North Lauderdale, and Southgate Boulevard, one street north, adds the biggest surprise on this list.
The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant at 6029 Kimberly Blvd is the most reliable kitchen in the city, opening at 7 a.m. seven days a week for ackee and saltfish. The steam table runs oxtail, brown stew chicken, curry goat, escovitch fish and callaloo through the day, and it thins out later in the evening. Closing is 10 p.m. most nights, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
Taqueria Jovenazo at 7130 Kimberly Blvd serves street tacos, sopes, tostadas and quesadillas in the unfussy version rather than the Americanized one. It’s closed Tuesdays and runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days, with Friday and Saturday service until 11 p.m.
El Rinconcito Salvadoreño #1 at 8029 Kimberly Blvd has been making pupusas in Broward since 2002 and serves one of the cheapest full meals in North Lauderdale. Pupusas come filled with cheese, beans, pork or loroco, alongside tamales, sweet plantains and a Mariscada seafood soup (El Rinconcito Salvadoreño). Pupusas are made to order, so the peak lunch wait is real; a mid-afternoon visit is quicker.
Krakus Polish Deli at 7306 Southgate Blvd is the last thing you’d expect in a heavily Caribbean city. Half deli counter and half small market, this family-owned shop stocks kielbasa and other Polish cold cuts, pierogi, stuffed cabbage, Polish beer and pastries. Plan on takeout, because there’s no real dining room.
Within 20 Minutes: Special-Occasion Rooms in Margate, Tamarac and Coral Springs
North Lauderdale has no fine dining inside its limits, and pretending otherwise would waste your evening. For an anniversary or a client dinner you drive 10 to 20 minutes out, and all three rooms below are worth booking ahead on weekends.
Pasta And… in Margate is the best special-occasion restaurant within 10 minutes of the city. The kitchen cooks Piemontese northern Italian food, backed by more than 1,000 temperature-controlled wine labels, and it’s open 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays (Pasta And…). Book ahead, and let the staff steer the wine list.
Casa De Amore on Commercial Boulevard in Tamarac, about 10 minutes south, bills itself as upscale international and Caribbean dining with live entertainment (Casa De Amore). It’s closed Mondays, opens at 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and at noon on weekends, and takes reservations through OpenTable.
EAT HELLENIC on West Atlantic Boulevard in Coral Springs, roughly 20 minutes northwest, is scratch-made Greek cooking from chef Nikol Zarbalas. Order the grilled octopus with garlic potato puree, the halloumi fries and the lamb burger. It’s closed Mondays and serves only noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, so check the day before you go.
Parking, Hours and What Closes When
Parking is free at every North Lauderdale restaurant in this guide, because each one sits in a strip plaza with its own surface lot. Tabanka and Le Goût Des Caraibes are the one pair you can do on foot, since they share a block; everything else means driving between stops.
Closing days matter more in a small market, because there are only a couple of options per cuisine. Taqueria Jovenazo is dark on Tuesdays, and Tabanka, Casa De Amore, Pasta And… and EAT HELLENIC all close Mondays. Late dinner is easier than it looks: La Brasa Grill runs to 11 p.m. daily, Mr. & Mrs. Crab to 11 p.m. (midnight on weekends), Taqueria Jovenazo to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Flanigan’s is the latest option at 1 a.m. on weekends.
Weather runs the calendar in the May through October wet season, when afternoon thunderstorms are common. Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, peaking around September 10 with most activity from mid-August to mid-October, per the NOAA National Hurricane Center. Small independent kitchens close early when a storm is tracking, so call ahead. Big family cooking happens year-round here, and the folding tables and serving platters that appear twice a year fit in a 5×5 locker, about the size of a small closet, rather than a spare bedroom.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best restaurants in Lauderdale?
Inside North Lauderdale, the strongest three are Tabanka: a Trini Kitchen for doubles and curry goat, The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant for oxtail and an early breakfast, and Mr. & Mrs. Crab Juicy Seafood & Bar for a seafood boil. Fort Lauderdale proper is a separate city about 25 minutes southeast, with a larger and pricier scene.
Where is the best Jamaican food near me in North Lauderdale?
The Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant on Kimberly Boulevard is the answer most locals give. The steam table runs oxtail, brown stew chicken, curry goat, escovitch fish and callaloo, and the kitchen opens at 7 a.m. seven days a week for ackee and saltfish. Go earlier in the evening, while the trays are still deep.
Is there a Haitian restaurant near me in North Lauderdale?
Yes. Le Goût Des Caraibes Restaurant at 1639 S State Road 7 cooks Haitian home food, including griot served simple or complete. It sits directly beside Tabanka: a Trini Kitchen, so you can compare Haitian and Trinidadian cooking on one block. The room is small, and lunch is the best time to go.
What are the best restaurants in Coral Springs near North Lauderdale?
Coral Springs sits about 20 minutes northwest and holds the area’s dressier rooms. EAT HELLENIC is the standout, serving scratch-made Greek plates from chef Nikol Zarbalas; it’s closed Mondays, so plan around that and book ahead for a weekend table. Closer in, Pasta And… in Margate is the shorter drive for a comparable occasion.
Where do celebrities eat in Fort Lauderdale?
Fort Lauderdale’s beach and downtown restaurants, about 25 minutes southeast, are where the bigger names turn up. There’s no verified celebrity restaurant scene in North Lauderdale itself, and any guide claiming one is guessing. For a night out here that feels like an occasion, the local picks are Pasta And… in Margate, with more than 1,000 wine labels, and EAT HELLENIC in Coral Springs.
Storage Space for North Lauderdale Kitchens and Households
Cooking the way this city cooks takes room, and so does landing in a townhouse off Kimberly Boulevard with a kitchen’s worth of equipment. Value Store It runs two facilities here, both month-to-month with no long-term contract and both open for access seven days a week.
At our North Lauderdale storage facility, the lineup runs from a 5×10 unit that holds the contents of one room, good for pantry overflow and small appliances, through a 5×15 unit for a studio apartment, a 10×5 unit and a 10×10 unit that holds a one-bedroom apartment, up to a 10×15 unit for a two-bedroom apartment, a 10×20 unit for a three-bedroom home and the 10×30 mentioned above, which takes a four-bedroom home. RV parking in North Lauderdale is available at that site too.
The second site, North Lauderdale II, covers the same middle of the range with 5×5 lockers, 5×10 spaces, 10×5 spaces, 10×10 storage units, 10×15 storage units and 10×20 storage units, plus climate-controlled units at North Lauderdale II for anything humidity would damage. That site also takes boat storage and car storage, which matters where driveways are short. If you’re unsure what fits, the storage unit size guide walks through it room by room.
The rest of the city deserves the same attention. Our guide to things to do in North Lauderdale covers the parks and the Morris Lapidus history, the North Lauderdale brunch guide handles weekend mornings, the local nightlife guide picks up where dinner ends, and anyone staying longer should read moving to North Lauderdale.
