TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Astra

Morning,
Anyone have any experience with this new to me restaurant ??

Yes. We went there in early December right after they opened. The atmosphere is wonderful, the drinks were great, as were the food and service. It's definitely a great addition to the area. It's owned by the same folks who own Avantika, and Julio, the former bartender at Avantika, is now at Astra. His responsibilities there seem to be more than that of a bartender; I felt like he had a management role.

Thank you for the reply may try it tonight.

Where is this located?

On Welfare Road, in the former location of Snoopy's.

Thank you. Will have to give it a try this May.

Morning,
We went to ASTRA last evening (early) and were pleasantly surprised. Very friendly and attentive service and the food and drinks were very good and nicely presented. Might have been Julio ( didn't ask ) that stopped by the table a couple of times to make sure everything was fine......quite humorous and genuinely concerned that things were right. We were there early 6:00 p.m. and the only patrons upon arrival but a few table became occupied prior to us leaving.

I felt so bad for the staff....... they were very busy diligently making sure they put on a good presentation and there was little or no audience. The marina is void of any of the larger yachts that are typically jammed into all the slips and Welfare Road in general is a ghost town. If tourists don't start to return I'm afraid there will be nothing to come back to. The citizens here are hurting and you can sense their frustration with a situation that is completely out of their control. It is sad to say the least.

There was ONE negative observation from the evening but it did not have a direct effect on our meals or quality of the service. They are using the lagoon as their lobster pound, just the thought of eating anything from that water is unsettling to me. To close......I highly recommend ASTRA, it is a nice addition to the area and the people are fantastic......just don't order the lobster. :-)

Ew, lagoon as lobster tank. Especially over there. Ech.

I'm pretty sure the water pumped into the lobster tanks at old Skipjacks and old Lee's was Lagoon water too.

They have been using the lagoon as lobster tank forever. So I guess you didn't know that.
At least 30 years. Probably more.
Cheers
irina

These lobsters are crawling around in a pen built right in the lagoon.

Not any different than water pumped from lagoon. Same water and pollutants.

Beg to differ.........S**t goes to the bottom

All depends where the intake is for the pump. Could be close to the bottom. Eat well my friend.

OK, I think that's about as far as this conversation should go... Move on gentlemen...

Will do.