TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Sale and pepe

Last nite went there with 8 people. Everyone had an outstanding meal and wonderful service.

IMHO. It is hit and miss. Went for the third time (November) the service was REALLY bad!! The waiter even got in an argument with our guest (WHO, BTW is a super regular there!!!) over something he didn't do but said he did do! "NO you never placed our order"! The second time we were with a big group. ( not my choose) My meal wasn't bad, but really the prices for Ravioli???$$$ Two of our group were never told what the price was for there meals . The price was OVER the top$$$$ Don't get me wrong, the location is amazing and the restaurant is beautiful. Three and OUT for us!!!

That's one of our favorite and Chef Davide is wonderful. We have known him way back from Maho .

We will be going there for the first time next week! Looking forward to it!!

Glad you had a great experience Billy3. As you will notice as this thread evolves (devolves? lol) there are those detractors regarding Sal e Pepe who will always pop up.

It is one of our favorites. The new location is spectacular! We were there 3 times last visit. It was also our "last lunch" after leaving our accommodations and waiting to go to the airport.

We did have a crappy waiter in November and spoke to Scarlett and Davide about him. Also complimented Emmanuel who is WONDERFUL!

Dined there 4 times during recent stay. Service was a little slow one busy evening, but oh well, it's island time. Love the food and ambiance.

I forgot to mention on Thurs nite they have a singer who does both traditional Italian songs and those of the Dean Martin variety. It gave an upbeat vibe to our group and one of them joined the singer in a number of duets.
2 friends said it was the best Italian they have had on the Island and my brother said his chicken parm was average. So there you have it.

" there are those detractors regarding Sal e Pepe who will always pop up."
You can call me one of them but it is what it is. Place is good for some but not for all. It's hit and miss but if that is how you want to chance your evening out go for it.

Went there last week one night for dinner and the food was outstanding as well as the service.

We gave it a try, great view, nice decore, but food, that's was disapointing, tough steak and the veggies included an eighth of a potato and
a thin slice of a carrot. Spouse's fish was over done. Never again for us, too many other great places on the island.

The best way to define this restaurant is inconsistent. We ate there 4 times in Jan...2 were good and 2 were not so good. The two good meals were handled by a waitress we've known for years who used to work at the Stone. Maybe that made a difference. We don't frequent restaurants that only bat .500.

As my husband said, our experience was far from outstanding in both quality of food and service. We went twice on our last trip. The location is beautiful but service was lacking both nights, the second being much worse and we had more misses than hits with our food. I'm glad that others enjoy it and have had good experiences. Different strokes.

“Place is good for some but not for all”

I believe this is true for just about everything in life. It’s never one size fits all. No one and no place is perfect.

We have had good experiences there. There may come a time when we don’t. Then a decision will be made to either return or not.

From our Jan visit.....We dined at their old location twice, therefore looked forward to dining at their new place. Lovely location overlooking the harbor and yachts. We were seated in the back area and at that time there were 2 other tables of 4 and us. Wine ordered placed, but didn't arrive until we were through with our appetizers and that was only after asking about it. The waitress never informed us of the evening specials. I did find they have too many people buzzing about and I never knew who our server actually was since so many people stopped by. Caesar salad was average and bland. Mozzarella and tomato salad should have ripe tomatoes, not half green ones. Waitress shrugged when told. The pasta bolognese was excellent, but the shrimp parm was not the best, very soft. Hubby told me yours are better. The room continued to become more and more crowded...tables seated of 6-8-10-12. We were seated in a corner and couldn't even hear each other across the table. No one ever asked how the meal was nor did not see the waitress again. Due to the noise level we did not want dessert. Asked another server for the check and left. I would think twice about returning here. No longer small and intimate like it used to be, service from many of the posts seems to be very inconsistent.

Apparently this place good for most of the Folks that I know of.

To me it looks equally divided good and bad.

On this post. On this forum. There are probably thousands of people who have dined at this restaurant who aren't even members of this forum. There are probably hundreds of people who are members here who haven't posted in this thread. I can think of eight, myself included.

So, to rectify a very small part of that: I dined there with a group of eight and we were all very pleased with our meals, and the service. We actually tried to go back, but the night we wanted to go they were either not open, or fully booked, I don't recall now which. Regardless, we'll be back.

May I make a suggestion as being in the business so to speak it might help.
If you know the food can be good or not as the case might be, or the service one day is great and the other isn’t. Simply go in when they are not busy, see the owner or manager, state your concerns and ask to be looked after to the best of their ability. Make the reservation for when the person you speak to will be there so it’s fresh in his or her mind and also ask for the server of your choice or the best that they have. It usually works and if it doesn’t nothing else will.

We went twice but not in the new location. The first time we went we were able to dine al fresco and it was a wonderful evening. The food and the service were all excellent - thank you very much Lesley Bruce for the recommendation. This was very shortly after they opened and we happened by with no reservation and they were apologetic about only being able to seat us outside. We loved it.

Tried to go back to the same seating accommodations last April and all those tables were reserved. It was inside or pass so we took what they had. The service was more than just a little chaotic and while the food was good, I really wouldn’t describe it as extraordinary. We just chalked it up to a bad night and anyone can have them. But it was good enough that for we would probably go back if only to try the new location.

There are so many great SXM restaurants it’s hard to squeeze everything into two weeks. We also had vrry good Italian at Isola with friends last year - another very nice place that doesn’t get nearly the mention of so many others.

Pat, you've definitely got to go to the new location for the view alone!



I will echo what 'bran' has said. I know what to expect and what I will tolerate. I DID return and mention my issue with a particular waiter as well as a chaotic service. Corrected the issue.

Went there last night two couples, the service was good as we noticed they were well staffed. The food was excellent, prices middle of the road for food and wine. I would defiantly go back.