Favorite restaurants?

mgk5u

SBH Member
We are headed back to St Barts on Saturday for the first time since 2012. Planning to hit some of our old favorites (Tamarin, Santa Fe, La Gloriette, La Plage), and trying to figure out which new places we should try or which old places we should return to! Suggestions? Fancy or casual, doesn't matter-- we want amazing food and a great atmosphere! Tell me your favorite restaurant on the island...
 
Lots of changes. Start with Kevin's summary.

The last few weeks have brought many additional changes, some of which have been pointed out to me by the SBHOnline community - Thanks!. I think that I have them all included here, but I still struggle with Modjo's hours. Here are the big changes for this year, as well as a few notable changes from last year:

The long-awaited (9 years!) opening of Le Barthélemy hotel on the beach in Grand Cul de Sac brings several new food and beverage operations on line. Le Barth is open for breakfast (non-guests welcome) and lunch. Aux Amis is open for dinner, Le Turquoise is their beach bar, and Le Bar is their main bar with cocktails and small plates. The menus have been created by Michelin-starred chef Guy Martin (Le Grand Véfour in Paris).


Monbart in Gustavia has morphed into 25 Quarter. Same owners, different concept, some interesting small plates, major US sporting events may be on TV.


Les Artistes in Lorient is now La Bohème.


La Baguette by Choisy is the Lorient branch of Boulangerie Choisy in Gustavia, located near Oasis. They have parking, and tables for those who want a French or American breakfast. Le Spot by Choisy serves Sushi and Pizza from the same location.


Bistro Josephine is a new Creole/French restaurant (lunch/dinner), opened by chef Jean-Paul Adley of Island Flavors. Both are located around the corner from Sibarth, on Rue Victor Hugo. Island Flavors offers takeout meals, with a few tables in the back garden.


Burger Palace, a mostly takeout/delivery burger place across from the post office, has found a niche.


Carpe Diem has opened in the former Ti Zouk K'fe/Thi Widi location in Gustavia. It has become popular with visitors and locals alike for wallet-friendly lunch and dinner, with a pasta/grill emphasis on the menu.


Le Carré is under new management, with an all-new menu. A name change to Bo Káo is in the works, with an expected opening date around December 15. It appears that the menu will be Japanese-Peruvian, created by Executive Chef Luis Arevalo (Kena in Madrid, http://www.kenadeluisarevalo.com/)



Villa Marie is a new hotel in the former François Plantation location in Colombier. They open in mid-December, with a restaurant called François Plantation, an homage to the original hotel/restaurant.



The Manapany on Anse des Cayes has closed, and has new owners. Expect them to reopen in 2017.


La Guérite replaced La Provença St Barth in the former Wall House location, managed by Pascal Ramette of Pa Cri, with a Mediterranean menu.



Orega, in the former Le Sapotillier location across from Eddy's, was the star of the 2015 – 2016 season. All indications are that it will continue to be a star. Make reservations.


Pipiri Palace is under new ownership, with Rodrigue (formerly at Chez Joe/Aérosnack) now at the helm. They're open for lunch and dinner, with a local following for their moderately-priced lunch specials.


Santa Fé in Lurin is under new ownership (David and Christophe, manager and chef from Dõ Brazil) with an updated menu and modified hours. They have been doing a huge lunch business, and reservations are recommended.



Tom's Juice Bar and Raw Café have moved from St Jean (Kiki-é-Mo) to the upper level of Crémaillère Alley in Gustavia, across from the Municipal Police Station.


Le Vietnam is now open for dinner only. Lack of parking and road construction have made lunch untenable. Perhaps they will again open for lunch when the road construction in Gustavia is complete.


La Boucherie St Jean in St Jean has closed. Sadly, with the closing of La Boucherie, I (heart) BBQ , the parking lot BBQ location, has also closed.



Meat My Fish, a new butcher/fish store has opened in Camaruche.


La Vie Claire, an organic grocery, has opened in the heights of Anse des Cayes, in the former Tendances location.


The pizza guy from L'Entracte is now working out of Chez Rolande in Flamands, creole during the day, pizza at night.


Dõ Brazil has been purchased by the new owners of the Hotel Carl Gustav. It is undergoing renovations, and is expected to re-open as Shellona around December 15, with a serial DJ festival over New Years.



Maman, the Tropical Hotel's new restaurant, is scheduled to open on December 3. They're offering breakfast, lunch, tapas, and Saturday and Sunday brunch.


Rocks Bar at the Eden Rock opens at 17:00 for sunset cocktails.



And, for my ongoing struggle to remember which restaurants are open for dinner on Sunday night, as well as the most up to date answer to Tim's question of just how many restaurants there are on St Barth, here's Restos18:

restos18.pdf
 
Maya's, L'Isola, Orega, L'Esprit, Tamarin, Santa Fe...as Phil says, so many restaurants, so little time!
 
Maya's, L'Isola, Orega, L'Esprit, Tamarin, Santa Fe...as Phil says, so many restaurants, so little time!

One of the few ways to improve that list is a lunch at La Gloriette, or Sand Bar, or Tamarim, or Le Select :cool:
 
Carpe Diem is excellent and reasonably-priced. Toiny is a neat toes in the sand lunch experience with the safari ride to get down to it...not reasonably-priced...ha ha.
 
Also like Cote Port for lunch or dinner. Good food,fair prices and servings that are easily shared.
 
Kevin's list is a must, especially for days & hours the restaurants are open. We never leave home without it.

I would add lunch at Le Guanahani's beach side restaurant Indigo. If you stop and make reservations on your way to the beach, they will let you use their loungers for free. Great way to spend the day!!

Charlotte
 
One or two word reviews from last week (using a relative value calculation and blending service and meal quality)-

Hideaway--Very good

Kiki et mo's--very good

Nikki beach (2/3 times)--very good (but we drank for free, practically, at the bar so that helped the rating)

Eden Rock--good (relative value thing)

La Gloriette--weak (food ok/good, service poor)

Eddy's NYE--very disappointing (amateurish from beginning to end)

Bar d'Oubli--Ok, but it was new year's day lunch and everything was closed so props to them for being open

l'Ardoise--kids said good (but, they hosed my them so bad on the dollar exchange rate, 1.25/1, I would downgrade the rating substantially)

JoJo burger--ok

Sayolita--good, (cool place to hang and drink with the locals--who always managed to buy me more drinks than i could buy them)

Le Select--fun

Shellona--ridiculous (not in a good way)

BazBar--drinks only--fun and good music

Boulangerie Choisy L'Orient carryout--good (great baguette)

Black Ginger Carry-out--poor
 
One or two word reviews from last week (using a relative value calculation and blending service and meal quality)-

Hideaway--Very good

Kiki et mo's--very good

Nikki beach (2/3 times)--very good (but we drank for free, practically, at the bar so that helped the rating)

Eden Rock--good (relative value thing)

La Gloriette--weak (food ok/good, service poor)

Eddy's NYE--very disappointing (amateurish from beginning to end)

Bar d'Oubli--Ok, but it was new year's day lunch and everything was closed so props to them for being open

l'Ardoise--kids said good (but, they hosed my them so bad on the dollar exchange rate, 1.25/1, I would downgrade the rating substantially)

JoJo burger--ok

Sayolita--good, (cool place to hang and drink with the locals--who always managed to buy me more drinks than i could buy them)

Le Select--fun

Shellona--ridiculous (not in a good way)

BazBar--drinks only--fun and good music

Boulangerie Choisy L'Orient carryout--good (great baguette)

Black Ginger Carry-out--poor

Thanks for your interesting perspective.

I'd love to hear more about drinking for fee at Nikki, Eddy's and Shellona.
 
Also, not sure why anyone would pay a restaurant's inflated dollar to euro exchange rate. Easy enough to get euros in advance or use a debit card at a local ATM if you want to pay cash, or use a no foreign transaction fee credit card which goes through at the rate of the day when charged...
 
Also, not sure why anyone would pay a restaurant's inflated dollar to euro exchange rate. Easy enough to get euros in advance or use a debit card at a local ATM if you want to pay cash, or use a no foreign transaction fee credit card which goes through at the rate of the day when charged...

'Twas my thought, too, Ellen. I did just that for the first year I traveled to St Barth solo just out of fear of the unknown. I quickly learned different.
 
One or two word reviews from last week (using a relative value calculation and blending service and meal quality)-

Hideaway--Very good

Kiki et mo's--very good

Nikki beach (2/3 times)--very good (but we drank for free, practically, at the bar so that helped the rating)

Eden Rock--good (relative value thing)

La Gloriette--weak (food ok/good, service poor)

Eddy's NYE--very disappointing (amateurish from beginning to end)

Bar d'Oubli--Ok, but it was new year's day lunch and everything was closed so props to them for being open

l'Ardoise--kids said good (but, they hosed my them so bad on the dollar exchange rate, 1.25/1, I would downgrade the rating substantially)

JoJo burger--ok

Sayolita--good, (cool place to hang and drink with the locals--who always managed to buy me more drinks than i could buy them)

Le Select--fun

Shellona--ridiculous (not in a good way)

BazBar--drinks only--fun and good music

Boulangerie Choisy L'Orient carryout--good (great baguette)

Black Ginger Carry-out--poor
I'd love to hear a more detailed review, if you will. Merci.
 
Also, not sure why anyone would pay a restaurant's inflated dollar to euro exchange rate. Easy enough to get euros in advance or use a debit card at a local ATM if you want to pay cash, or use a no foreign transaction fee credit card which goes through at the rate of the day when charged...


Sent my teenagers to L'Ardoise for a light dinner while we went to Eden Rock for our anniversary. They had 62 euros and plenty of dollars. Bill came to 64 euros or 80 USD. Wouldn't let them pay in both euros and dollars. So, they were stuck. Some restaurants were going 1.10/1. Others were around 1.15/1. It was the only restaurant bill paid in dollars on the trip.

That all being said, I hesitate to be too critical of the ownership at L'Ardoise because they were so nice to us in the past--such as providing us with free champagne and cake from their daughter's family birthday party that was on-going when we stopped in for a quick crepe last time we were there.
 
QUOTE=GramChop;967067]I'd love to hear a more detailed review, if you will. Merci.[/QUOTE]

Shellona--tried going there twice. It was chaotic, crowded, and dirty and a complete sh*t show. Couldn't get a beer at the bar--although I must admit we didn't try too hard but my teenage daughter was the first person served at every other bar we went to on the island, haha. The whole scene was just unpleasant. The crowd, the uncleared tables, the trash on the floor, just nasty. Night and day compared to Nikki Beach, which was also crowded but handled with aplomb.
 
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