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St. Barts, a very small island, is home to over 50 independent restaurants, one for every one hundred residents. Several would stand out in Paris or New York. These are either owned by European-trained local chefs, or make use of hired master chefs from France to oversee their kitchens. A few of the exceptional restaurants are in hotels. There are bistros, brasseries, rotisseries and cafés as well. Visiting gourmets can be adventurous both in cuisine and ambience.
Most menus feature French cuisine using oysters flown in from Brittany, pâtés and cheeses from Provence and wines from other parts of the country. Meats and fresh produce are imported from the U.S., while fish and shellfish are often from local waters. Preparation varies from traditional to nouvelle and there are some Creole dishes too. Those featuring the local spiny lobster (langouste) lead the list. Continental restaurants have eclectic menus that roam the globe, blending tapas from Spain with pastas from Italy and lots of Southeast Asian specialties.
TIP
Because so many items are imported, you'll find the restaurants pricey, but even the most expensive eateries will have a good value prix-fixe menu. By selecting carefully, you can keep your costs down.
Restaurants are informal and relaxed. Their ambience comes from a stunning location at seaside or atop a hill that overlooks the coast. You can dine on a tree-filled patio, in a flowered garden or on a quaint capital street. Music, whether live or on disc, is more often Mozart than Marley. Good food, fine wines and lovely settings all combine to slow your inner clock.
Dining Hours Restaurants, even those in hotels, serve lunch from noon until 3 pm, then close until 6 or 7 pm, when most re-open to serve dinner till 10 or 11 pm. An interesting dining phenomenon here are the gourmet beachside restaurants that serve lunch only. We will detail them for you. Most gourmet restaurants serve only dinner (we will detail many of those as well). European visitors and locals enjoy long leisurely lunches, making it the day's main meal. North American visitors crowd the better restaurants at night. Never fear! You won't go hungry. There are cafés and small restaurants that stay open from early morning till late at night.
Dining Savvy Restaurants are small. Reservations are a must in-season and a good idea year-round.
Restaurants add a 15% service charge to your bill so you should not tip an additional 15%. It is common to leave a small additional tip if the service was good.
Many of the better restaurants close for a time in the off- season. Closings vary. If your first choice is closed, you'll still have many options.
Most restaurants accept major credit cards, but a few small local spots do not. These are noted in the text. You can also pay in U.S. dollars, but you will get change in French francs.
Casual chic attire is the norm at lunch and dinner. Shorts and bathing suits are okay at beachside or poolside spots. Jackets are rare; ties are unheard of.
Virtually every menu has a vegetarian dish or two.
Alive Price Scale Designed to give you some idea of prices, the Alive Scale is based on a three-course dinner for one person without drinks, service or sales tax.
Very Expensive over $65
Expensive $50-65
Moderate $35-50
Inexpensive under $35
Lunch prices are lower.
Exceptional Dining Spots François Plantation - Colombier Very Expensive
Dinner Only
Typically, where we find an exceptional hotel there is a fine restaurant on the premises. Here we find an exceptional restaurant that has a hotel built around it. Owner François Beret made his name on St. Barts as the chef at several gourmet restaurants. In 1984 the Berets decided to open a place of their own and selected a Colonial manor house near Colombier.
The restaurant, reached via a flower-filled arborway, looks like a formal living room with carved mahogany tables, highbacked chairs and white latticed place mats. Mr. Beret is no longer the primary chef, but he continues to work with the French chefs he hires to prepare dishes in his preferred nouvelle style.
Start with goat cheese ravioli, mussel soup or foie gras, then continue with breast of duck with mangoes and ginger, sweet and sour rack of lamb or scallops sautéed and rolled in pan-fried rice.
DID YOU KNOW?
A specialty of the restaurant is coutancie, beef from cattle that are fed beer every day and have their bodies rubbed down twice daily. The beef is incredibly soft.
One of the best desserts is a chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream. Francois Plantation is arguably St. Barts' finest restaurant.
Le Gaic Toiny (Toiny Hotel)
Very Expensive
Lunch and Dinner, Buffet lunch on Sunday.
It's difficult to imagine a formal dining room that is adjacent to a swimming pool and sundeck and where the background 'music' is the sound of waves crashing into the shore. But Le Gaic is just that and it would be right at home if it were suddenly transported to New York or Paris. The tables are covered with rich blue fabric, the fine china is white with matching blue trim and the stemware is blue as well. High-back navy blue chairs are placed at each table. The menu is classic French, but a few Creole touches and ingredients creep in.
Le Gaic's terrace is partly open-air and partly roof- covered and fan-cooled. At lunch, many guests select the informal open-air tables and take a swim after lunch. There is a prix-fixe lunch and such à la carte items as chilled mango soup, shrimp salad with spicy yogurt dressing, scrambled eggs or smoked sliced chicken with gingered grilled vegetables.
Dinner is a lot more formal, both in ambience (dim lights, music) and menu. Smoked salmon with vegetable blinis, conch ravioli with garlic sauce or duck carpaccio are great openers. Main courses include rack of lamb in a clay shell with sweet potatoes, hen stuffed with wild mushrooms, and shrimp wrapped and fried with a peppered red wine sauce.
You can linger after dinner and enjoy aperitifs on the sundeck, now moon-lit and star-covered. Le Gaic vies with Francois Plantation as St. Barts' finest. It's a special spot for a special occasion.
Chez Maya Chez Maya - Public Beach
Moderate-Expensive
Dinner only; closed Sundays
Maya's makes the point that 'it's the food, stupid.' If the food is good enough, people will come. And they do - in bunches - both locals and celebrities and ordinary visitors like us who've read about this innovative restaurant in a spate of articles in both travel and food magazines.
Randy and Maya Gurley opened their roof- covered, open-terrace eaterie on Public Beach near Gustavia, not the best location on St. Barts. They installed white formica tables and multi-colored director's chairs and lots of flowers. Then they let the innovative, delicious dishes speak for themselves. Maya, the chef, was born on Martinique, where she mastered French cooking early on. The heart of the menu is French, as are the wines. But over the years Maya has expanded her horizons to include Creole, as well as Thai, Vietnamese and other Oriental dishes. The menu, which changes nightly, is always a blend of cuisines. Each night Maya and her staff prepare five appetizers, five entrées and five desserts.
TIP
Decisions are hard to make, but if you have a group you can order all selections and sample a bit of each.
Favorites include tomato and mango salad, salmon teriyaki, duck à l'orange, squash fritters and curried sweet potato salad. Thick chocolate cake is a good dessert choice.
Carl Gustaf Restaurant
Carl Gustaf Restaurant - Rue des Normands (Carl Gustaf Hotel)
Very Expensive
Carl Gustaf is a small luxury resort notched into a hillside with a panoramic view of the capital and its harbor.
DID YOU KNOW?
Because of the limited space available, the architects placed the tiny lobby, gourmet restaurant, pool and piano bar together on a large terrace at the hotel's highest level. It doesn't sound great but it works.
Guests eat lunch on the open-air terrace or the adjacent tables that are roof-covered and fan-cooled. The view is constantly changing as yachts, sailboats and ferries glide into berths at the dock. The informal menu includes lobster salad, shrimp dishes, creamed soups and grilled meats. Many diners take a dip in the pool.
By nightfall, the staff has set the tables with starched tablecloths, napkins, fine china and stemware. The view is the fabulous sunset and then a star- filled sky. The pianist arrives, the bar is crowded and the staff is immaculately attired.
The French menu has a few Creole touches. You can select your wine from their ample wine cellar. Good starters include the circle of prawns and avocados, Andalucian gazpacho or lobster spring rolls. Follow with prawn risotto, roasted salmon with vanilla sauce and sweet potato, fricassée of shellfish with pasta, lamb with crêpes and veal cutlets Provençal. Fruit tarts and crème brûlée are good desserts. This is one of the finest restaurants on St. Barts.
Le Sapotillier
Gustavia
Gustavia
Le Sapotillier
Rue du Centenaire
% 27-60-28
Expensive
Dinner only
Whether you reserve an indoor table or one in the garden under a namesake sapotilla tree, you'll enjoy the experience. Look for the typical St. Barts case (Creole for cottage) on the street that connects the two legs of Gustavia Harbor. It looks like a private home and the service is so unrushed that it is easy to forget you are in a restaurant. Brick walls, starched white linen cloths, gaily painted wooden chairs and color-filled Creole paintings add to your pleasure. Those seated in the garden will enjoy the cooling trade winds and starry skies.
While the decor is quite simple, the menu is anything but. Serving traditional Provencal food, Le Sapotillier is best known for its seafood dishes, particularly those using sea bass and huge shrimp. Frogs' legs fricassee or lasagne d'escargots may not sound like something Grandma made, but are actually delicious, as is the roasted Irish salmon. Those who prefer meat will enjoy the filet of beef with morels or the classic duck with peaches. There are prix-fixe French and Creole menus nightly.
TIP
Save some room for the soft apple cake with ice cream. If it tastes surprisingly like strudel, it may be because both the owner and the chef are Austrian.
La Mandala - Gustavia
Rue Thiers
Expensive
Lunch and dinner; Sunday brunch
Location! Location! Location! La Mandala has the best location in Gustavia - on a hill overlooking the town and harbor. Opened in late 1995, just missing Hurricane Luis, the Mandala is a Buddhist symbol of harmony. The square within a circle symbol is mirrored in the restaurant by the square table for 10 placed above a glassed circular pool. It's striking!
The sloped beamed ceiling covers the dining terrace, which has tile floors, pillowed barrel chairs and widely spaced tables in a variety of shapes. The room's open feeling is enhanced by the music of the wind chimes.
The crowd arrives at 5 pm, vying for one of the open-air tables or a place at the bar where they enjoy the fabulous tapas and the sunsets. The menu is eclectic and changes daily, mixing French, Creole and Asian dishes. Typically, you'll find salmon carpaccio, tuna sashimi, spicy Thai rolls, grilled lobster, filet of beef and chicken soup, of all things. There is a prix-fixe menu. Lunch features salads and pastas.
La Mandala is near the Carl Gustaf Hotel and other restaurants.
Au Port - Gustavia
Rue du Centenaire
Expensive
One of the oldest restaurants on the island and among its most formal, Au Port continues to please. In a private house on the Rue du Centenaire, the restaurant is on a roof-covered open porch on the second floor. Subdued indirect lighting bathes the carved mahogany chairs and pink-covered tables in a romantic hue. There are fresh flowers and green plants everywhere.
Owner/Chef Alain Bunel is a master of French/Creole dishes and there is a Creole prix-fixe menu nightly. Conch and lobster sausages, crab and conch ravioli and the lobster casserole are staples. This is a perfect spot to sample stewed goat with curry sauce and bananas. Less adventurous? Stick to the chicken stuffed with foie gras and morel mushrooms or the filet of sole with champagne sauce. Save room for the chocolate mousse cake. Exceptional wine list.
The Wall House - Gustavia
Rue Schoelcher, La Pointe
Expensive
A neighbor of the museum and library of the same name, the Wall House could easily be called the 'White House' as it is glistening white from its wicker furniture to its tile floors, its walls and the cloths that cover tables on a covered terrace facing the harbor. Some tables are on an outer terrace. Color is provided by tall green plants and fresh flowers strategically placed to create dining areas. The menu is French and Creole. Start with gravlax with dill sauce, gazpacho or eggplant mousse. Grilled prawns marinated in whiskey, shark in lobster sauce or beef with pepper sauce are very popular. There are two prix-fixe menus each night as well as a special lobster menu. Lunch finds grilled fish and meats, toasted sandwiches and assorted salads. This is a good choice for both lunch and dinner.
L'Entrepont/L'Escale - Gustavia
Rue Jeanne d'Arc, La Pointe
Moderate
Lunch and dinner
St. Barts' Italian contingent has found a niche on La Pointe, the far side of Gustavia's harbor. Two excellent Italian choices are just blocks apart.
L'Entrepont is the more formal of the two. Its cloth-covered tables are set in a garden shaded by coconut palm trees and umbrellas. You can see the water from most tables and there is always a cooling breeze. Start with a Caprese salad, eggplant carpaccio or mussels au gratin. There are lots of pastas with a variety of sauces. Veal Milanese or pizzaiola and osso bucco are delicious with Northern Italian seasoning. Many people come for the pizzas (especially at lunch) and there are lots of salads as well.
L'Escale is more like a pizzeria. It draws people to its bar before and after dinner. On a terrace facing the harbor, it has wicker chairs, glass-topped tables and placemats. Many young locals come here after finishing work to relax at the bar and enjoy the pizzas baked in a wood-burning oven. The specialty of the house, surprisingly, is an exceptional steak tartare. Also on the menu are lasagne, ravioli, pastas and veal dishes. The staff has worked here for many years and they are well-liked by St. Barthians.
Chez Domi - Gustavia
Rue du Général de Gaulle
Moderate
Lunch and dinner
Chez Domi would look right at home in St. Thomas or Tortola. It is a typical Caribbean Creole restaurant with one air-conditioned dining room and one roof-covered terrace cooled by ceiling fans. Both have deep blue tablecloths and light wood tables and chairs. Since Creole cooking relies heavily on the freshest catches and produce available, you never know what will be on the menu. If they are on offer, try stuffed crabs or garlicky baked snails for openers and West Indies fish stew in Creole sauce or crayfish with rum sauce for an entrée. Pastas are homemade. The food is delicious and the service is unhurried. A local handicraft shop is part of the restaurant.
Le Vietnam - Gustavia
Rue du Roi Oscar II
Moderate-Inexpensive
Right in the heart of Gustavia, Le Vietnam, which serves both lunch and dinner, is true to its name and the nationality of its owners. It serves Vietnamese food but its extensive menu also offers Thai and Chinese dishes. The air-conditioned dining room is very attractive, with white starched tablecloths covered by thick glass, hanging Chinese lanterns, decorative red fans and large fish tanks. These fish are for decoration only, but there are many fish dishes on the menu. You'll enjoy the mahi mahi with hot and sour sauce and the crispy shrimp fritters. The soup Hanoienne with shrimp or pork is enough for an entire lunch, but hearty eaters can follow it with Vietnamese egg rolls, duck with pineapple or sweet and sour pork. You can also eat on the open terrace. Take-out is available.
L'Iguane - Gustavia
Carre d'Or Shopping Arcade
Quai de la République
Moderate
Open 9 am-11 pm; closed Sunday
During daylight hours L'Iguane is a café in the shopping arcade. Its umbrella-covered tables stand in the walkway. You can stop for croissants and café au lait, for ice cream, sandwiches and salads. When the sun goes down the chef rips open his shirt to reveal an 'S'- no, not for superman, but for sushi and sashimi. Sushi platters include conch, shrimp, tuna and eel. Also delicious is the beef or tuna tataki (like carpaccio) and the vegetable rolls.
La Marine - Gustavia
Rue Jeanne d'Arc, La Pointe
Lunch and dinner; closed Sunday
Moderate
You know it's Thursday when you see scores of sailboats tied to the dock and lots of minimokes in the parking lot near La Marine. Insiders know that French shellfish arrive in St. Barts every Thursday. Oysters and mussels are the most sought after, but sardines, tuna, sole, red mullet and lobsters are also popular. Very informal.
Ines' Ghetto - Gustavia
Rue du Général de Gaulle
Inexpensive
Dinner only; closed Sunday
Looking for a less intense and less expensive dining experience? Head to Ines' Ghetto, which is located on Gustavia's main street but is hidden from view by tropical plants. As you enter the pebbled courtyard you'll be greeted by a scene out of Arabian Nights. Colorful silk scarves flow from the metal roof while batiks and prints showing life in the East add counterpoint to the basic wooden tables and free- standing metal sculptures. Sink into a red pillow on a wicker chair and study the French/Creole menu, which is written on a blackboard and changes daily. A typical menu might have tartare à l'avocat (ceviche in an avocado), crab salad, seafood lasagne, BBQ ribs and chocolate mousse. The crowd is usually young and noisy, but friendly.
Eddy's Restaurant - Gustavia
Rue du Général de Gaulle
Moderate
No reservations; dinner only
If Ines' is too crowded or the menu isn't appealing, head down the street to Eddy's. Eddy was the original owner of Ines', which he sold to open a similar, if slightly more upscale, eatery a few steps away. Once again, the restaurant is hidden by tropical plants in a plant-filled, tree- dotted garden topped by a thatched roof with hanging lights. Once again the menu changes to make use of the freshest ingredients.
Specialties here might include fresh conch baked in pastry, black sausage in sweet and sour sauce, and Thai shrimp or goat or chicken curry. A fun place to eat.
Vincent Adam - Saint Jean
Carenage Hill, Saint Jean Beach
Dinner only, 6:30 -10 pm
Expensive
This gourmet restaurant (often called simply 'Adam') sits on a hillside overlooking the beach and town. A sign on the St. Jean-Lorient road points to the narrow dirt road that takes you to the restaurant. It isn't far and you'll spot the striped blue and green awning on a case. Park in the sandy lot. The restaurant retains the name and traditional French dishes of its original owner/chef, although he is no longer associated with it. The menu, which changes frequently, has many innovative dishes. Among them, a crunchy flat pancake of mashed potatoes topped with grilled salmon, pork stew with walnuts, lobster tabboule, seafood lasagne, and filet of beef with mushrooms. You can dine in the flowery garden, on the terrace that overlooks St. Jean, or inside. There is a prix-fixe menu each night.
Le Tamarin
Grande Saline
Grande Saline
Lunch and dinner; closed Monday
Dinner only to 9:30
Moderate
Grande Saline is arguably the island's loveliest beach and is certainly among the least used. It has no facilities, so locals often stop for lunch at nearby Le Tamarin. It's a funky but upscale beach eaterie with tables on a porch, in the garden or on the grass. Picnic-style tables on a sand patch are shaded by thatch umbrellas. You can sip a cool drink under the century-old tamarind tree that gives the restaurant its name or on a lounge chair or hammock, which are placed nearby. You can exchange quips with Cookie, the resident parrot who can hold his own in French and English.
If you are expecting hot dogs and hamburgers - fuhgedaboudit! The menu runs along the lines of carpaccios of beef and fish, chicken breast with honey and prunes, ceviche with lime and coconut or steak tartare. Apple pie and chocolate cake are good finishers. After a meal like this you have to sunbathe until you digest.
Le Rivage - Grand Cul de Sac St. Barths Beach Hotel
Grand Cul de Sac
Moderate
Lunch & dinner
Le Rivage is as close to being a 'comfortable neighborhood restaurant' as it gets on St. Barts. It is built on a wooden plank boardwalk which is covered by a roof and enclosed by thick, plastic, see-through curtains that are open at lunch and even at dinner when the temperature and the waves are right. The restaurant is just above the sandy beach and adjacent to the pool at the St. Barth Beach Hotel on Grand Cul de Sac Beach, one of the nicest on the island.
Not owned by the hotel, Le Rivage always has a respected local chef in its kitchen. Although nominally a French and Creole restaurant, the menu tilts south at dinner when you can start with sliced small salmon, shrimp with hot goat cheese or a tomato and mozzarella salad. Shrimp Creole, conch stew and chicken stew with curry sauce (which we ate several times) are all delicious. Lunch finds pastas, blood sausage and chunky lobster and crab salad. The staff is young and friendly. Good food and a relaxed dress code. You can smoke a cigar on the beach for dessert.
Le Colonial - Grand Cul de Sac
Route de Saline
% 27-53-00
Dinner only; Amex only
Expensive
One of the most attractive restaurants on St. Barts, Le Colonial is not well known because it is off the beaten track on the road from Saint Jean to Grande Saline. Set in a garden, the restaurant has a wide open feeling because it is on a covered terrace with a very high peaked roof. Its dim lighting and subdued wall hangings give it a romantic feel. The bar and cocktail areas have highly polished tables and multi- colored couches. The dining room has black lacquered tables and chairs. The decor is very dramatic.
TIP
The chef at Le Colonial is Cambodian and the dishes are Thai, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian. Look for interesting spices and lots of fish.
The Thai beef salad was enough for an entire meal, while the gingered fish rolled in a banana and seafood marmite was light and left enough room for dessert. The food is attractively served.
Marigot Bay Club - Grand Cul de Sac
Marigot
Lunch and dinner; closed Monday
Moderate- Expensive
Marigot Bay Club is an informal restaurant just a few steps from Marigot Bay. The seafood here is as good as anywhere on the island. That's because Jean-Michel Ledee, the owner, is a working fisherman. The day's catch is the day's menu and only a few veal or chicken dishes are also available.
The lunch crowd - often wearing bathing suits with cover-ups - arrive here before or after a morning at Marigot Beach or one of the other beaches nearby. Dinner finds many diners from nearby hotels in Bermuda-style shorts or jeans. The restaurant is very informal with a long bar area and small roof-covered terrace facing the bay. Polished wood tables and director-style chairs adorn the terrace. Lobsters, grilled or baked in the shell with gruyère cheese, are most popular. Tuna and red snapper glazed with Creole sauce are flakey and delicious. Hot goat cheese on salad greens or an appetizer portion of lobster stew are great starters.
New Born
Anse Des Cayes
Dinner only
Moderate
Owners Franky and David are lobster fishermen and they take great pride in the lobster dishes at their small restaurant near the Manapany Cottages Hotel. This is a terrific place to sample Creole dishes such as curried goat or shrimp and salt cod salad. A small restaurant, it has a tile floor, mauve tablecloths and wall hangings from Mexico. A large aquarium takes center stage. This informal place attracts diners from the hotel or locals.
Lunch At The Beach-St. Barts' Style
General Description
Lunch At The Beach-St. Barts' Style
Lunch is commonly the day's main meal for European visitors and for St. Barthians. That means that a burger or hot dog, fare served on most U.S. beaches, does not cut it here. Lunch on St. Barts brings grilled meats and fish, lobster salad, pasta and good wine. To meet the demand, an unusual dining phenomenon exists on the island. Several top-notch restaurants with beachfront locations open to serve lunch and only lunch. They do not re-open for dinner, even though some are in hotels. It works something like this: The morning is spent on the beach, windsurfing or playing beach volleyball, working up an appetite and a sweat. People then head to a nearby restaurant, which has a pool adjacent to it. They take a refreshing swim, put on a t-shirt or cover-up, and sit down to a long leisurely lunch. Then they head back to the beach or home for a nap. If you want to give it a try, here are the best places to do so.
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