As a little more than half this island is French, there has always been a fine dining culture in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin. Veteran visitors remember the old saw: Stay on the Dutch Side; eat on the French Side. That’s no longer true.
There’s a lot to like in the way of fine dining on the Dutch side, starting with the three restaurants attached to the Atlantis Casino in the Cupecoy Beach area of the island. Rare, a steakhouse; Temptation, with its Continental menu; and La Gondola, a superior Italian restaurant. The Maho area near the Princess Juliana International Airport also boasts an increasing number of excellent eating places: Bijatzu, La Giaconda, La Rossa II, to name a few of the more popular ones.
La Rossa II
This is the second incarnation of La Rossa, a longstanding Italian restaurant in the Maho area. The original closed to expand what is euphemistically called a “gentlemen’s club,” and La Giaconda in a spot across from the Casino Royale is where they’ve relocated. But La Rossa II provided us with one of the most pleasant dining experiences in Italian cuisine. My veal chop was perfectly cooked; the seafood pasta my wife ordered was also perfectly cooked, as were the individual shellfish that were plentiful on the plate.
Saratoga
With only two exceptions, we’ve had New Year’s Eve dinner at Saratoga for the past 14 years. Chef John Jackson’s marina-side restaurant is, for my taste, one of the finest restaurants on the island. His menu is always filled with fresh fish and seafood and the service is courteous, professional and respectful.
Chef Jackson runs a taut ship. Food is cooked to perfection. Presentations are beautiful and the ever-changing selection on his menu is absolutely superb. Saratoga, in Simpson Bay adjacent to the yacht club, can compete with the best the French side has to offer any day.
Bistro Nu
Speaking of the French side, this is another of my favorites. If you’re driving too quickly on Rue de Hollande through Marigot, you might miss the sign for this place. It’s located down a cul-de-sac alleyway in a restored Antillean wooden house. The food is traditional bistro-style, expertly prepared, and offers very generous portions of everything. The biggest problem we had with this place was the currency exchange rate. The Euro was around $1.50, so our meal was rather expensive. Travel a bit farther on the French side to Grand Case and you’ll find a number of restaurants that, for cash, will offer one-for-one dollar for euro. If you use a credit card, though, you’ll pay the full exchange rate.
Nevertheless, if you visit St. Martin, Bistro Nu is a don’t-miss kind of place.
Mooi
Mooi means beautiful in Dutch and that’s a great word to describe this place, located in the brand new Puerta del Sol building on Welfare Road. But it was a big disappointment. It’s all style and no substance.
We had a group of eight, so there was plenty of variety in the ordering and the verdict was pretty much universal. The owners put more into the décor than they did into the quality of the food. Here’s an example. I ordered Argentine Rib Eye with Chimichurri Sauce. Chimichurri is the national sauce of Argentina and it’s supposed to be green and spicy. My entrée plate came and there was this sad looking piece of beef with a tiny cup of an oily red liquid.
When I said to my waitress that this was not chimichurri she replied, “I know. I’m from Argentina.” I said, “Take it back to the chef and get me some real chimichurii.” She said, “But the chef is Argentinian, too, and this is his interpretation of chimichurri.” It just wasn’t good. I’d say go there for drinks and forget the food.
Uncle Harry’s
You might be surprised that I would recommend what is essentially a dock at a construction site, but sometimes these out-of-the-way finds can yield real surprises. Uncle Harry is a gruff cigar-chomping New Yorker who retired to Sint Maarten almost 30 years ago. His place specializes in grilled Caribbean lobsters. FYI – Caribbean lobsters have no claws like Maine lobsters, so much of the meat is concentrated in the body and the tail.
Uncle Harry has had this same cook for who-knows-how-many years, but he is enormously skilled at grilling lobster. At $28.50 a pound, it’s not cheap, and they average about three pounds each, so you can split one with a dining companion and get a really good meal for a fairly good price. But I warn you: it is anything but fancy. It’s plastic patio furniture; basic sides and you can’t put your tip on your credit card – that has to be in cash.
I’ll wrap up my Sint Maarten/Saint Martin report in next week’s column.