St. John VI restaurants

liamsaunt · May 22, 2022

I'm back!!! My husband and I are back in St. John for two weeks to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We usually bring family with us, but it's just the two of us this time. We have a ton of dinner reservations, including some new places. We got to the island really early yesterday, too early to pick up our Jeep or get into our rental house, so we of course went to find food while we waited. We had our luggage, so ended up just going to High Tide since they have a place to stash your bags while you eat. Restaurant view

Lunch menu. Pretty standard stuff

We got the the blackened fish tacos and blackened shrimp tacos to split, and one of us got fries and the other got salad so we could split those too. Shrimp

Fish

While we were at lunch we got a text that we could get in to our house four hours early. Since we had been up since 3AM, this was most welcome news. Here's the view from our rental house

After a nap, we headed in to town for some light bites. The restaurants were not crowded, but there was nowhere to park! I have no idea where everyone was. We ended up having to park in a really expensive lot that I had vowed to never use again, which was annoying. We did not want a full dinner, so ended up at Longboard, which had small plates you can share. Menu pictures

I forgot to take a photo of the cocktail menu. They have some really interesting choices here. My husband's sunshower cocktail (grilled lemon vodka, elderflower liqueur, basil, cucumber, house lemonade, bitters).

We split the shrimp seveche

the shrimp tostones

and the spicy tuna lettuce wraps

It was all light, fresh and tasty, just what we needed.

The end of last night's hazy sunset from the house

Edited May 23, 2022 by liamsaunt
unrelated photo (log)

KennethT · May 22, 2022

@liamsauntHappy anniversary! I hope you and your husband have a wonderful time!

**Shelby** · May 22, 2022

Happy Anniversary!!!! Thank you for taking us with you

kayb · May 22, 2022

Happy anniversary and have a wonderful time!

Anna N · May 22, 2022

Happy anniversary. Sharing small dishes is a wonderful way to enjoy food.

**curls** · May 23, 2022

Happy Anniversary! Wishing you wonderful weather & beautiful sunsets. Thank you for all the photos.

liamsaunt · May 23, 2022

We were still really tired yesterday, so did not do too much. The house is comfortable with a pool and views, so it was easy to just stay here and relax for most of the day. We did get out in the afternoon and went to the beach. If you do not get to the beach in the morning on Sundays in the summer, parking at the sandy ones can be limited to non existent, so we just drove out to one of the furthest ones, Francis, parked at the trailhead, and hiked in about 1/2 mile to the beach. Easier than fighting for a parking spot. The rocky side of the beach is always uncrowded even if the sandy part is more crowded

For years, we would have this beach to ourselves, but the secret of St. John is definitely out. I am not really complaining (at least not here haha). I am sure people complained when my husband and I showed up for the first time in 2003.

Last night we had dinner at Extra VIrgin Bistro. This restaurant, along with a few others on the island, recently went to a prix fixe format. Here's the menu. I remembered to take a picture of the cocktail menu tonight, but my husband did not order one because he did the wine pairing with his food.

I decided to try and order two lighter dishes because I knew I wanted the mushroom pappardelle for my second course, and having had it before, I knew it was incredibly rich. I chose the burrata salad for my first course. I was so happy to have a salad, but was not expecting such a huge piece of cheese! I ate about half because I had to pace myself. I saw a lot of other tables ordering this.

Husband went with the other popular starter, fried calamari

I tried it and thought the oil they fried it in tasted a little old, but he did not notice that taste. Maybe I was just really not in the mood for fried food.

Next course we both got the pappardelle. It was so delicious. The fried golden beet garnish really made the dish. We both finished this course.

Third course, I got the catch of the day, which was mahi mahi. This was perfectly cooked (you know how mahi gets dry if you cook it too much), the coconut beet puree made a delicious sauce for the fish, and I really loved the pickled cabbage and apple salad.

Husband got the shrimp and langoustino risotto. I think it was a bit too rich after the pasta. He said it was delicious but he could not finish it. He tried to get me to try it but I did not want any.

We were both way too full to even think about dessert and it was not included in the prix fixe anyway so there was no pressure to order one.

Overall I liked my meal more than my husband liked his, but we agreed that we probably would go back on a future visit.

Edited May 24, 2022 by liamsaunt
remove extra photo (log)

liamsaunt · May 24, 2022

We got a later start yesterday (still recovering from our 3AM wakeup Saturday), so went to one of the larger beaches where we knew we could get a sandy spot far away from any other people: Cinnamon

This is a beautiful beach, and the National Park offers camping behind the beach here, both tent and cottage, if you are into camping. The facilities are all new post Irma/Maria--the cottages just opened up last month., and from what I can see, it looked really nice for a camping setup.

Here is our favorite spot, way at the end, shady, away from the crowds and the people with their (illegal and annoying) bluetooth speakers on the beach

For dinner we went to Dave and Jerry's Island Steakhouse. Menu pictures

I forgot to take a picture of the cocktail menu again. Husband's chose the margarita of the day, which was guava

We got two appetizers to share. I chose a special, which was three scallops seared and served with a basil puree, with grapefruit and crispy prosciutto

And husband got the smoked salmon caesar salad because he was not going to order any veggies with his steak

They did not have any fish specials last night, so I just got the same tuna I had back in January. It was very good again, so I was happy with it.

Husband chose the ribeye steak and a six ounce lobster tail (offered on special). He ate the lobster tail and a little less than half the steak, plus he had a glass of wine.

I guess their wine by the glass list is pretty bad, so he had to order a bottle to get something that he wanted. You can take unconsumed alcohol with you from the restaurants here, so we brought the remaining wine home for another day. The steak came back with us too and I will make it into a breakfast for him. We were both way too full for dessert.

We got home in time to catch the last colorful skies from the sunset over St. Thomas from our deck.

Edited May 24, 2022 by liamsaunt
formatting (log)

rotuts · May 24, 2022

@liamsaunt

interesting to see beef @ ' Market Price '

does one ask for the price ?

just in case ?

kayb · May 24, 2022

What is the white stuff atop the tuna? It looks for all the world like a crumpled piece of cheesecloth.

liamsaunt · May 25, 2022

23 hours ago, rotuts said:

@liamsaunt

interesting to see beef @ ' Market Price '

does one ask for the price ?

just in case ?

It was expensive 🤣 I don't think that much more than a high end steakhouse at home though. Steaks are always expensive at places like those, and everything here has an "island surcharge" except rum.

23 hours ago, kayb said:

What is the white stuff atop the tuna? It looks for all the world like a crumpled piece of cheesecloth.

It was a shrimp chip. I guess it was to provide crunch, but everything had enough texture on its own. I tasted it but left the rest of it.

We were not planning on visiting a beach yesterday, but on our way to run errands there was a spot available at the hardest beach to get a spot at, Gibney, so of course we changed plans and went. Here is the gate. There is parking for exactly three cars parked in tandem to the left side, No more! If you park anywhere else, especially if you park on the right side of the gate, the family that owns the left side of the beach has your Jeep towed. Fair enough, you cannot say you were not warned by the signage! The gate says "Oppenheimer Beach." That is because the right side was owned by Robert Oppenheimer. He lived there in a small cottage after WW2. His daughter left the part of the beach they owned and the cottage to "the children of St. John" upon her death.

The beach. All the blue chairs, umbrellas, and the kayak in the center are owned by the family that owns the right side of the beach, and you are not supposed to set up near their stuff. They have two cottages that they rent out to tourists. They are charming and you cannot beat the location, but staying there is $$$ and they are very small (one is one bedroom, one bath, and the other is two bedrooms, one bath). It is almost impossible to find truly beachfront accommodation on a sandy beach on St. John since so much of it is National Park, so they are very popular.

Boats lined up for one of the official Instagram shots of St. John. There's a little pocket beach over there to the right of Gibney, just big enough for two people, and only sandy at low tide. You can snorkel to it in five minutes from Gibney so I have no idea why people spend their expensive boat day waiting in line to take a picture there. To each their own.

The reef is still mostly dead post hurricanes, but this part looked OK

Hello turtle! (Taken with an underwater camera and a zoom lens, not up close)

Flounder! Dinner?

Dinner last night was at Morgan's Mango for lobster night. I called for a table six weeks ago to be sure we could get in. Lobster night is extremely popular and reservations only. Menu pictures (that's not a camera flash on the menu, it's an overhead light that I could not work around on our small table)

Husband's cocktail of the evening: Harley's margarita

We started with the snapper seveche. It was really good. Maybe could have used a pinch more salt, and I would have left off that drizzle of whatever on the yucca chips.

We also split a special appetizer, which was blackened shrimp in a plantain cup filled with avocado crema and fruit salsa over seaweed salad and microgreens. The plantain cups were made at the restaurant and maybe a little too thick. The flavors were nice though.

I do not really like lobster so I chose one of the fish of the day served voodoo style. They had swordfish, wahoo, striped bass, and monkfish. I went with wahoo since it was the only one that was caught locally (the swordfish was from Puerto Rico which is pretty close). I really enjoy wahoo so was very happy with my meal.

Husband got the lobster. He asked for 1.5 lbs. He said it was perfectly cooked, definitely the best Caribbean lobster he has had, and he orders it almost every time it is available.

They are famous for their key lime pie, but we were stuffed, so got a slice to put in the fridge for later.

Post dinner digestive walk pictures.

I could not decide which red sky one I liked best, so here are two

heidih · May 25, 2022

Thanks for the underwater shots, esp the turtle! That middle yucca chip os a smiley face

Anna N · May 25, 2022

Quite recently I read a biography of Oppenheimer so this was doubly interesting to me. Thanks so much for sharing. Beautiful, beautiful photographs of everything.

**TdeV** · May 25, 2022

Thank you for your excellent photos.

Did you see on tonight's menu there is a Belgian beer called Duvel, @Duvel?

liamsaunt · May 26, 2022

Yesterday we drove over to the far side of the island for some exploring. When we got hungry, we headed to Miss Lucy's, one of the few places to eat on this side of the island. The bay it is on almost always has wonderful breezes. Unfortunately, it also has a tendency to fill with sargassum when it is floating by at certain times of the year. Now is one of those times. Sargassum in Friis Bay

Luckily it was a recent arrival so had not started to dry out and smell bad yet. The restaurant is basically a stone bunker, a tent, and some tables under a tree. Here's a picture. See that big truck? That's a water truck. There is no natural freshwater source on St. John. Instead, you have to rely on rainwater collected in cisterns. When it is dry, like now, sometimes the cistern runs dry and you have to purchase water that is trucked in from the desalination plant. $$$.

Menu pictures

Drinks. Husband got a mimosa and I had iced tea

We skipped appetizers. Husband got the crunchy fish sandwich

I ordered a special of curried grouper with pigeon peas and rice. There is cornmeal fungi under the fish, but you cannot really see it.

Another shot of Friis Bay

After lunch, we stopped by for a late afternoon swim at what used to be one of our favorite beaches, Maho. You used to be able to get this beach almost to yourself. There was good snorkeling with lots of turtles offshore. Well, a few years ago, someone opened a beach bar on land that is across from the beach but not owned by the National Park. Now, the beach is crowded when the bar is open, you have to look out for tipsy people walking in the road, and snorkel charters drop people off to get drinks. At the end of the day though, once people start leaving, it can still be pretty. Plus, if I did not know what the beach was like before the bar opened, maybe I would think the bar is pretty cool too.

Later that night we went back to Longboard to get some light bites. We both had drinks--essentially the same flavors, but mine was a mocktail. It had pineapple, lime juice, local honey, jalapeño, and smoked salt. Here's mine

And husband's, with grilled pineapple tequila and Grand Marnier added to my flavors

We shared a summer roll (spicy!)

And some mahi sliders

Last night's sunset was another good one, so you get two pictures

It's really overcast today and raining off and on. We have to bring our rental Jeep in for maintenance this morning (the oil is at 4%!!!) so we'll probably skip the beach in favor of going out to breakfast and then hanging at the villa after we get the Jeep back.

Edited May 26, 2022 by liamsaunt
remove extra photo (log)

TicTac · May 26, 2022

Echoing the thanks for taking the time to share your anniversary adventures with us (congrats on 25, btw!).

The fish and seafood look amazingly fresh - any conch salad's on the island of note (one of my favourite things from the islands!)?

kayb · May 26, 2022

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This one’s the keeper of the trip. Gorgeous.

liamsaunt · May 27, 2022

21 hours ago, TicTac said:

The fish and seafood look amazingly fresh - any conch salad's on the island of note (one of my favourite things from the islands!)?

Other than fritters, I have not seen any yet this visit. Miss Lucy's used to have a conch chowder that was delectable and a conch roti too, but they were not on the menu anymore. The place we went last night had a conch salad on the menu but said they were out. I'm not really sure what is going on. I have another week here to find some though, because I like it too!

So yesterday we had to get the the Jeep into town in the morning to get the oil fixed before we could go anywhere else, so we decided to go to breakfast. We chose Sun Dog cafe, which is on the opposite side of the downtown area from the car repair shop. Menus. We were the only table that did not have cocktails with their breakfast. I guess we are getting old haha

I asked for iced tea and they brought me a carafe of the strongest iced tea I have ever drunk. After one glass it felt like my heart was racing, so I had to leave the rest. On the other hand, my husband ordered coffee, and he said it was the weakest coffee he has ever had! Weird!

PSA before the food comes

And indeed, we did have chickens all around us as we ate. They just sat there quietly though. In fact some of them napped. I went with the guacamole flatbread

I did not really want the bread for some reason and left most of it behind, but the salad was nice.

Husband got the triple bacon benedict. He enjoyed it.

After we got the Jeep back we decided to have a villa gravity day and just lounge in the pool and read books. Boring, right? Sometimes those can be the best days.

Eventually we got cleaned up and went to town in search of food. We stopped by a little bar named Drink! For, well, a drink. There's a new bar above it now, so the competing music from the two establishments was a bit annoying. We did not stay long but the view and breeze was nice. Husband had some sort of margarita, and I stuck with sparkling water.

Neither of us was starving so we went to Meada's Garden for some sushi. They have a beautiful garden location, but suffer from being tucked back in a courtyard with very little signage. I do not think a lot of people know it is there. They added tents to cover the tables since our last visit, which will be nice when it rains (I have gotten poured on here before)

Their menu is huge because they have a traditional menu and a sushi menu. I think they need to pare it down a bit, because every time we go they are out of stuff. Last night they had no crab cake, lobster avocado salad, conch seveche, grouper, and they ran out of the filet beef while we were there, much to the chagrin of the table next to us. Good thing we were ordering sushi haha

Cocktail menu. Husband chose the Island-rita and I got the cucumber spritz from the mocktails menu. It was not sweet, which I liked.

The traditional menu

The first page of the sushi menu. I accidentally deleted my photo of the second page. There was other whole page of rolls. Oops.

We ordered the tempura shrimp and vegetables

The crunchy dynamite (this was our favorite)

And two rolls. We should have just chosen one because we could not finish what we ordered. We got the Baja roll and the dragon roll from the deleted second page of the menu.

We had a bit of rain and it was pretty cloudy overall yesterday, so no sunset pictures to share in this post.

Duvel · May 28, 2022

On 5/26/2022 at 12:51 AM, TdeV said:

Did you see on tonight's menu there is a Belgian beer called Duvel, @Duvel?

Indeed … my favorite beer and the origin of my screen name (and the avatar picture, too) 🤗

liamsaunt · May 28, 2022

This morning we are waiting out some weather before heading out for the day

Yesterday we hiked in the back way to one of our favorite beaches so we could go by some plantation ruins that we had not looked at in a while. There's lots of hiking on this island, but we did all the really arduous ones on our earlier visits. This one is easy. There's an interesting story to these ruins, but I won't put all that info here.

Ruins

You also get good views of the salt pond behind the beach on this hike. That dry area is normally filled with brackish water and a good spot for birdwatching. Right now the island is so dry that you can harvest salt from areas like this around the island.

Beach

For dinner last night we went to the Terrace, a fine dining restaurant in town that we had not visited in a few years. We got one of the two tables for two on the railing with a view of the sunset, which was a pleasant surprise.

Cocktail menu

Husband went with the Purple Rain. I thought the She's Royal sounded interesting, but of course stuck to water. Here's the Purple Rain

And my waters, mostly for the view

The main menus

For starters, I got the greens salad and husband chose a special of tuna tartare

For entrees, husband got the mani mahi and I chose the tuna. Both were very nice

Dessert menu

We decided to split a piece of the key lime tart. It was very good, and just the right size. The housemade ice cream was delicious

One last sunset shot from our table

kayb · May 28, 2022

The notion of lemon lavender crème brûlée makes my eyes roll back in my head. I love the combo of flavors; I love crème brûlée.

heidih · May 28, 2022

Do people harvest the salt, and have you done it just for fun to taste? A local chef here at a resort on the water does it as his mom used to do back in Portugal I think.

And just an off the cuff question/comment - what is the deal with tartare in ring molds. I see it all the time. An interesting little bowl would please my senses more.

Rhanks for the time you take to give us an "immersive" experience

KennethT · May 28, 2022

Beautiful photos - thanks so much for taking us along on your trip! I don't know if you know the answer to this but I'm curious - I've seen escargot on a few menus now - I assume they're imported rather than local, right?

liamsaunt · May 29, 2022

23 hours ago, heidih said:

Do people harvest the salt, and have you done it just for fun to taste? A local chef here at a resort on the water does it as his mom used to do back in Portugal I think.

People harvest it to use for cooking and to make things like salt scrubs. I have never done it personally. I think we are going over to Salt Pond Bay tomorrow, where the largest salt pond is, and if we do I will take photos. It will depend on my husband's knee--he bashed it yesterday and it's about a 3/4 mile uphill hike back out of the bay. It seems to be doing OK, but we will see.

22 hours ago, KennethT said:

Beautiful photos - thanks so much for taking us along on your trip! I don't know if you know the answer to this but I'm curious - I've seen escargot on a few menus now - I assume they're imported rather than local, right?

Yes, it is imported. Almost everything is imported, other than the local fish such as tuna, wahoo, snapper, grouper, and lobster. There are other fish available to buy on the side of the road but it's not considered safe for people who did not grow up eating them because of the ciguatera risk. There is also one vegetable farm that grows greens for all of the restaurants on the island (you might have noticed "Josephine's greens" mentioned on almost all of the salads on various menus), and of course you can get fruit like mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, genips, etc. when they are in season. Neighboring St. Croix has a dairy farm and a beef farm, but those products do not seem to make their way here.

Yesterday we went to a beach we had not visited in about 10 years, Hawksnest.

Normally if we go here, we just dump our stuff and snorkel over to spend the day at neighboring Gibney (the beach you can see in the distance), but today we found a secluded spot and hung out for a bit

People don't set up on this end of the beach generally because the reef comes up to the shore, and you have to walk to the other end to get in the water. Of course, that's why we picked this spot 🙂 Here are some snorkeling shots. The elkhorn coral is recovering from the storms five years ago, but still showing some bleaching

Schools of blue tang were around

Hello from Mr. Parrotfish! These fish eat the coral with their strong jaws, and their waste makes some of the sand on the beaches. True story.

Last night, we had dinner at the Lime Inn. They recently changed to a prix fixe format. Four courses for $75, six courses for $95. We did the four course.

Restaurant interior

Here's the menu

For the first course, we both chose the wahoo tiradito. This was very good! The fish was super fresh

Second course, I chose the camarones nocturnos, and husband chose the curried Spaniard empanada. My dish was a salt lick. It was almost inedible. The plantain chips were good, and the eggplant puree under the shrimp was nice, but the shrimp itself was awful. It was too bad because the texture was good and they tasted fresh. Husband's empanada looked a bit sad just sitting there on the plate, but the flavors were OK.

Third course, I chose the tuna dish and my husband had the whole fish. Both were....not good. As salty as the shrimp was, my couscous had no flavor at all! No salt, no sauce, nothing! The tuna was nicely cooked, but again, terribly bland. It had a dill coating, but nothing else. I ate about half of the tuna and a few bites of the couscous, just to eat something.

My husband's whole fish suffered the same fate. No seasoning at all on the fish. Meanwhile, the broccoli with it was insanely salty! He also sadly reported that it was not the freshest fish he has ever been served, to put it nicely. The rice and beans underneath were good.

The meal was redeemed by dessert. You had a choice of semifreddo key lime tart, brownie a la mode, or coconut tembleque. We both got the key lime tart, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was by far the best thing about the meal, and one of the best things we have eaten this trip! It was very tart and limey, just the way I like it.

Despite the delicious dessert, this definitely counts as the most disappointing meal of the trip so far. Oh well, you can't win them all!

Edited May 29, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

KennethT · May 29, 2022

32 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

People harvest it to use for cooking and to make things like salt scrubs. I have never done it personally. I think we are going over to Salt Pond Bay tomorrow, where the largest salt pond is, and if we do I will take photos. It will depend on my husband's knee--he bashed it yesterday and it's about a 3/4 mile uphill hike back out of the bay. It seems to be doing OK, but we will see.

Yes, it is imported. Almost everything is imported, other than the local fish such as tuna, wahoo, snapper, grouper, and lobster. There are other fish available to buy on the side of the road but it's not considered safe for people who did not grow up eating them because of the ciguatera risk. There is also one vegetable farm that grows greens for all of the restaurants on the island (you might have noticed "Josephine's greens" mentioned on almost all of the salads on various menus), and of course you can get fruit like mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, genips, etc. when they are in season. Neighboring St. Croix has a dairy farm and a beef farm, but those products do not seem to make their way here.

Yesterday we went to a beach we had not visited in about 10 years, Hawksnest.

Normally if we go here, we just dump our stuff and snorkel over to spend the day at neighboring Gibney (the beach you can see in the distance), but today we found a secluded spot and hung out for a bit

People don't set up on this end of the beach generally because the reef comes up to the shore, and you have to walk to the other end to get in the water. Of course, that's why we picked this spot 🙂 Here are some snorkeling shots. The elkhorn coral is recovering from the storms five years ago, but still showing some bleaching

Schools of blue tang were around

Hello from Mr. Parrotfish! These fish eat the coral with their strong jaws, and their waste makes some of the sand on the beaches. True story.

Last night, we had dinner at the Lime Inn. They recently changed to a prix fixe format. Four courses for $75, six courses for $95. We did the four course.

Restaurant interior

Here's the menu

For the first course, we both chose the wahoo tiradito. This was very good! The fish was super fresh

Second course, I chose the camarones nocturnos, and husband chose the curried Spaniard empanada. My dish was a salt lick. It was almost inedible. The plantain chips were good, and the eggplant puree under the shrimp was nice, but the shrimp itself was awful. It was too bad because the texture was good and they tasted fresh. Husband's empanada looked a bit sad just sitting there on the plate, but the flavors were OK.

Third course, I chose the tuna dish and my husband had the whole fish. Both were....not good. As salty as the shrimp was, my couscous had no flavor at all! No salt, no sauce, nothing! The tuna was nicely cooked, but again, terribly bland. It had a dill coating, but nothing else. I ate about half of the tuna and a few bites of the couscous, just to eat something.

My husband's whole fish suffered the same fate. No seasoning at all on the fish. Meanwhile, the broccoli with it was insanely salty! He also sadly reported that it was not the freshest fish he has ever been served, to put it nicely. The rice and beans underneath were good.

The meal was redeemed by dessert. You had a choice of semifreddo key lime tart, brownie a la mode, or coconut tembleque. We both got the key lime tart, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was by far the best thing about the meal, and one of the best things we have eaten this trip! It was very tart and limey, just the way I like it.

Despite the delicious dessert, this definitely counts as the most disappointing meal of the trip so far. Oh well, you can't win them all!

I'm sorry to hear about that dinner - it's always disappointing when you're there and have a limited number of meals and one goes really wrong - not to mention the expense.

I love watching and listening to parrotfish crunching the coral!

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