TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Sunday June 12

As has been my pattern so far this trip, I was up way early at 6:30. So I decided to make myself useful and make some potato salad. We don't eat that many potatoes at home, so having potato salad is a treat for us these days. I do enjoy cooking, although of course I have no illusions about those cooking skills. I can watch the Food Network with the best of them!

Eventually Eric got up and we had a light breakfast and headed out to Le Suciere for breakfast supplies for tomorrow. I don't think we have ever gone to Le Suciere on Sunday mornings, but OMG!!! The line around 9 AM was literally out the door, and the parking lot was double parked all over (but with the help of a security guard, to keep things in line) I got some ham and cheese quiche and some croissants for tomorrow. Then we headed to Market Garden for a couple things. I refused to pay $5 for a really SMALL jar of mayo, so we went from there to Maho Market, where I found some for $3. Of course I had paid under $2 for the jar I had bought at Carrefour and then used totally up on my potato salad. It surely does pay to shop around here! Almost everything I looked at, at Maho Market was cheaper there than at Market Garden, including wine. Lesson learned, again. Avoid Market Garden!!

So, back to the 'house' to put away our treasures and hang out for the day. Since today was Sunday, which is the second biggest day at the airport after Saturday, I wanted to hang out by the pool some and take in some airplane comings and goings. Because of the heavy Sahara dust, the pictures aren't the greatest.















We also watched a sailing school out front for a while, which was great fun. At one point they were practicing with spinnakers, and things got a little dicey a few times!



The past couple of days, the Sahara dust has been intense. The skies have been really hazy and certainly no hint of Saba in the distance. I hope we do get to see her again. We saw her briefly the day we arrived, but not since then. There have been no ships in since the day we arrived.

Lunchtime came, and we cooked grilled chicken sandwiches, with my potato salad.


After, I swam in the pool some, hung out under the gazebo, read my book and somehow, drifted off to sleep for a bit.

Today we went back and forth about where we were going for dinner. Eric wanted to try Altro, which we thought had a 3 course prix fix menu for $29. I was very skeptical of that, but we finally decided to just go to Puerto Cupecoy and see what shook out. We left BSV around 7:15 and passed by the new restaurant on Mullet around 7:30, at which time, there were still a half dozen cars parked on the side of the road there, so I guess they have not been towing cars there after all.

We arrived at POC and walked around and eventually decided on Altro after all. The prix fix menu is now $36, but the menu looked good, so we picked it.





The owner (??) was out front encouraging folks in. He was quite the character, but he and the other waiter really HUSSLED to serve the tables. At one point, he admitted that they were down a waiter for the evening. They were almost full, so we figured they must be doing something right. At one point there were perhaps 3 tables for 3 that were NOT occupied. None of the other restaurants that we saw had more than a couple of tables occupied (although we did not go down the stairs to check out Big C's, I think it is).

The specials menu looked good also, but we both decided on the regular prix fix menu. I decided on the crab cake


The crab cake had a hint of spice and unusual flavor to it, which was wonderful.

and Eric had the tempura shrimp.



The shrimp looked a tiny bit overcooked but tasted great.

We both got glasses of wine by the glass, which were $8 for a very decent sized glass of wine. I had the lamb chop and leg of lamb combo



and Eric had the fish pot seafood combo.



Both were excellent! For dessert, Eric had the pear



The pear TASTED much better than it looked.

and I had the creme brulee



]with coffee. There was NO service charge added, unlike even Driftwood, which added 15% tip. What's the world coming to, that Driftwood does an auto tip? Our meal, with the 3 courses, one bottle of water, 2 glasses of wine and coffee, including a 20% tip, was $120. WELL worth it. For the first time in a VERY long time, we are considering going back to the same restaurant twice in one trip. We told the waiter that before he left, and he said that was an ultimate complement.

We got back to Beacon Hill right around 10 PM and for the first time this trip, the security guard was there and the gate was down.

Looked like a wonderful meal with nice selections to choose from.

Putting Altro on the list for next visit. Thanks for the pics looks wonderful.

Re the guard on White Sands Road, we were there in November '21 when I believe the guard house was first put in use and the guards would be there from about 6pm to whenever. When we were there in April we didn't see anyone there until almost the end of our trip and when I asked about it, someone suggested that simple economics had forced them to change the service to later in the evening and again, until 'whenever'........ Truthfully this made more sense to us than having them there so early. We were usually in most evenings by ninish but the few late nights we experienced, they were there doing their checks.

Carol,
That was a boatload of potato salad!!! You should have sprang for the big mayo! LOL
Cheers
Food looks great.
i

Irina--Well, I didn't intend to make the potato salad when we bought the mayo, but stuff happened!

Scuba and Whale Tail--definitely, it was a wonderful meal.

Pat--the guard here comes on at 6, but I do agree that a little later for the one on White Sands Road, probably makes sense.

We found the food and service at Altro to be very good,
I'm surprised about the service charge. Maybe they upped the price and took off all the
comments about tax and service charge.
That's good, because it makes people more comfortable about returning.

Your plane pictures are great!!

I remembered some 'stuff' about tax or service charge or something in the past, but couldn't find any recent comments about it. We were very happy with our visit there.

Thanks for your comment regarding the plane pictures, but the weather didn't really cooperate. Hoping for less haziness in the next few days.

We have enjoyed several very good meals at Altro at $29.00 and they did add in the service charge.
Funny to mention it but it is one of the few restaurants on the island where the servers actually hustled to give good service.
Even at current price it's a bargain considering the quality of the food.
After all the fancy restaurants, we find Altro casual and a close drive to Maho.

Driftwood may add a service charge because of the daily ship travelers who may not tip well.
We have always had good service at Driftwood and the bartender makes some very good mixed drinks.
No problem with them adding the service charge.

"Maybe they upped the price and took off all the comments about tax and service charge."
Well if that's the case it's a win win for the restaurant. Raise prices and still get tips instead of retaining price and adding a SC.

mahokid--Oh, I have no problem at all with the price we paid for Altro. The food was excellent, as was the service. We tipped 20% and they were definitely worth it. If there is no auto-tip, we generally tip 20%.

We were there in May. At that time they added a 15% service charge and stated on bill that the service charge did NOT include tip. We decided that was the last time going there. Glad they changed policy as we really enjoyed going there. Will try again next year.

Interesting. I looked twice at the bill to make sure there was no service charge. $36 x 2 plus $16 for wine plus $10 for the coffee (which was the only thing I thought was too high). As I said, it was packed there. Perhaps it got around that they had done away with the s/c?

Loved the potato salad especially in the Red Chinese army quantities. I’d be afraid I would eat the whole thing.

Tim--come on down! There's plenty left!

so they raise the price 24%, but remove the 15% SC line item…and now people smile while they pay the 24% price increase + 15-20+% tip…that’ll teach those greedy restaurateurs!

My thoughts too.

We never went there before, so don't know what the quality of the food was, and the size of the portions. All I can say is that I am happy with what we paid. I also don't know when they raised the price, because EVERYPLACE that I know has raised their prices this year. I didn't see any menus or prices online from this year. The $29 price I was seeing was from last year.

I agree with Carol.
I'd rather have one set amount and not the !5% tax, plus 15% SC and then
a note saying tips not included.

Everything is more expensive now and seeing one set, reasonable price is okay with me.
They could have raised the price and still had all the additional fees!!!