TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Altra restaurant

Hoping pictures are attached.
Altra in Puerto Cupecoy

Nightly $29 3 course prix fix with 4 choices for each course along with some daily specials with a small upcharge although it is not clearly stated on the menu board
Appetizers calamari with potatoes and tuna tataki
Entrees beef cheeks (excellent, very tender), pasta with salmon (small upcharge but leftovers for lunch)
Dessert coconut mousse, lemon custard with merignue

Service was from friendly French waiter who hustled (not usual on island)
highly recommend

Looks good but an upcharge on the entrée selection for a prefixed menue?

Scubaman

while an upcharge it is still only $34 at most for a three course meal

Nice selections

I noticed that they still have the 15% tax on the menu, that we paid years ago.
Then they added 15% service.
That is 30% before tip!!

That is the reason we never went back.

No one seems to mind this, and they do get good reviews.

Terri--I personally would not leave any tip, but I also would have a hard time with 30% added on. I don't think we will be going there. It seems like they are charging a low price to get people in the door, then tricking them into paying more. I'm not down for that.

That is a real deal breaker for me. Tax and service charge. No way.

Pretty sure the 15% sc is service charge and not a tax and not a deal breaker

Still left another 10% for such a reasonably priced meal with good service

OK, it depends on whether it is 15% plus 15% or only 15%. But regardless I do NOT add anything if they put an automatic service charge on the bill. It's a matter of principle. We normally tip around 20% if there is no automatic service charge.

Carol, we add 5% at most if a 15% s/c is tacked on. Interesting: At Reveil Matin for breakfast, 15% was added, but they actually called it a tip, not a s/c.

No, I believe the menu says tax, but it's not clear in the picture..
When we were there, There was a sign saying 15% tax and and another 15% was added to our bill for service charge.
They told us the service charge was not a tip.

We are also use to the 15% service charge and use it as part of the tip---this was 30% before tip.
I wrote about it back then, but never added another comment since--until this post.

That is my philosophy too. If they think that is all they are worth that is what they get.

This all looked really nice!! I was just say about bad service and over priced meals. But this "double 15%"? I'm in the service industry, if service is good, I don't care what the bill is, I tip from my heart!! Most times that's over 20%!! I don't need to be "tricked" into double paying on "tax"!! We'll stop by, test the waters with an app or two!! Thanks for sharing!!

A lot of places do that on the Dutch side now. So long as it's marked as a tip or a service charge, to ME, that's the same thing, and I don't consider that deceptive. Calling a 15% add-on a TAX is totally deceptive..

The tax thing with reference to Sint Maarten always gets me. Tipping should NEVER be required and it should be deserved. That’s just my personal opinion, and it used to be the accepted rule that SXM was a tax-free island.

But that said, we’ve never allowed a wait-person to NOT receive a tip, even if they didn’t deserve it. Courage of my convictions? I guess not…..at least not in this case.

I thought the only restaurant tax was the TOT and that wasn’t supposed to be passed on to the consumer as a tax on the check but was intended as a tax to the business itself. I realize all taxes end up being paid by the end consumer, just like the island hotel tax that runs anywhere from 5% to whatever they can get away with and likewise the car rental tax which seems to vary from concession to concession.

IMHO, if it’s shown on the bill on the Dutch side, it’s a tip! Regardless of what the server or the proprietor says. We usually leave a little more up to the 20 to 25 % level but the service has to be good and the extra money goes directly into the hands of our server.

Pat--that is absolutely correct--there are no taxes on SXM that are supposed to be passed on to the consumer. SOME places, despite the law, pass on TOT to consumers, but even that, which is illegal, as far as I'm concerned, is only 5%..

Jimbo's always tacked on the TOT. That kept me away just because of principle.