St. John VI restaurants

rotuts · August 1, 2017

Ive never had a

Mac and cheese burger

what a great Idea

its on the list.

maybe some crumbly bacon in the M&C ?

Thanks for the Crepes · August 2, 2017

16 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

My nephew's mac and cheese burger. He can't have the fries due to his allergy so they gave him extra mac and cheese. This plate was gone in less than five minutes and he claimed he was still hungry. Have I mentioned that he is 6'2" and a beanpole? He must have an extra stomach somewhere.

Yes! Young people have such high metabolisms. I remember those days for myself, and could eat four or more times what I eat now and never gain an ounce.

I was preparing to host my nephew and his fiance, at the time, now wife, with a Mexican feast a few years ago. My husband asked me why I was making so much food for the amount of guests. I told him he would be surprised at the quantity these two kids in their early twenties would put away. I was right too, and they loved the spread I put out. The next day they were both slated to take a long practice run in our summer heat to prepare for a fitness challenge test back at the military base when they returned from their vacation. I feel confident that I fueled them well for their run (which would very likely have killed me ). I actually love feeding people with ravenous appetites, but I'm sure that's only because I do not have a live-in teen/young adult. It would get pricey fast now. During my ravenous years we had Shaky's Pizza buffet with fried chicken and salad, Shoney's salad and breakfast bars, the Hungry Fisherman all-you-can eat specials on seafood, and food in general was much cheaper. I feel sorry for parents now, it would cost a fortune to feed a growing active teen/young adult these days.

17 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Drinks

That center drink's glass is so narrow on the bottom, I think they were afraid to fill it all the way, because a breeze might tip it over. It's an interesting and pretty glass, though. It looks right on the brink of being stable. Perhaps it is just perspective, though.

I have loved seeing your meals and the beautifully photographed scenery on St. John, VI, and thanks so much for sharing with us here.

liamsaunt · August 4, 2017

A couple more meals. Breakfast at Cruz Bay Landing. Blueberry-banana pancakes

Cinnamon swirl pancakes

Florentine benedict

Alaska benedict

A lunch at The Beach Bar. Crab wontons

Burger

Tuna Down Now

Mahi tacos

Mahi fish and chips

Blackened grouper sandwich

Edited August 4, 2017 by liamsaunt (log)

kayb · August 5, 2017

Lovely. Especially the tuna. And the sunset.

liamsaunt · August 9, 2017

Last installment for this trip. We got home at 2AM Sunday. Lunch at Banana Deck. My niece's mozzarella sticks

Conch fritters

Spicy mahi mahi wrap

My niece's chicken tenders

My nephew's burger

Blackened mahi sandwich

Caesar salad with blackened chicken

Final meal at Caneel Bay. Drinks

Conch fritters

Caribbean Cobb salad (additions of mango and black beans)

French dip

Mahi mahi and papaya tacos

Guava chicken wings

My nephew's burger

Winner of battle conch fritter: it was a close one. High Tide had a great sauce, but the fritters were slightly undercooked. Shipwreck Landing's were tasty and had lots of conch but lost points for being served with boring cocktail sauce. Caneel's were well cooked with a good amount of conch, but skimpy on sauce, and the most expensive (naturally). Banana Deck's were OK, but again, slightly undercooked. Ultimately, Miss Lucy's fritters were our favorite again.

I'll end with a photo of my favorite beach. It's not the most famous or the prettiest but I love it.

Edited August 9, 2017 by liamsaunt (log)

kayb · August 9, 2017

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh.......

Yes, I badly need some Vitamin Beach!

liamsaunt · March 20, 2019

On Friday I will be returning to St. John. A month after we left in 2017, the island was hit by back to back category 5 hurricanes. The damage was devastating. Many of the restaurants I showed pictures from were completely destroyed and not rebuilt (Zozos, Shipwreck Landing, Waterfront Bistro, Beach Bar--though that one is coming back someday--Jakes...and many others. Caneel Bay was destroyed and rebuilding has not started yet (complicated story). Cinnamon Bay was also destroyed and has not been rebuilt. Power has been restored island wide but about half the island still has no phone or internet. The people that live on St. John have been working hard to restore the island and they have made a lot of progress. I am grateful for the chance to return.

The house we rented does have power and internet, so I'm planning on updating this thread with our dining adventures as I am able (connectivity and power depending). I'm not planning on cooking at all, as the house we rented is open air, so the restaurants will be getting our dining dollars. I'm looking forward to some warm sun and good food.

KennethT · March 20, 2019

@liamsaunt I'm glad to see your tourist dollars going to work there... I'm sure they would really appreciate it! Can you discuss (or just show pictures) the open air house? I'm not really sure what that means...

liamsaunt · March 20, 2019

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

@liamsaunt I'm glad to see your tourist dollars going to work there... I'm sure they would really appreciate it! Can you discuss (or just show pictures) the open air house? I'm not really sure what that means...

The house has a roof but does not generally have solid walls. The front of it is completely open to the elements, and the sides are open but gated. This is a picture I snagged from the management company's website to give you an idea. This is the living room. In front of it there are steps down to a swimming pool and there's a cliff beyond that. The kitchen and dining rooms are to the right of the living room and are also open to the elements just like this room. The bedrooms are behind these other rooms and do have walls and locking doors. I'm not cooking because with the open air setup I am expecting lots of little island visitors based on prior experience. Certainly various bugs and lizards, probably iguanas, definitely birds, and maybe some island cats. Hopefully no rats but you never know! :-)

**Shelby** · March 20, 2019

Wow. That is jaw-dropping. I'm pea green.

KennethT · March 20, 2019

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

The house has a roof but does not generally have solid walls. The front of it is completely open to the elements, and the sides are open but gated. This is a picture I snagged from the management company's website to give you an idea. This is the living room. In front of it there are steps down to a swimming pool and there's a cliff beyond that. The kitchen and dining rooms are to the right of the living room and are also open to the elements just like this room. The bedrooms are behind these other rooms and do have walls and locking doors. I'm not cooking because with the open air setup I am expecting lots of little island visitors based on prior experience. Certainly various bugs and lizards, probably iguanas, definitely birds, and maybe some island cats. Hopefully no rats but you never know! 🙂

Thanks... I thought that's what you meant... I've seen advertisements for some hotels that are built that way. It's beautiful, but I always wondered about bugs, critters and such. I'll be curious to hear about the realities of it. One of my customers is a hotel in St. Lucia where the rooms are open air (there's only 3 walls) and while I've always wanted to visit it, part of me worries about waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by various tropical insects, lizards and birds...

kayb · March 21, 2019

It's 45 and raining here. That looks like heaven.

If you're unable to post from there, please just save everything up and deluge us when you return. Would love to see some "recovery" scenes, as well.

Good travels!

liamsaunt · March 22, 2019

Cheers

rotuts · March 23, 2019

@liamsaunt

re: Open Air Living

are there Mosquitos around ?

liamsaunt · March 24, 2019

On 3/23/2019 at 8:25 AM, rotuts said:

@liamsaunt

re: Open Air Living

are there Mosquitos around ?

So far we are not having issues with bugs. There are lots of ceiling fans which are helping to keep them away, I think. We are wearing insect repellant as a precautionary measure. Last night I took a picture from the kitchen island looking out to the view to give you a better idea

Friday night we had dinner in town at Maorgan's Mango. Bread service and my cocktail. I ordered a drink made with gin and lime, but this actually tasted like coconut. I have no idea what they actually gave me haha

Snapper seveche with plantain chips

Tuna tartare

Mahi mahi with a rum mango sauce, rice and beans

Coconut crusted grouper with yucca mash

Too full for dessert.

Yesterday we had lunch at Banana Deck. Crab and shrimp spring rolls

Blackened mahi sandwich

Blackened shrimp caesar

liamsaunt · March 24, 2019

Here is a photo of the kitchen in the house

the house use also has a well stocked bar. Runs (too bad we don’t drink rum haha)

various other choices. All free for the taking. Rum is sometimes cheaper than water down here. Too bad I like wine, which is expensive. And the entire island is out of Sancerre right now!

Yesterday I poked my head into what used to be the Beach Bar. They have a ways to go before reopening. They’ll get there eventually.

Let’s offset that depressing photo photo with one of last night’s sunset.

liamsaunt · March 25, 2019

We drove around the entire island yesterday. There is still a lot of damage but a lot of progress has been made too. The island is very dry right now, which makes things look worse than they are. Here are some before and after shots, to give you an idea. Trunk Bay, before the storms

Trunk Bay today

Maho Bay before the storms

Maho Bay today

This one is the worst. Caneel Bay before the storms

Caneel Bay today

😞

We had lunch at a little dive, Skinny Legs

They are famous for their burgers. Here's their basic cheeseburger

We skipped dinner last night. Hopefully I will do a better job on food reporting going forward!

KennethT · March 25, 2019

Thanks for this... you're not kidding that it's really dry! I'm glad to hear that things are coming back though.

demiglace · March 25, 2019

Thank you for taking the time to report. You're doing a great job, much appreciated.

blue_dolphin · March 26, 2019

Another thank you from me. Your food photos are amazing as usual and the before and after photos are striking. Thanks for sharing!

heidih · March 26, 2019

Is the water so so strikingly blue because the water is shallow and the underlying sand is very light i color? Food - well I just ate dinnrr and am hungry again

rotuts · March 26, 2019

@liamsaunt

sorry to hear about the Sancerre problem.

liamsaunt · March 26, 2019

8 hours ago, heidih said:

Is the water so so strikingly blue because the water is shallow and the underlying sand is very light i color? Food - well I just ate dinnrr and am hungry again

Yes, that is right. The sand is white.

Here's a picture of the ferry dock. There are no airports on St. John, you fly into St. Thomas and then take the ferry over. The building up on the hill is where we spent our first night on island, where I posted the glass of wine with the sunset from. To the left of that building is what was housing for the National Park workers. Most of the buildings are badly damaged, but we noticed that two were repaired and had people staying in them.

This is the Wharfside complex in town. Before the storms this building housed about six restaurants and bars. There were apartments on the upper level and shops on the street side. It's being rebuilt but it's taking a long time because of the complexity of the repairs.

Last night we had dinner at the Longboard in town. Cocktails.

Tuna and crab tower with quail egg

Shrimp sushi wrapped in rice paper. I thought I took a photo of the inside of the roll, but I can't find it. It had tempura shrimp and avocado.

Mahi mahi sliders with grilled pineapple

Spicy shrimp tostones. This was my favorite thing, I could have eaten them all by myself but husband made me share 🙂

liamsaunt · March 27, 2019

Yesterday we went over to Coral Bay to snorkel at one of the lesser known spots. Snorkeling is our main reason for coming to St. John.

The beach

Highlight of the snorkel, a pair of spotted eagle rays!

There are a lot of turtles here too

We went to lunch at Aqua Bistro, which overlooks Coral Harbour

Drinks

Conch fritters with jerked aioli

Local hot sauce

We split an order of fish tacos since we were going to dinner

Back at the house, I took photos of some of the fruit trees on the property. Papaya

Banana. There was a bunch of ripe bananas on this tree that we were eating from every morning for breakfast, but the gardener came yesterday while we were at the beach and cut them down for himself. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

We had dinner at the Terrace in town. Here's the view

That big ship in the background is the mini cruise ship Sea Dream. It only holds 112 passengers. There are no cruise docks on St. John but sometimes small ships anchor offshore and tender their passengers in.

Cocktails

Bread service with carmelized shallot butter

A special appetizer of fish chowder made with lobster and mahi mahi

Sea scallops with shiitake mushrooms, truffled sweet corn puree and thyme

Pan roasted wahoo with butter braised peas and edamame, garlic-herb angel hair, smoked bacon and truffle cream, with an add-on lobster tail

Crab stuffed prawns with leek and sweet corn risotto and shellfish emulsion

Too full for dessert! In fact we took home leftovers that I will probably reheat for dinner tonight.

scamhi · March 27, 2019

We spent some time at Caneel Bay in 1984. it was truly was a playground. we had bikes and snorkle gear. two notable things happened during our 1 week stay. Walter Mondale was there consoling his 1984 election loss to Ronald Reagan and Marilou Henner and John Travolta had a private Yacht that decided to use a beach we were on via skiff and they were asked to leave.

edited to add. the food and pictures look really beautiful

Edited March 27, 2019 by scamhi (log)

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