Daily Herald "best of" is out

Best of 2019

Sale and Pepe congrats and being the best Italian Restaurant.

I don't put a lot of credence in this poll for various reasons and take the results with a grain of island sand.

This one at least seemed to have less CLOSED businesses in it. The only one I saw offhand that was closed was LaBamba..

Thanks, Carol for posting this. Of course, the award winners are strictly from Dutch St. Maarten and I don't believe any establishments on the french side are considered. But, that's okay. I agree with many of the selections they have made, but I do wonder about how they chose "best adult entertainment venue". Not that my wife will let find out anytime soon! And, it was nice to Chesterfields get recognized for so many awards. We go here every year for dinner and this place always delivers good service and good food, and I think it gets overlooked sometimes because of it's location.

It is the Dutch side newspaper, but I do agree that the French side is always under-represented. There are a couple of French side establishments in there, I think. I thought the French restaurants were particularly odd, since I don't really consider Mario's or Sol e Luna to be classical French, but what do I know?

For once, I will agree with Scubaman on this. I think Lazy Lizard is closed, at least it was every time we passed it in Nov. Topper's sure got a lot of mention.

Lazy Lizard doesn’t seem to be closed based on their Facebook activity.

I passed it multiple times in Nov. and it was never open. Perhaps they are only open on busy cruise ship days?

Lots of places on the Boardwalk are like that. Only open on cruise days.

Yet, Big Wood was open even when ships were not it. I was in town 3 times and only one of the days did not have ships and the Lazy Lizard was closed every time.

I'd venture to say that the Airport did not vote Nagico as best insurer!

I have no answers for you on that one.

We got a very good settlement with Nagico and helped one of our good home owner that doesn't live here with there settlement.

Exactly!!!

NAGICO completely screwed me. There was a fire above me and caused some damage.they settled instantly. Months later as the water settled in the walls etc my kitchen buckled and snapped My granite counter. They came out and said nope must be from something else!!! We gave up the fight. We were also insured by theM as was the guy above and the property!!!

Hysterical. The best list is pretty much a paid for gimmick to get more advertisement for the paper. Look how many paid for ads will appear from the “winners” for being the “best”. Just as hysterical are some of these sxm forms that the Amin’s recommends as the best food, rooms , bars etc when it’s really just pay to play. Don’t you think the sites or sxm forms should disclose that they are recommending their PAID advertisers? It’s not always from the heart but from the wallet! Unless you get a recommendation from a friend , family , etc don’t necessarily believe it. To much pay to play.

There are many winners who I have never seen a paid advertisement in the paper. Yvette's doesn't advertise at all but has won 6 times.

Sorry to hear this Kim.

May be a paid list but fun to read and agree Toppers a must for good drinks, rhum and food. Would like to see more on beach bars, vote for Le String on Orient.

I think we visit a different island?....agree with a couple but most...clueless about results.

I vote for Kenny's Car Rental.

That's interesting, I just noticed they apparently don't even have a category for car rentals. I guess that's because this is mostly a locals poll and most locals don't rent cars.

haha That is probably true.

Holy cow Carol! Did you check out Sunset Beach Cam? Packed with people!

Not sure what that's got to do with this topic, but looks crazy there for sure!

I always get a kick out of theBest of list....Best Pizza.....Dominoes???

The locals here love it.

Lots of visitors have it delivered to them too.

i thought the same thing about Dominoes, but hey, you like what you like.

IMHO!! This is no more than a popularity contest. Some of these places aren't even in business!!! Some of the winners made my head spin!! I don't have the answer, but there needs to be a better system of voting!

Voting is done on line, anyone can vote.

La Bamba closed years ago. This restaurant that won is called La BOmba, with an “O” after the first “B” in Bomba. La Bomba has been open for years and is still open and serving good Latin food in Cole Bay.

Oh, sorry. Only on SXM would there be two such similar sounding names!