TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Try again?

Question is:
You go to a restaurant once, it was very average close to what I call a wasted meal (you only get so many on island each trip). You hear that they have a new chef and when you go back you take new people there to try and it turns out to be bad food and worse service, embarrassing that you brought friends there. A couple years later you hear they have a new chef and from the pictures and reviews it actually looks good.

Do you go back or stick to the other close by places that you like?

Nope; especially on a vacation. In your hometown is one thing...but not in this situation. Too many other options!

Cheers...have a great trip!

Todd,
You know us pretty well so here’s my take.
First disappointing meal - could happen anywhere, any time.
Second disappointment - we’d probably be done.
Third opportunity - given the time passage, the new ownership and good reviews along with the likable photos, I’d probably give it one last try. But we tend to be fairly forgiving

But you know what they say about three strikes………🙂🙂

I find the "beach bars" on the Dutch side mostly only good for a cold beer and a nice view.

Maybe go back for a second time only if I had good experiences in the past prior to the last bad one. Most of the time for me it's one chance to get it right and that is it.

Stick with what you know, especially with new people. There is also a reason chefs keep coming and going.

Its interesting. There used to be a restaurant here where I live that was excellent. Food, service, ambiance was phenomenal.
A hotel in a neighboring larger city lured the chef to bring his restaurant to that hotel space.

We went to that restaurant a few times in the larger city. It was good the first time. The second time not so great. We went back a third time and we never went back. Same chef.....different management.

That same chef left that restaurant (and the name of that restaurant) behind in the city and opened a new restaurant in a different city. And guess what? The food is back to phenomenal and the service is very good. Different type of restaurant.
But the point is, that management can really screw up (and I suppose boost) a restaurant's quality.

That post makes me think of one great James Bond quote (from "Goldfinger"):



That fits in with my restaurant approach, unless it is evident that the first time was already an enemy action!

Todd--to some extent, I think the answer depends on how much time you have on island. Unfortunately these days we only have about 10 days on island, once a year. Hope to get back to two trips one of these years. But people who have more trips per year and more time on island can afford to give a restaurant a third try. My time and dining opportunities are so precious that I usually only give a restaurant one bad experience before I move on.

Usually once for us. Too many restaurants on island for a place not to on top of their game.

Agree with hate "wasting a meal"
I tend to do extensive research on visiting a new restaurant before trying a new restaurant or it needs to be recommended by someone whos opinion I trust

You can read a restaurant with many good reviews and recognize that the restaurant itself is pushing for the reviews (Jax and Izzi are good examples) as I believe they have comment cards on the tables

I would be very hesitant on trying a third time

At home we have a food network top chef winner who presently had two restaurants, one is extremely expensive and while a good meal, does not warrant a return visit

His second restaurant is a bit more hip and fun and while the guest check is about $100 per person, it is our second favorite restaurant in the Philadelphia area

One of our must visit restaurants on the island has average / good food (although many say it is great), we visit because of the atmosphere and personal service
Probably our favorite waiter on the island works there, should be easy to guess as everyone who knows him, loves him

With respect to Pat and her analogy, restaurants ain’t baseball. There are no three strikes. You can have a bad day, and that can be forgiven. If there’s a second bad day, well there are way too many other restaurants to either revisit or try. No restaurant gets a third attempt to fail me.

One and Done, baby.

This is a related post for us. Sometimes great restaurants decline. We dined at Chesterfields every year for more than 30 years. It was by far one of our favorites and we felt that their lobster was the best. Several years ago a serving of "questionable" Hurricane Shrimp lessened our opinion. After that a couple of visits that were mediocre at best (food and service) caused us more concern. Last visit we (all 4) were very disappointed with our meals that included lobster and steaks. Won't be back.

Carol, you mention a shorter trip, we laugh that in Nov/Dec we stayed four weeks and we crammed two of our normal weeks into four weeks. We found that we sat around and relaxed more, some days hardly doing anything away from the place we were staying. The longer you are here, the more the sand gravity gets you.

I was not surprised that it was about zero for trying a third time with the responses so far. We have been one and done with a few places but some we decided to give it another try and then became big fans. The first would be Lal's, went on a Neil pub crawl many moons ago and the sample of food we got there did not impress, especially compared to what we got at Peg Leg. Carol you might remember that trip about 20 years ago. We went back and don't recall the reason, and now we are there as much as any place on island even if just for a cocktail to visit with Lal. A few years back we went to an event at Vesna Taverna, it was Saturday night so it was Greek night and we are not big Greek food fans. Our assumption was that is what they normally serve and we were one and done, but this trip we finally went back with our good friend Jeff and it was nothing short of fantastic. MJ's ravioli were excellent and I shared a Tomahawk which was on point, top notch. Now looking forward to our next meal there. Probably lunch Tuesday before flying home.

I expect that we will go back to the place I was referring to and give it another try, that place would be Marys Boon. We like Dinghy, a bit above basic but good. We really liked the updates to Karakter and while it is a bit more money for food it is in range of FBBC which is our favorite place, although the cocktails are a bit over priced. The staff was also excellent but the owner put us off a bit, not exactly welcoming which is as much of a detractor to us as the cocktail pricing but we will certainly go back. If the Boon is as good as we are hearing then it would seem we have three good options on that beach and while likely not this trip we probably will try it again in the future.

Down to three dinners left on island, two of those will be at Lal's and The Palms. So many great options for that third night, undecided but looking forward to where ever it may be!

Cheers,
T

Todd--We went on several pub crawls, not sure I remember that particular one, as they kind of all flow together.

Enjoy the remainder of your stay, regardless of what you do.

Safe travels home.

Todd, we did Mary's Boon 2 times this trip. I had tempura shrimp one time and the BLT the next. Both were good and the BLT on a baguette was really good. I was a little concerned when I heard an ad on the radio that they were looking for a chef and manager but we decided to try it anyhow. For beach food, we were very pleased and the prices were not bad. Both times we were there the beach was busy, as was the restaurant. I know they have a lot of regulars also. Beach service started out a little slow but then things seemed to fall in line. I hope you have a better experience if you do try them again.

On Vesna Taverna, I had never been there until 3 years ago. I took Junior and he said it was the best "fish pot" he had ever had. He ended up going back another time with his wife. I was a little apprehensive basically due to the hype it gets from one of our "favorite" island newsletter editors. We did not get there on this trip but we agreed it was the one place we missed that would should have hit.

On another note, the last 3 in my party went to Roma again last night. They ate in the bar, 2 had filet mignon and one had seabass. I guess one of the filets was well undercooked for their liking and was sent back, only to come back out quite a while later and still undercooked. I think they gave up at that point. I would have asked to speak to Marco but I was not with them as I was home. That is about the first knock I have heard against Roma.

Carol - 20 years ago is a long time, it was early in our trips so I remember parts of it. We rented a Smart Car that trip. We were newbies, second or third trip so we were paying more attention than you long timers.

JD, we had a couple entree's there this trip that were very good but not outstanding. We also had an app night with wings and such that was fantastic. My favorite part of the place is the bar area, great cocktails. Milosh (sp? but sounds like that) runs a great bar and now Serge (short for what his real name is) came over from Nola after that place blew up with Jimbo leaving (and most of the dining room staff). Won't go back to Nola with all the changes but Serge is a great bartender and a great addition to Roma/Mr Chow, both make great high end cocktails and have trained their staff well. I wish the bar area was larger.

Hole in the wall tonight, at least for a bit. Might be Roma for apps and cocktails before which solves our final night dinner choice. Or, it could be La Chingona, they keep upping their game and love the food.

Go ZAGS!

Enjoy! Safe travels.

"Go ZAGS!"
How about those Cougs? They play in second round today too.

Enjoy your last evening on island, Todd. Safe travels!

I wondered if you were referring to the Boon. I'm game if you are.

Go Oakland Golden Grizzlies! Small university about 20 minutes away. I took some Spanish classes there so I guess I can root for them!

Can't believe your trip is already almost over. Have enjoyed your posts both here and FB. Safe travels back to the dreary PNW.

We leave Tuesday, so three dinners left.

We made the mistake of giving "S&P" one to many tries!! There are so many places to return that are always consistently good and new places opening up, that it doesn't pay to put a place back on the list just because someone said it was good again!!!