St. John VI restaurants

liamsaunt · March 28, 2019

16 hours ago, scamhi said:

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

My husband and I have been lucky enough to stay at Caneel Bay many times...I'm not sure how many but more than 15 and less than 20. It really is a special place and you I don't think you can really understand it unless you have stayed there. It's very sad that there's not been any progress on the rebuild. Your stories are funny! The only way that would let you use the beaches if you are not a guest is if you swim in from a mooring ball. There are no dinghy channels on the Caneel beaches which is why Mr. Travolta got in trouble 🙂 We have seen various famous (or infamous) people there over the years as well. On our most recent stay we were seated next to Mitch McConnell and his wife at dinner. Since we keep "dinner party manners" on this site, I will leave it up to your imagination to guess whether I wanted to shake his hand or stab it with my fork 🙂

Yesterday we went over to Miss Lucy's for lunch with a friend who lives on island. They were out of conch fritters which was very sad indeed. I got the grouper reuben

Husband had the crunchy fish sandwich

And our friend just wanted chicken tenders

Here is a photo of the bay the restaurant is on, taken from the balcony of our friend's home

We completely punted on dinner last night. I don't think you want to see a picture of pringles and wine 🙂 Here is the sunset instead

liamsaunt · March 29, 2019

Yesterday we met some more friends who live here for lunch in town at the Lime Inn. Husband had fish tacos

I ordered a caesar salad with shrimp, but they brought it out with chicken. I sent it back and they gave me a cup of their fish chowder for the inconvenience. I would not normally want fish chowder down here but I tried it and it was very tasty.

The shrimp caesar salad came out soon after

Beachy afternoon at Cinnamon Bay

Then back in to town for a late (OK late for this island--7:45) dinner at Extra Virgin Bistro. Cocktails

Housemade Portuguese sweet bread

Arugula salad with over easy egg, bacon and pickled onion. In the back is my husband's appetizer of housemade ricotta with roasted mushrooms and corn

Husband had local tuna in lobster broth with a roasted garlic and spinach risotto

I got crab and shrimp fettuccine. This was a huge portion and I took most of it home

No chance of fitting in dessert, way too full! We did not even look at the menu.

liamsaunt · March 29, 2019

One more sunset photo from last night. The buildings by the water are the Westin Resort. It used to be a mixed time share and hotel but converted to only time shares after the storms.

Okanagancook · March 29, 2019

Stunning food and sunset. Doesn't get much better than that.

Thanks for sharing.

liamsaunt · March 30, 2019

Yesterday was a multi beach, two snorkel, and two restaurant day. We snorkeled in the morning. Here are some pictures

Maho Bay

We went to lunch in town at High Tide. This is the only restaurant in the Wharfside complex that has opened post-storms. Their damage was mostly structural, from moored boats being thrown in to it, while the other side of the complex sustained massive water and boat damage. Drinks

Coconut shrimp

Mahi and shrimp tacos

We spent the afternoon at Trunk Bay. This beach is consistently rated one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. We like to go in the later afternoon, after the cruise ship people have departed

Dinner was at La Tapa. Bread and dipping oil

Bacalao fritters

Local tuna

Pasta with shrimp and asparagus

Today is our last full day. I'm not sure what we are going to end up doing (right now we are waiting for some rain to pass through), but I am sure food will be involved.

heidih · March 30, 2019

I am in seafood lust mode. Also thank you for the turtle images. I spent my honeymoon eons ago in partial blindness because I opened my eyes swimming with them offshore Cancun and the contacts floated away...

TicTac · March 30, 2019

Love the snorkeling shots. I successfully hooked my 6 year old on it during our trip a few months back to Jamaica. A favorite past time. That plus great food...awesome.

KennethT · March 30, 2019

I agree. Love the snorkeling shots and all the seafood. When I was young, my family and I went to the Caribbean once a year or so, and I did a lot of diving. Nowadays, my wife doesn't dive (primarily because we don't have the time to get her certified), so when we go somewhere appropriate, we snorkel so we can do it together - but most places in Asia I've found to be vastly inferior to sites in the Caribbean. In general, it's poor visibility, and not much to see because of the damage of pollution or trash. One day, we'd love to go the the Great Barrier reef before it's completely destroyed... but there's too much to see, and not enough time.

teonzo · March 30, 2019

On 3/27/2019 at 1:25 PM, liamsaunt said:

There are a lot of turtles here too

I'm totally ignorant, can you explain the habits of the "hitch-hiking" fish please? Is it standard behaviour for them to get attached to a turtle?

Please keep posting snorkeling photos, they are amazing.

Teo

gfweb · March 30, 2019

How about you stay a few days more and keep posting?

heidih · March 31, 2019

3 hours ago, teonzo said:

I'm totally ignorant, can you explain the habits of the "hitch-hiking" fish please? Is it standard behaviour for them to get attached to a turtle?

Please keep posting snorkeling photos, they are amazing.

Teo

Like ya see with birds on rhinos - they pick off the junk so it is mutually beneficial. http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/wild-kingdom/about-animals/rhino-nights-facts/

Edited March 31, 2019 by heidih (log)

heidih · March 31, 2019

I'd forgotten the common term "cleaner fish" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaner_fish

Edited March 31, 2019 by heidih (log)

liamsaunt · April 1, 2019

On 3/30/2019 at 5:07 PM, teonzo said:

I'm totally ignorant, can you explain the habits of the "hitch-hiking" fish please? Is it standard behaviour for them to get attached to a turtle?

Please keep posting snorkeling photos, they are amazing.

Teo

That's a remora. heidih''s link explains it. It's a symbiotic relationship. Though sometimes the turtles get annoyed and try to shake them off 🙂 It's really cool to watch the way the various fish interact. Big fish like grouper will go to "cleaning stations" and smaller fish will swim inside their mouths and clear all the parasites off.

Last post for this trip. We got home late-late-late last night. I was supposed to be back to work today, but multiple flight delays (medical emergency, timed out crew that needed a shift change etc) and a bad car accident that closed the highway once we finally got back to Boston meant we were not climbing in to bed until 2AM.

It's our tradition that our last meal on island is at the Banana Deck, so we went back for lunch on Saturday.

Drinks

Peel and eat shrimp

We both got the spicy mahi wrap with pineapple salsa. It's tradition!

After lunch we went to "our" beach, Francis Bay. We've been coming to St. John twice a year since 2003, and this was our first beach. It's a little different from the others: the sand is darker, the water is greener, and it can sometimes be a bit buggy. But we love it. We had heard that it got hit hard by the storms so we saved it for last. There used to be good coral along the right side of the beach but friends told us it got scrubbed clean. It's still a good place to see turtles and octopus. Trees down on the beach

View of the beach from the water

Turn around and it is still beautiful!

We did not snorkel because I wanted my wetsuit to be dry for the flight home. However, I thought I would share three of my favorite snorkel pictures I have taken. Wild dolphins at Leinster Bay:

Turtle rising at Caneel Bay

Octopus at Haulover North. I won a magazine photography contest with this one. We never ended up using the prize though (air tickets to Jamaica)

Friday morning it was time to leave. Some views from the ferry

Until next time!

KennethT · April 1, 2019

@liamsaunt Wow! Amazing shots - I can't imagine what it must have been like to be so close to a wild dolphin... When I was in high school, I had the chance to swim with some dolphins in a research facility - that was amazing, but my mind is blown with the wild dolphin being so close!

Thanks so much for posting all this... loved it!

liamsaunt · July 30, 2021

Bump! We are headed back to St. John tomorrow. This trip is rescheduled from last year. Frankly I would reschedule again to 2022 if I could, but the villa owners were kind enough to let us push our paid reservations from last year, and are not willing to do it again this year. Since everything is already completely paid for, including the houses, rental Jeeps and six plane tickets, and we are vaccinated and all passed PCR tests, we are masking up and going.

We will be cooking at the houses a lot this trip, and I thought I would show some of the markets and farms I go to for supplies if anyone is interested. We are staying at two houses. One is a very nice house that we have rented before, on a rocky beach within walking distance to the restaurants in town, which seemed like a great idea pre-Covid. Not so much now. I don't think we will be in town more than a couple of times to get supplies, and for two dinners I reserved at open air restaurants. Oh well, at least we know it is comfortable and I know the snorkeling is decent in front of the house. The house for the second week is a huge ocean view affair that my husband won a week at during a charity auction. Normally staying there would be out of our vacation budget. It has a big outdoor kitchen and lots of amenities, so I will probably be cooking dinner there most nights.

I'll include some underwater pictures too, if I see anything interesting.

KennethT · July 30, 2021

32 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

Bump! We are headed back to St. John tomorrow. This trip is rescheduled from last year. Frankly I would reschedule again to 2022 if I could, but the villa owners were kind enough to let us push our paid reservations from last year, and are not willing to do it again this year. Since everything is already completely paid for, including the houses, rental Jeeps and six plane tickets, and we are vaccinated and all passed PCR tests, we are masking up and going.

We will be cooking at the houses a lot this trip, and I thought I would show some of the markets and farms I go to for supplies if anyone is interested. We are staying at two houses. One is a very nice house that we have rented before, on a rocky beach within walking distance to the restaurants in town, which seemed like a great idea pre-Covid. Not so much now. I don't think we will be in town more than a couple of times to get supplies, and for two dinners I reserved at open air restaurants. Oh well, at least we know it is comfortable and I know the snorkeling is decent in front of the house. The house for the second week is a huge ocean view affair that my husband won a week at during a charity auction. Normally staying there would be out of our vacation budget. It has a big outdoor kitchen and lots of amenities, so I will probably be cooking dinner there most nights.

I'll include some underwater pictures too, if I see anything interesting.

I'm definitely interested!!!! Have a great trip!

Anna N · July 30, 2021

5 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I'm definitely interested!!!! Have a great trip!

What he said!

rotuts · July 30, 2021

thank you for taking the time to share

in advance.

liamsaunt · July 31, 2021

A small update as we have arrived. We have no internet at the present time, but I am sure this will be remedied eventually. Here are a few pictures from my phone.

This week we are at the house that is on the water and close to town.

Here is the inside of the fridge! I had the house provisioned before our arrival to avoid having to go to the grocery today. We will get there soon. The sparkling water is mine. All the fun stuff is for the others.

Here is one of the many receipts left behind by the provisioning service, to give you an idea of market costs. That beer charge is for a six pack, by the way. And yeah, that is indeed the price of one loaf of bread. I did not order the cheddar potato chips. They must have been a swap for something I asked for that was out of stock.

Here is the view at the front of the house. I went for a dip earlier and it was nice. You do need to wear water shoes because of the rocks. There are peacocks on the beach here. I will get a picture once the internet is back and I can use my real camera.

heidih · July 31, 2021

Wow on prices - tourist season I guess. Blew me away with peacocks on beach?!? Thought the vain cocks would not let those long tail feathers get sullied in the sand or wet in the rocks since it may still be breeding season. They are still strutting al over the courtyards at my friend's building.

rotuts · August 1, 2021

@liamsaunt

what does the ' F ' mean ?

thought it might be Food

then that would mean the tortillas are

something else ?

is food taxed differently ?

liamsaunt · August 2, 2021

On 7/31/2021 at 7:44 PM, heidih said:

Wow on prices - tourist season I guess. Blew me away with peacocks on beach?!?

Nope, those are the year round prices. Everything has to be shipped in so food is at a premium. There is a limited vegetable farm on island (mostly salad greens and leafy dark greens) but no dairy or meat production. You can get local fruit though.

There were 12 peacocks on the beach today. I got photos, but with my real camera so those will have to wait until internet is restored. The property manger is coming in the morning to look at the issue. Of course morning here likely means 5am! A lot of people that live here get up before sunrise and go to bed shortly after sunset.

12 hours ago, rotuts said:

@liamsaunt

what does the ' F ' mean ?

thought it might be Food

then that would mean the tortillas are

something else ?

is food taxed differently ?

I have no idea what the F means! There are no taxes at any of the stores. I will try and find out for you.

My niece and I got up early and walked into town for breakfast. First stop, a roti truck I heard about. I love roti and heard this place has really good ones. My niece is excited because they have johnnycakes. It was closed because it is Sunday (lots of stuff is closed on Sundays here). We will be back.

Next stop, High Tide on the town beach. Here is the view. Those ferries are how you get to St. John. You ferry over from St. Thomas. No airport on St. John.

Nice had French toast and bacon. She cleaned her plate and pronounced it very tasty.

I got eggs Benedict Florentine. I don’t really like those seasoned potato wedges so left them behind. The eggs were good.

Dinner in a separate post.

MetsFan5 · August 2, 2021

Are those prices in USD? $24 for a six pack is outrageous!

A resort I stayed in in Jamaica had tons of peacocks. They’re gorgeous but can be loud and not particularly friendly.

liamsaunt · August 2, 2021

Dinner tonight was at a newer restaurant called Shaibu’s Garden Oasis. It is open air. Typical for the Caribbean, we got rained on right after we sat down. It’s OK, it is warm and the rain felt good, plus it was brief. Here is the restaurant at the end of our dinner (pitch black at 7:15pm).