Where to Eat in Orange Walk on a Sunday Night

Getting to Orange Walk, Belize was surprisingly easy, the border crossing and bus rides were uneventful. The hotel had a beautiful room which, split between Monique and I was only $23 a night. I was happy to be away from the mosquitoes and in a nice small town.

But, where to eat in Orange Walk on a Sunday night? Orange Walk was like a ghost town on Sunday, everything was closed including the grocery store. As Monique and I wondered the streets looking for food we found only very sketchy-greasy Chinese fast food. In fact, we found several Chinese fast food places but nothing - I mean nothing else. At the hotel an American who was living in Belize attempted to tell me about a pizzeria about half a mile from the hotel. He was really obsessed with the idea of us going to the pizzeria. He drew a crude map and Monique and I went looking. We walked all over that town, the map made no sense, and could not find the pizzeria; just Chinese restaurant after Chinese restaurant. Then we walked up a hill and around a long curve in the the road. There in the middle of a residential area, in the dark was Ristorante-Carlos Pizzeria.

Hungry and knowing it was our only non-Chinese option we sat at a table. The menu was basic Italian food but very reasonably priced including a 10oz steak for $6. We ordered drinks and Carlos came to introduce himself, a classically trained french chef born in Africa to French/Italian parents. A funny old man with an ambiguous accent he claimed to speak "only seven languages". He served in the French foreign legion and trained as a chef in Paris before moving to Canada to become an International Lawyer. He said he did that for about 25 years until he became bored and decided to go back to food. He began to regale us with tales of feeding the Queen of England and moving to Belize to open, "the best restaurant, in the whole country". Carlos was wonderful, joyful and after 15 minutes of stories finally took our order! The food was fantastic and truly earned its recommend.

The next day I found myself raving to fellow travelers about Carlos, insisting they eat at his place for dinner and try the steak; which Carlos farms himself, along with Lamb and more. Of course we went back for a second night and although the restaurant was very busy, Carlos came to welcome us back and thank us for sending more people. After another lovely and inexpensive meal we sad goodbye to our funny friend. But I promised to tell everyone, if they are ever in Orange Walk, eat at Carlos Pizzeria.