TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin June 19

Not much to report today as my wife had a slight headache and we were content staying in our studio again. My wife read, I wrote the past two days trip reports and we ate in our studio, same breakfasts as past few days and a light lunch of cheese and crackers as we are planning on going back to SAO.

I made reservations at SAO for 6:30pm and we arrived early and were seated in the seating in front of the restaurant. The venders were back and contrary to what I reported in my previous report, most all the restaurants were really hopping tonight. I’m wondering if Monday and Tuesday are usually low attended then things start picking up on Wednesday.

Sadly, I forgot my phone so we have no photos to accompany our meal, which again was excellent We started with a glass of rose for her and a Pinot Noir for me. She ordered shrimp with red curry described as shrimps stewed with Tai red curry. I ordered the Beef Luc Lac with rice on a hot plate. The waited had been talking to us about this dish all week so tonight, on our 4th dining experience at SAO, I decided to order it. As I said, I have no photos, but picture steak hibachi with onions. There was an abundance of sauce the steak, cooked perfectly to medium rare, sat in so I was able to spoon bits of rice onto the hot plate and saturate the rice with the very tasty sauce. My wife shared a bit of her dish with me for a taste, and I gave her at least 6 pieces of the steak as there was a lot on the hot plate. Both dishes were so very good. We keep coming back to SAO because the service is excellent, friendly and for how busy they were (the place was packed) our food, drinks and the check at the end of the meal came in a reasonable amount of time and we didn’t feel we were waiting too long at all. I did order a glass of Bordeaux and my wife ordered another rose during our meal. We didn’t want to leave as we were really enjoying our dining experience so we ordered a dessert to share. We had the banana flambee with rum and a side dish of vanilla ice cream. The waiter prepared the flambee at an adjacent table as he needed the room (The seating at the front of the restaurant is great for breezes and people watching, but the round tables are very small and only seat two at a time.) Our dessert was very good.

Another fantastic dining experience at SAO. Sorry I don’t have photos.

Lancer

Sounds like a lovely meal. If you're anything like me, I love having pictures of meals so that I can re-live the experience from home.

I guess you are probably down to your last couple of days in paradise. Enjoy!

Really enjoying your experience. We had a great meal and service at Sao last November. We thought that the service might have been over the top good because we were accompanied by a Princess who is a regular at Sao.

Carol, yes it was. We wondered if we were just in a rut and going to the same place because it’s easier than trying something else but not being sure of the quality. Our frequency at SAO is definitely because of the quality on many levels. We have one more day tomorrow then leave on Saturday. Today has been delightful with the stronger breeze. We went back to Le String today, which I’ll report on tomorrow.

Bostonbob, I’m intrigued by your “Princess” comment. Again, highly recommend SAO to anyone if they are planning on dining at Orient village.

What restaurant is SAO?

Asian restaurant in Orient Village

Princess - Deepti?

Loved this report. I have never been to Sao so will make a point of correcting that next time.

A princess that loves SAO! We also hope to go there on our next trip, we are arriving earlier in November than we normally do.

added it to our list so thanks for reporting about it.

11/6 - 12/4 for me this year. I opted for four weeks rather than my usual five.

Yes it was Deepti. We had a wonderful evening at SAO last November on my birthday.