# St Maarten restaurant recommendations



## lamb (Dec 16, 2013)

It's been years since we we visited St Maarten. We are heading there for the holidays and I'd appreciate recommendations.  We love all types of food, any price point as we will probably mix and match throughout our stay.  We're  near the airport but will have a rental car.  We ate on both sides of the island last time but it's been so long that I don't recall which restaurants we visited.


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## stmartinfan (Dec 16, 2013)

There are so many great SXM restaurants that this is a difficult question to answer!

We go almost every year, and here are some of our favorites:

SkipJacks in Simpson Bay for great seafood.
Antoine's in Philipsburg, nice French in a quiet atmosphere.  Be sure to order one of the dessert soufflés,
Le Moulin Fou in Maho for more contemporary French.  Love their goat cheese salad.
Le Belle Époque for fresh mussels when they are available, crisp pizzas and other French dishes at Marina Royale in Marigot.  Also Tropicana at the Marina, but you often need reservations to get in.
Mark's Place by the Grand Marche near Philipsburg.  Not much for atmosphere but good ribs, fish and other local food and a very reasonable price. If you're in a timeshare, it's good for take out..huge servings so leftovers for a future lunch or dinner.  They do a booming take out business for locals.
For beach bars, there are lots of great meals for lunch at Orient Beach.  Chez Leadra has nice sandwiches and wraps.  For more upscale French, Kakao has a lovely setting, and you can get good salads, pizzas and burgers if you want more casual food.  I haven't tried them yet, but have heard good things about Dream. bar on Nettle Bay and Kokomo in the new development on the bay before you get to Little Bay by Philipsburg.
Of course, Grand Case has a reputation for many very good French restaurants.  We don't go over there for dinner often because we travel to SXM in the winter and prefer not to drive those roads in the dark if we can avoid it.  We did have a very nice dinner last year at Piazza Pascal, which is Italian.  

If you want even more suggestions, read through the trip reports and discussions at the SXM bulletin board on Travel Talk online.  Lots of restaurant discussions, although we don't always agree with some of the popular choices there.  Some of the posters are big on restaurants where the manager is their "buddy" and food is less important, like Pineapple Pete's, which we've found kind of disappointing several times.   There are also others who prefer more standard meals, like steaks, so they love steak places like PegLeg pub, while we figure we can grill a great steak at home and want more interesting meals.  But it's all a matter of preference, so you can read for some viewpoints.  The group is also hot to know what's new, so they can forget classics like Antoine's on favor of what's just opened.  Here's the link. 
http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=stmartin


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## classiclincoln (Dec 16, 2013)

Check out my review of the Villas @ Simpson Bay; I put some information about the restaurants we went to there.


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## Bucky (Dec 17, 2013)

I don't think there is enough space here to list all the great restaurants on the island.

We always stay near the airport nd our favorite by far in that area is Bajatsu. Great ambiance and food. The casino up in Cupecoy also has a couple of great restaurants on site. Have yet to go there but have read great things about them.

Like stmartinfan said, check out the St Maarten board at TTOL. Here's a link for you http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=stmartin&page=0

Just to get your juices going here's a link also to the webcam at Sunset Beach Bar http://sunsetsxm.com/index.php/webcam

Looking forward to our return trip in March. Enjoy yours.


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## lamb (Dec 17, 2013)

Thanks for the links.  When I looked at the other website that two posters mentioned, I saw that the weather has been intensely rain filled this month.  The next ten days look similar.  If anyone has suggestions for a rainy day besides great restaurants to dine in, please let me know.  I think that I was at Lee's but forgot about it because it's been so long.  I remember there was a butterfly farm although it may no longer be there - or be an option if raining too much.  We could amuse ourselves (family of4 ) with bananagrams, card games, etc but I expect that I need to find something to occupy my mom who was never one for board games…


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## Greg G (Dec 17, 2013)

Further recommendations

Mario’s Bistro -  East of the bridge in Sandy Ground 

L’ Alabama - Grand Case 

Greg


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## stmartinfan (Dec 17, 2013)

The butterfly farm is still there, although if I remember correctly it is screened, so that would be wet on the rain, too.  It's located near Galleon Beach close to Orient Beach.  

Generally, the good news on SXM is that the rain often comes as showers so you can fit some outdoor time in between the rain.

There is a brand new large enclosed mail that recently had its grand opening, the Blue Mall, in the Cupocoy area.  I haven't been in it, and its opening was delayed for a long time, probably because of problems getting tenants due to the economy, so not sure how good the shopping will be, but at least you'd be able to walk around.  I've read a few positive comments about it since it opened.

There's a perfumerie in Grand Case where you can take a class and then blend your own unique fragrance.  I can't remember the name, it's a French name, but if you search on Travel Talk Online you should be able to find discussions about people who have done it.  People seemed to really enjoy it.  The owner is a published author who wrote a book about his experience of moving  to the island.  

There are a couple of local artists who have studios and galleries on the island that I believe are open for visitors.  Again, the TTOL bulletin board has threads where people have talked about doing it.

Good luck. Hope the weather will be on your side!


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## topmom101 (Dec 20, 2013)

Lamb, Just got back from a 12-day stay in St. Maarten (Simpson Bay) and we had the worst weather I have ever seen in 10 consecutive years of visiting St. Maarten.  Lots of rain, most days cloudy. Only 3-4 sunny days. However, we still managed to get a nice tan and had fun regardless. 

I'd like to add Spiga and Izzy's to the list of recommended restaurants.

Have fun.


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## stmartinfan (Dec 20, 2013)

Yep, I'd agree with Izzys.

Also, if you like great ice cram and gelato, stop at the Carousel.  A wonderful variety of homemade choices, and you can ride the carousel, too.


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