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

Went there yesterday for dinner, the place is right next to the Skipper Jack. Service was ok(most servers were young local kids) but the food was really hit and miss. My duck breast was great, daughters grouper was good too but wife’s tuna was totally killed. French onion soup was garbage. Oysters were good. The place was pretty empty. We wanted to try it because daughter said they had great 4,8 stars reviews…. I guess it’s out of 10, not 5, lol!

Very strange, as I had the best French Onion soup there that I've ever had; so good that I went back to get it again.

We had an amazing meal there last week. We both enjoyed fresh grouper . Bill's was blackened creole, mine stuffed with prawns and a wonderful cream sauce. Our first visit, won't be our last.

I have omly heard good reviews for Astra untill this one. I'll still be giving it a try come this May.

Our trip there was good, until the end. I had lamb chops. Eric had some type of fish. Service was very good, until the end. The server brought the check, which had a 15% service charge on it, and then did the old dodge "I am not going to get any of that 15%, so if I did a good job, please tip in cash on the table". That p*ssed me off. I probably would go back, not sure.

That would P*ss me off to. No need for begging after the fact.

I don't know whether it was the truth or not. If it WAS the truth, I wouldn't want to go back there. If it WASN'T, then it's total deception. I haven't really heard that complaint from anyone else, so maybe it was just that server. (Which, as I said, she did a good job, up to that point.)

Lots of people looking for good staff, so if the server is good that person has options.

Broken record here but I do not mind at all if they add 15% as long as you don't get those type of statements back from the staff, not my problem. We usually add to it, ok, almost always add to it unless it is poor service but we take that 15% or what ever they add into account. I was just in Miami, pretty much every place we went we saw a 20% service charge give or go 2%. I think 20% and over is pushing it, 15 to 18% is easier to accept and then add to it.

Cheers,
TB

I just wish resaurants everywhere would just pay a living wage, increase menu pricing to make up for it and do away with the SC or tipping. I kjnow it'll never happen but just putting it out there.

Todd--Totally agree. Unless there is a problem with the service, I have no issue with a 15% auto tip. I guess I should say, that I don't like it per se, but it's what most people seem to be doing on the Dutch side. If there is no tip added on automatically, we tip more than 15%, if the server is good. If there is an auto tip, that's usually all we leave. But DON'T pourmouth and say you are not getting any of that 15%.

" If there is an auto tip, that's usually all we leave." Same here.

We had lunch there yesterday. We asked our server to remove the service charge so we could tip in cash.. He willingly did so.

OK

[quote . We asked our server to remove the service charge so we could tip in cash.. He willingly did so.[/quote]

Great idea.