TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Dining during the trip

Breakfasts

* Good Morning Cafe got most of our breakfast business ( and a few lunches) with espresso, Alonge coffees, fresh squeezed orange juice, continental breakfasts, omelets, chocolate croissants, croque monsieur, crogue madame, apple turnovers, and eclairs. Like a French bakery cafe with palm trees.

Lunches

* took a few baguette sandwiches to go after breakfast
* got carry-out pizza from Orange Fever to eat under a yellow umbrella
* Had several Perch burgers and Mahi Mahi sandwiches with fries.
** BACCHUS-Hope Estate. Reservations required. Very gourmet. 111 Euros with no wine. Massive wine and Champagne selection. Saw a bottle > 6000 euros. Worth a visit.

Dinners in order
* Marks Place. headed to Little Jerusalem on a Wednesday but they were closed so we went to Carrefour and Mark’s Place. Great meal Seafood de mere, Chicken Parm.
*Greenhouse Prime Rib. First one there, not busy. Ordered two King Cuts (one Med Rare, one medium). Unfortunately, they cut them at the same time and browned the sides of one to make a medium. It was pretty good but was hoping for a little better.
* Marks Place #2 Went back to Mark’s to get there prime rib but they didn’t have any. Ordered strip steaks MR and Medium. Both tasty and the medium was perfect.
* La Trattoria - Pretty good. More elegant than Olive Garden but not better. The Tiramisu was potent with cocoa and alcohol. Very good.
* Bistrot Caraibes - Our favorite place on the island. Well delivered as always. We will avoid the Caribbean lobster in future due to price.
* Little Jerusalem: $10 for the Famous Schwarma and $12 for the special Schwarma . Filling and delicious as always. Cash Only. Saw the father and the son.
* Marks Place #3: Both the “All you can eat” baby back ribs for $25. Hot and well prepared. Brought a full rack to start and 3 more plates without asking. Stuffed to the max.
* We had planned another village dinner but went to pharmacy and hit Rancho Del Sol instead. We love the view, drinks and pizza. We ate one Pony Express pizza, It was so good we ordered a second. Like $12 or $14 bucks. Excellent.

Mark’s place is the best bang for the buck and you can hit Carrefour at the same time. Great variety, good service, great food, great prices.
Good Morning Cafe was so good there was no need to deviate.
Little Jerusalem is a great meal for a great price.
Greenhouse was good with a great waitress who kept our happy hour beers cold.

Bye Bye Caribbean lobster. We will fly to Maine if we want lobster.

I agree with you about Mark's Place. Lots of choices and good value.

I am not a fan of throwing prime rib on the grill to get it more done. I had it at The Greenhouse last year, it was ok.

Agreed on your thoughts about La Trattoria

Little Jerusalem one of the best tasting sandwiches (shawarma) of all time

Mark's, great bang for the buck

Greenhouse prime rib as good as all the praises it gets

Next time in Orient check out Bona Mamma for good take away at great price although very limited menu

Good Morning Cafe is good but for the price for a treat but can cook up breakfast at "home" much more reasonably

Definitely agree about Mark's, especially in connection with Carrefour. The last couple trips, upon arrival we have dropped off our luggage at the "house" and then headed straight to Carrefour. I leave partway through the shopping and sit at the bar and order carryout to go. That first drink on island feels really good.. The food there is always tasty and plentiful. Usually enough leftovers for the next day.

Carol - "That first drink on island feels really good".

As do every one that follows. IMHO.

I tried the King cut once. Just too much to eat and very good too.

Where is Bona Momma?

We had planned to make more meals. We hit Super U before seeing the unit so we didn’t buy eggs, etc not knowing what we had to work with. We got Good Morning fever. But next time we will stock up and try to make most of our meals.

This was our first fully retired trip so we stare at the money gauge a little more than we used to.

Our gauge definitely was not updated/calibrated for current Caribbean lobster places. If we do spiny lobster again, it will be at Talk of the Town.

We need “Real Diet COke”, not coke light and Carrefour sells in bulk. So Marks will definitely get some of our dollars.

Never had a problem buying Real Diet Coke on the island. Especially at Carrefour or Market Garden.

Bona Momma is in Orient Village between Palm Court Hotel and Good Morning Cafe. Closer to Palm Court.

Whale Tail--agreed

Just found them on google. Looks like a lot of good things. We walked that strip, maybe they weren’t open the last 10 days or we were blind. Next time.