If you’re in Turks and Caicos ...

Australian chef Andrew Mirosch’s Instagram page is an ode to the creatures of the sea. 

From a bright orange coral trout (captioned “I’ve never seen better”), to why two days on ice makes fresh-caught fish best for sashimi, to cold-smoking his own mackerel, the longtime fisherman’s passion and deep knowledge of seafood made me head straight to the ocean section of the menus at the Wymara Resort + Villas in Turks and Caicos, where he is executive chef and director of culinary. 

Wymara leaned heavily into its culinary positioning when the resort changed ownership in 2019. New owner Bruce Maclaren recruited Mirosch from Australia, where they had worked together for years. 

The latest iteration of their partnership is Land+Sea, which opened in May. Wymara has two locations in Turks and Caicos: the 97-room resort on Providenciales’ Grace Bay Beach and a 15-villa and beach club complex 8 minutes away. As the first restaurant on the villas side, Land+Sea represented a milestone in establishing the two parts of the Wymara brand.

Positioned on a promontory overlooking Sunset Cove, its waterfront position on the island’s rocky southern coastline offers views of boats passing by or docking there for dinner and the sun setting over Provo. 

As is the case with all of Wymara’s menus, Land+Sea boasts that its seafood items are fresh, not frozen, which is doable not only because of the abundance of the Caribbean Sea but with fish flown in daily. Wymara menus offer many locally sourced items, but Mirosch doesn’t back away from prized proteins from around the world. 

And when an Australian snapper was on the menu — and Mirosch came to my table to specifically say how good it was and that he’s fished it himself — I had to try it. The flaky and flavorful fish was as delicious as he hyped it up to be. 

All meals at Land+Sea start with pork belly maple chipotle sausage that Mirosch makes himself and offers as a complimentary amuse-bouche. Signature dishes include a Hot & Cold Seafood Tower with two crab varieties, oysters, ceviche, fried grouper and coconut tiger prawns; a Rum & Coke chicken glazed in chili-rum caramel; and steaks aged 5 to 12 weeks in an on-site aging room. 

I generally eat out in any location I visit, but over three nights at Wymara — with such varied dining options, from feet-in-the-sand to fine dining — I never left the properties.

Indigo, Wymara’s Caribbean-inspired upscale eatery on the resort side, is rated one of the top 10% restaurants worldwide in TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards and was chosen as Restaurant of the Year by the Turks and Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association. 

Such accolades bring diners from around the island to eat, and every night I was there the restaurants were full. 

Indigo offers an ever-changing menu of beautifully spiced regional flavors. I ate lunch twice at Wymara’s beachfront Blue Water Bistro, where the cuisine reflects various parts of the Caribbean (a Dominican-style snapper, a Haitian chicken). Local Turks lobster is popular on all menus here, and its taco preparation at Blue Water, with island-style slaw, was so good I was tempted to order it twice. 

Blue Water also hosts Wymara’s beach barbecues on Thursdays and Sundays. On the Sunday night I was there, guests kicked off their shoes and enjoyed brisket smoked for 24 hours and grilled lobster on tables set up in the sand while a bonfire blazed and a steel drum band played.