TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Our trip so far

Arrived 7/6/19, CLE-PHL-SXM
Exchanged Flamingo for OBBR again. No need to ever stay at Flamingo again. Sunterra was great, Diamond, not so much.
Club O beach every day
Food:
L' Oasis for dinner. 5 stars
Quiches from Bread and Butter, 5 stars
Kontiki for lunch, 4 stars
Nowhere Special for dinner, 3 stars
Bikini Beach for lunch, 4 stars
Quay Ouest for dinner, 5 stars
Yellow Sub for lunch, 5 stars
Avantika for dinner, 5 stars

Why 3 stars for Nowhere Special?

I concur with your 5 stars for L'Oasis.

We were so looking forward to eating at Nowhere Special based on the reviews and found that it lacked that WOW factor. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it just wasn't anything special like some of the other places we have eaten.The people were very nice and the service was great. I had the conch ceviche which was very good and we both had creole dishes which were OK.

I forgot to mention that we used Kenny's for our rental. Lesley is awesome. That guy works his butt off. We actually got a 'new' car (1600km) now I am scared to death driving it around! We stopped using the American national brands several years ago when one of them tried to charge us $50 for too much sand in our car.

Re Nowhere Special. I ordered lobster there in January and it was dry as a bone. Very overcooked. This is place to go for simple kind of pub food.

Never been to this place myself, but to me, isn't that what the name implies? What am I missing?

Well that’s not my experience. Now if you are looking for gourmet French it isn’t. Caribbean definitely. The champagne lobster with oxtail was superb. Having a 2lb lobster Thermidor tonight. Had a Mahi Mahi with coconut sauce and three sides a few months ago for $20.00 which was great. Just a nice change from some of the other pricier joints as well, although all our tastes differ. Oh and they throw in Johnny cakes and the other night was offered free after dinner drinks and a cappuccino. Plus using a10% coupon another bonus. The trouble I often find is that if you come with high expectations you can be disappointed so sometimes finding a place with no information on it can be rewarding but to others a let down.

I believe it is run by a member of the same family that had Turtle Pier when it existed.

Talking about expectations. Had my worst meal last night. Wanted to go nearby so just down the road into Cupecoy went to Altros that tries to blend French with Italian $26.00 3 course. Tuna carpaccio followed by Duck Shepard’s pie which was simply horrible and pavlova which consisted of a few pieces of fruit and one tiny cube of meringue. Tiny glass of champagne, bottle of water$7.00 and my wife said her hummus and chick peas was inedible, I tasted it and agreed.
$66.00 including service. So then you could say what do you expect for that price? A lot more than that. A huge disappointment.
Mind you, haven’t done too well in that area over the years. Rendevous or something named similar attached to their hotel is very slow and had a breakfast there once that took forever and did not have a good meal at Mario’s. There is a new bar called Steviez sitting on the water with a huge outdoor screen for viewing sports and films and Mama’s that does Pizza and casual that was busy with families. Charming area though and has a European feel. But Altros was truly bad.

The reviews for Altros have been kind of mixed over the years. Honestly, if you love the area at Porto Cupecoy, you really should try Orient Village. Just sayin'. Especially on Friday evenings, when there is live entertainment, as well as vendors.

Next trip Carol, it’s just a bit far too travel. Getting old and one tends to get fairly boring with doing the same things that work. Well for us anyway. But then again, it’s only 10 mins I think from GC, where we have already made 5 trips so possibly making more of this than I should.

Frankly, by the time you traverse through the road in Grand Case, you could be almost to the turn-off for Orient. Make a trip over there during the day and see what you think...

ok ok, got it, so will try to do this tomorrow. Full day though for our last day...breakfast at yacht club, lunch at skipjacks and dinner in GC. Plus packing. So Carol if you don’t mind.....where is the most concentrated area of restaurants to peruse and to get the atmosphere you were talking about. Plus any open for late afternoon drinks and the odd appetizer. Thx....

Orient Village is where basically all the restaurants except the beach restaurants are clustered. If you look in my report on Orient Village, all the restaurants that I took pictures of the menus are clustered right there around that square. As far as being open for late afternoon, I'm not sure any of the restaurants in the square are open for late afternoon, other than Yellow Sub would be open, for sure. Not sure about appetizers there though. Link to Orient Village report

Yep, thx... had already written those down. Forgot that they are all grouped together.

That's too bad about your Altro experience. I ate there a couple of weeks ago and also had the fixed-price, three-course dinner. I wouldn't label it five stars, but I also wouldn't label it horrible. My only complaint was the quite small portions.

I also ate at Mama's Pizza and had a pizza that was very good. I was surprised at how extensive their non-pizza menu was.

Overall, I was glad to see how vibrant the Porto Cupecoy area was.

It's run by the Daughter that took over Turtle Pier after his Brother passed away. Al.

PS: Sidney had passed and Al took over .

Met Al the other night. Had Lobster Thermidor tonight. Must admit was disappointed but I am no lobster expert, in fact far from it. The Thermidor part was basically a grilled cheese affair as opposed to what I was originally told and there was really hardly any lobster? But again what do I know? The traffic by the airport to the restaurant was horrendous, took about an hour and was told that people do this every day and when the bridge is up, even worse.

Didn't sound very appetizing.

Wow, we went there twice in February and had a very good experience.

There being Nowhere Special or Altros?

Where did you have it! My experience is that is is all lobster in the thermidore sauce...

I'm really sorry to hear you had a bad meal at Altro. I live in that area, and Altro is one of my favorite restaurants for lunch or dinner. I wonder if their regular chef might be on vacation? Having read your restaurant reports, I think we have similar tastes. Have not seen the duck shepard's pie on their menu, but I frequently have the tuna carpaccio (or octopus), as well as the Pavlova, and have always loved everything.

"Nowhere Special". Just felt that there was very little lobster in these babies..it was a 2lber

Don't know Wendy. Perhaps I'm too fussy, but it was poor. However, forgotten about it already and yes, just one of those things and could have been a bad night or chef not there but very few people actually think about how we are so different in taste, what works for some doesn't for others. Hence sometimes making recs doesn't mean its the best for us all.

IMHO, I think people are expecting this place to replace the old Lee's grill. Where almost everything was great!! Yes it was our go to place when we had no plans. Always had great times there. We drove past it last oct-nov, it had a lil crowd, I would be willing to try it out for something small and simple. We have our go to places for lobsters and duck. This would not be one of them.

Since this place sold to the people who also own La Main et Pate it has gone downhill. When it first opened Bridget & Christopher formally of Sol e Luna had it and it was awesome. Last March, had the worse meal of the entire trip. B&C have opened a restaurant now in Spain. Miss them.

Where are your preferred places for lobster and duck?