St. John VI restaurants

liamsaunt · May 30, 2022

Yesterday we went back to our favorite Francis, just to swim. Husband was still babying his knee a little bit after bashing it. We got our usual spot at the end, away from almost everyone else

We decided to keep food light yesterday, and went to town to eat dinner at the bar at Rum Hut, mainly because there's a nice view of the sunset there. Here's the menu

Husband's margarita

The view

We split the blackened mahi mahi bites and the sesame shrimp from the snacks section of the menu

And then shared an order of the tuna tacos

Everything was tasty, but we both agreed our favorite thing was the salad with the mahi bites! I think we are officially veggie deprived by now, compared to how many we eat at home. Another shot of the sunset

And of the bottles behind the bar in the afterglow. I'm curious what that big blue and white ceramic bottle is, but forgot to ask the bartender

After dinner we walked across town to get some ice cream at St. John Scoops. I chose toasted coconut and husband chose guava

Both were delicious.

And one unrelated photo: I am a big reader, and love looking at all of the books the house owners and prior guests leave behind in the vacation homes we rent. I often leave the books have read while staying there behind too. (One time we rented a house down here for three weeks and left behind twelve books. When we rented the house again two years later, all but one of the books had been taken. I took the sad rejected book back home with me haha). Anyway, I always nominate one book I find at each rental house as the most unusual option. Here is my selection from this house 🤣

KennethT · May 30, 2022

Very nice. what was the sauce with the mahi bites and shrimp? It looks to be the same.... The blue and white bottle is tequila - Clase Azul.

liamsaunt · May 31, 2022

On 5/30/2022 at 9:58 AM, KennethT said:

Very nice. what was the sauce with the mahi bites and shrimp? It looks to be the same.... The blue and white bottle is tequila - Clase Azul.

The mahi had a remoulade style sauce, and the shrimp had a spicy sriracha-mayo type sauce.

Yesterday we woke up to a rainbow. It brought rain to the island in the photo, but not here unfortunately. By the way, the island in the photo is a private island that was owned by the disgraced and deceased Jeffrey Epstein. It is on the market and can be yours for the bargain price of $125 million. Creepy vibes and bad karma included for free!

Yesterday was a big beach day for the locals and the tourists. Parking at the sandy ones was basically gone for the day by 10AM. I think a fight broke out for our spot when we left. We went to Cinnamon and walked down towards the end. The roped off area in the photo is a leatherback turtle nest that was laid a few weeks ago. I don't think there has been a viable leatherback nest on St. John since 2005 (there are lots of green and hawksbill turtles here, but the leatherbacks tend to nest on St. Croix). Hopefully it is viable.

Beachy blues

Last night we went to dinner at La Tapa Plage in town. We had a gift certificate from Christmas 2019 that was a gift from my parents to spend. Our 2020 visit to St. John was cancelled because of Covid, and then the restaurant closed for a couple of years to move to a new location. They just reopened on St. Patrick's Day of this year, and we were looking forward to eating there again. Here's the menu. It's quite similar to the one they had in their old location. They were out of the artichoke and the mussels last night.

The restaurant (I took this photo right when we arrived. It filled up very quickly thereafter)

The view from our table

Husband's cocktail

I really wanted to try the conch stew but the sun was shining right on me and I was pretty warm, so I went with the gorgonzola caesar to start. It was very good

Husband chose the bacalao fritters. I tried to gently dissuade him from getting these. Every time we eat here, he wants to order these, and every time he gets them he says they have too much potato. He got them again, and guess what? He thought they had too much potato! He needs to listen to me haha

For mains, my husband chose the mahi mahi. He said it was excellent

I chose the tuna. It was fantastic, probably my favorite tuna dish of the trip so far

We had a nice sunset with the main dishes

We knew we still had some money left on the gift card at this point, but were not really hungry, so we decided to get a couple of ice creams to share. We tried the lemon lavender and the carajillo. We both thought the carajillo was spicier than we were expecting, but the lemon lavender was nice.

By the way, it's hard to tell from the photo, but these are really small--less than a kiddie cup size. If we did not have the gift card we would not have chosen these at $15 each. But, as you can see, it worked out perfectly haha (the waiter got tipped in cash on top of the gift card of course!).

We have no reservations today so not sure what we are doing for food, but I am sure we will think of something. 🙂

Edited May 31, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

liamsaunt · June 1, 2022

Yesterday we drove around the island--to a neighborhood we were considering renting a home in for a family trip next summer (turned out to be a hard no, the house is beautiful but the road to it is a horrible chore), and then over to one of the furthest spots in Coral Bay for some snorkeling. You need four wheel drive to get over here, so we usually have the place to ourselves. We had not ventured here since the storms, so were unsure what to expect underwater.

The moonscape beach

Unfortunately, this area has not recovered well from the hurricanes, so no underwater photos today. It was nice to snorkel for a couple of hours though.

We stopped by a little bar/restaurant for lunch while on that side of the island, Aqua Bistro

We got an order of the mahi tacos and the shrimp tacos. They were pretty paltry. Mahi

Shrimp

We had planned this to be our only meal for the day, but obviously plans would have to change! We encountered heavy traffic while leaving Coral Bay

And then went for a late afternoon swim at Trunk Bay. There were cruise ships in port on St. Thomas yesterday, but we figured the cruisers would be gone by now. In prior years, the call for "Back to the Ship!" came at 3PM. We discovered that unfortunately that is no longer the case

Back to the Ship! Is apparently at 4PM these days. After 4PM the beach was much nicer

We got back to our rental house to see the sun set from the deck. It was a bit cloudy.

We were hungry, so headed in to town to find something casual. Husband lobbied for the Beach Bar, one of his favorites. The bar was crowded so I did not want to take a picture of it and disturb anyone. It's very funky inside. Here is the area where we were sitting

Menu. Typical bar food

Husband's margarita

Tuna down now

Fried shrimp

Fried mahi mahi.

Our last fancy dinner of the trip is this evening, and I am hoping for a good sunset.

Edited June 1, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

liamsaunt · June 2, 2022

Yesterday was our 25th anniversary, and our last "big" meal on this trip. But first, lunch at High Tide. I kept things lighter with a caesar salad with shrimp (I basically ate the shrimp and left most of the salad). Husband got fish and chips. Drink

And we had to get some soft serve from Irie Pops

We spent the afternoon at Trunk. Here is a photo from the scenic overlook. Trunk is consistently voted one of the best beaches in the Caribbean.

Later that night it was off to Zozos at Caneel Bay for dinner. Here's a sailboat bringing a party in to dine. I meant to set something like that up for us, but never got around to it.

The resort is still destroyed from the 2017 hurricanes, but the current leaseholder's option runs out next year, and someone new will be taking over, and hopefully restoring it to some form of its old self.

View from the check in area

The restaurant from the dock

We had the table on the rail all the way to the left, with a nice view of the water and dock

Here's the menu and wines by the glass list

Husband got a cocktail named "Two Butt Beach" after one of the seven private beaches on the resort's property. The beach was definitely big enough for more than two people, but that was its nickname back before the storms. It was actually our least favorite of the seven beaches so I thought it was funny that he picked that cocktail.

The menu is prix fixe and you chose one option from each section at the start of your meal. They bring out an antipasto to start. This is tasty and hard not to eat too much of it, knowing all the food that is coming.

We both chose the wild mushroom pappardelle for our first course.

And the mahi mahi for our main course. My husband added a butter poached lobster tail to his, but I did not get a picture.

We picked two desserts to share., the vanilla cheesecake with blueberry compote and the chocolate torta. Neither of us were hungry at this point, so most of the desserts went uneaten, though they were both very good. We both agreed the ice cream on the chocolate dessert was our favorite part of either dish

View of St. Thomas and the moon to end the evening

kayb · June 2, 2022

A very worthwhile celebration of 25 years!

lindag · June 2, 2022

55 minutes ago, kayb said:

A very worthwhile celebration of 25 years!

Loved seeing your trip and your great dishes. I am SO envious!

rotuts · June 2, 2022

@liamsaunt

congratulations !

TicTac · June 2, 2022

Congrats on the 25 - lovely dinner and view; will be tough to beat!

Anna N · June 2, 2022

Congratulations and thank you.

weinoo · June 2, 2022

Happy Anniversary...is that a Cape Cod T-shirt on husband at lunch?

**TdeV** · June 2, 2022

Congratulations! Thanks for the incredible photo journey.

liamsaunt · June 3, 2022

19 hours ago, weinoo said:

Happy Anniversary...is that a Cape Cod T-shirt on husband at lunch?

Nope! It should be though, we spend enough time there haha.

Yesterday we basically punted on food. We did stop at a local deli and pick up a couple of sandwiches for lunch. I got a rock shrimp, remoulade and arugula one (bread is universally terrible down here, probably because of the humidity, so I just scooped out and ate the filling), and my husband chose a more traditional cold cuts style of sandwich. Shrimp

Cold cuts

I thought I would go a bit off topic and use this post to show why we keep coming back here over and over--the snorkeling. Here are a couple of things we spotted yesterday. Spotted trunkfish

Feather duster worm

Arrow crab pair

Horse-eyed jack

French angelfish

Blue tang with porkfish

Needlefish

Barred hamlet

Baby sea turtle

Porcupinefish (when they are excited or threatened, they have big spikes that stick out everywhere! I've seen this in a mating pair once)

Full grown sea turtle with remora attached

The beach, post snorkel

And dinner, a frozen coconut popsicle from Irie Pops in the pool with sunset

It's the last full day of our visit today. Time to get out there!

Edited June 3, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

KennethT · June 3, 2022

@liamsauntthanks so much for this - I really enjoyed vicariously living your trip and happy anniversary!

rotuts · June 3, 2022

wonderful pictures.

great looking food

many thanks for sharing

rotuts · June 3, 2022

@liamsaunt

P.S.: and an added thanks for the Menu's

heidih · June 3, 2022

Wonderful underwater pics! Love the remora + turtle. I follow Sherman's Lagoon so nice to see a real one in action.

Edited June 3, 2022 by heidih (log)

liamsaunt · June 6, 2022

Now that I am home--back to the chaos that is three bathrooms being renovated at the same time--here is the final installment of our trip. For our last lunch, we drove out to our favorite, Miss Lucy's. The sargassum had abated a bit

We shared an order of callaloo soup with crab

and then ordered a grouper reuben and a crunchy grouper sandwich and split them

We spent the afternoon at one of our favorite beaches, Cinnamon

And had dinner at Rum Hut, where we split an order of mahi mahi sliders and tuna tacos

One final sunset from the deck of our rental villa

And then the next morning, the saddest view of all, the island's downtown from the water taxi to the airport

We'll be back!

Edited June 6, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

liamsaunt · February 25, 2023

Well, here we are, back again. We were supposed to go to Turks and Caicos last week for our winter trip, but my husband's passport renewal got held up for weeks longer than they estimated, so we had to cancel. Of course the passport showed up the day after we were supposed to fly. Oh well! I was surprised we were able to find a place to stay so last minute, but it all worked out. We had to rent a Jeep on St. Thomas and bring it over on the car barge, which was an interesting experience. It's raining quite hard this morning, so I thought I would start this report back up. Here's the view from the house we are renting (from yesterday, when it was sunny)

Into the bay. I can see a couple of houses we rented on prior visits in this picture. Supposedly we can get down to the rocky beach nearest to us in the photo. Something to explore later.

We were really tired and just wanted a quick meal, so we ate at the bar at Longboard. Menu

Drinks. Husband had a sun shower, and I tried the Cruz Bay'n from the mocktail menu. It was quite good. I usually find mocktails too sweet, but this one wasn't

Mahi mahi seveche

Shrimp aguachile

Fish sliders to share

Fish tacos to share

Husband's second cocktail, a pain-quila

Edited February 25, 2023 by liamsaunt (log)

rotuts · February 25, 2023

@liamsaunt

looking forward to your trip.

and than k you for the menu's

kayb · February 25, 2023

Love that glass for husband’s second cocktail. Pleased to be going back to the islands with you!

liamsaunt · February 26, 2023

Yesterday was mostly a washout. It did clear enough in the afternoon that we were able to walk over and explore the rocky beach near the house. It looks like there might be some snorkeling offshore. We will possibly get over there later this week. Right now I am nursing a toe injury that occurred right after we arrived. I went to open a window in the house, and it popped out of the frame and landed directly on my big toe! It's just badly bruised, but it's swollen enough that I think putting my snorkel fins on might be uncomfortable. I think it will be good to go by tomorrow. Anyway, here's the beach.

And the house we are staying in, seen from the beach.

The house is by itself at the end of the point. There was another house nearby, but it was destroyed in the hurricanes five years ago and has not been rebuilt. All that is left is the foundation platform and a couple of roof supports. You can kind of see part of what's left of that house's roof behind our house.

Last night we went to Morgan's Mango for lobster night. I forgot my reading glasses, so had to rely on my husband to tell me what was on the menu. Of course, then I got home and saw these pictures and saw other stuff I wish I had ordered haha. Drinks. Husband had a margarita and I just had club soda with lime.

First course.

We split the seveche

and the cajun shrimp

Mains

I chose the coconut shrimp for my entree (but if I had seen the paella I would have gotten that!)

Husband had the lobster of course

We split a slice of key lime pie

We don't have any reservations for this evening. It's interesting--the island is quite crowded, but the restaurants are not nearly as busy as when we were here in the summer. Not sure if everyone is cooking at their rental villas, or brought prepared foods from home...or maybe everyone's on a diet!

Anna N · February 26, 2023

23 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

Not sure if everyone is cooking at their rental villas, or brought prepared foods from home...or maybe everyone's on a diet!

Have you noticed any sort of outrageous price increase in the restaurant meals?

liamsaunt · February 27, 2023

On 2/26/2023 at 8:27 AM, Anna N said:

Have you noticed any sort of outrageous price increase in the restaurant meals?

No, I cannot say that I have really. Almost everyone is adding a "credit card convenience fee" of around 4% if you use a card, but it's stated directly on the menu or at the door. Some places are also now including the gratuity directly. For example, when we ate at the Longboard, a 20% fee was included, and there was a line with options to circle if you wanted to add more, plus another line to add a custom add on gratuity. That was new. But, adding the gratuity is common in lots of tourist areas. Maybe some people are still wary of eating in restaurants post Covid. The tourist demographic does skew older in the winter. There are a lot of retired people here for sure. When we come back in the summer, it will be a lot of young families, and we will be the ones to feel old!

We spent yesterday at our favorite beach, Francis. It was crowded (by St. John standards), so we set up on the rocky part by ourselves.

We did not snorkel because of my toe injury, but we did swim, and I had a friendly baby fish take shelter with me. My husband got a picture. It stayed with me the entire time I was in the water.

We drove into Coral Bay for lunch. The place we wanted to go was crowded, so we ended up back at Aqua Bistro. They got all new cooking staff, so I was hoping for a better meal than we had last summer. Restaurant view.

Conch fritters. These were spicy, hot, and very good!

I had a mani sandwich. The fish was nice and fresh.

Husband opted for shrimp tacos.

After lunch we stopped by one of the hidden beaches in Coral Bay so I could look for sea glass. I am obsessed with sea glass. My house is filed with jars of it from all the places I go. The beach:

15 minutes of searching led to a big handful.

All the parking at the beaches was still full by the time we came back into the National Park, so we just went back to the villa to talk about, of course, what we wanted for dinner. Neither of us wanted anything fancy, so we just went to see what we could find. The place we wanted to go was closed for the day, and the Beach Bar was packed, so we decided to go get tacos at a new to us place, Greengoes. Terrible name. They make their own tortillas though, and it's cheap, so we figured if it was not good, no big deal. They are famous for a big wall of tequila

They also have big tvs, so people come here for sporting events.

Husband got a cucumber cooler. He said it was very refreshing.

I chose shrimp tacos. I gave husband one to compare with his lunch shrimp taco. He liked this one better than lunch.

Husband got mahi tacos

Vacation calls for dessert, so it was off to St. John Scoops

I got mint chocolate chip and he had toasted coconut in a waffle cone

Later today we are taking a boat shuttle to a nearby cay to check out a new eco resort over there and have dinner. We almost stayed over there instead of on St. John this trip, but husband was leery of the glamping concept. Should be interesting! Lovango Resort

Edited February 27, 2023 by liamsaunt
extra picture (log)

gfweb · February 27, 2023

@liamsaunt completely agree about sea glass. Nice collection you have.

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