Cardie's Hotel, Restaurant, & Bar

If you are riding the water taxi to Placencia, there is a good chance you pass through Independence without stopping. Cardie's Hotel, Restaurant, & Bar is the reason to slow down. It sits at 466 Big Creek Blvd. in Independence, the mainland town also called Mango Creek, in the Stann Creek District. This is not the Placencia peninsula. It is the crossing point most travelers move through on the way to the peninsula, and Cardie's is one of the places that feeds them there.

What Cardie's Actually Is

Cardie's is a small hotel with a restaurant and bar on site. That combination matters for a traveler standing on the road: a bed, a meal, and a drink in one stop, in a town built around the ferry rather than the beach. Local travel writeups about Independence and the Big Creek port note Cardie's as a hotel and restaurant stop in exactly this spot, the kind of place you find when you are between boats.

The Dishes Reviewers Keep Naming

The kitchen serves home-style Belizean food. Two dishes come up again and again in reviews: fry-cakes, and stewed chicken with rice and beans. Those are not fusion-menu flourishes. They are the plates a Belizean cook makes for people who are hungry and want the real thing, and they are what travelers mention after eating here.

If you have been working your way through Placencia's kitchens, this is the same tradition inland. You can see how it fits the wider picture on our Belizean Creole cuisine page.

Who It's For

Cardie's suits the traveler in motion: someone catching or waiting on the Independence water taxi, someone who wants a home-style Belizean plate rather than a resort menu, someone who might need a room for a night on the mainland side. It is currently open. If your route runs through Mango Creek, it is a practical, honest stop rather than a detour.

Getting There

Independence, also called Mango Creek, is the mainland hub where the water taxi to Placencia village runs. Cardie's is right in that orbit at 466 Big Creek Blvd. If the peninsula itself is your destination, see our guide to Placencia village, and browse the full directory of Belize restaurants to plan the rest of your eating.