Restaurant Recommendations?

We are on the island now and have hit our favorite restaurants from last trip - and a few new ones. But, we are spending big $$$ on food (which we expected). We are wondering if you could recommend a few more budget friendly spots to eat in the Simpson Bay or Maho areas. We see lots of options, but are not sure which to pick!

Thanks,
Laura

Had lunch at Rosie's yesterday..,..... probably one of the best meals since we've been here this trip. ElZafiro for breakfast has been awesome too.

Not in Simpson Bay but not far, if you have never tried Mark's Place I would highly suggest it. Lots of good choices, reasonable prices and frequented by locals and visitors alike. Bar Code and Fat Tony's are options in the Maho area.

Little Jerusalem Shwarma

We second the recommendation on Mark's. Open for lunch and dinner and also do takeout' Good food, good portions, reasonably priced, friendly, helpful, staff. Located near CarreFour, so easy parking and convenient if you need something at the store.

lals, avantika, vesnas

Thanks for all the suggestions so far - they are very helpful! Keep 'em coming!

Attached, if I was able to do it correctly, are a few pics. Sand outside our car window at Maho; big waves at rocky beach, Cupecoy; sharing Simpson Bay with Kaos & Christina O.

Just my 2 cents so far. We have been able to dine safely here. We only are visiting locations with outdoor dining this trip. I am happy to see that while the restaurants are not crazy busy, most that we have visited have had their tables fairly full. All waiters have been wearing masks appropriately and we are required to mask up and wash our hands before entering the grocery store. In fact, the only people we have seen refusing to wear masks when appropriate have been (sadly, but not surprisingly) very vocal Americans.

I know it's a very personal decision for everyone, but with our minimal age risk, protective equipment, and our ability to test and quarantine as needed when we return home, we are happy with our decision to come on and support the island as much as we can. I guess we will see how difficult the testing and return trip will be next week!

Lal's, definitely. I wouldn't call either Avantika or Vesna Taverna budget-friendly, although both are very good. We also really love The Palms. Again, not exactly budget-friendly, but the portions are huge so we often share an entrée.

Thanks for the pics!

Regarding budget friendly, I definitely second Marks. (Although I guess that's a 'third', not a second! ) Most of their entres are big enough that you have enough left over for another meal, and not expensive to begin with. Also suggest Rosie's, for sure. And I think it's called Captain D's in Simpson Bay, ribs and chicken, etc., mostly a carry-out place. And Cupecoy has several budget options, like Fat Tony's (pizza, BBQ, etc), Spaghetti House. Also, lots of great sandwich fixings available at most any grocery store, to take to the beach for lunch. Enjoy!

Cupecoy, as already mentioned, is home to Fat Tony’s which features a grilled steak dinner on Tuesdays for US $20.00 which is very good - grilled rib-eye steak with baked potato and a plate salad - no substitutes. It was very good. The other favorite of ours in Cupecoy is the Spaghetti House. Reasonably priced Italian food prepared under the tutelage of one of SXMs primo Italian restaurant families. Not to forget BarCode in Cupecoy - really good food in a very friendly Cupecoy location. We love Rosie’s and Marks, too. There are countless good restaurants that aren’t budget busters but you have to make the effort to find them.

Edited to add:

We typically spend a ton of money on dining on most of our trips but for our last trip we chose to eat at places more conducive to open air dining due to Covid concerns and many of them off our typical dining path. We were amazed to discover we could have a really good sit down dinner for not very much money. While it’s always nice to save a little, that really wasn’t our main objective but it didn’t hurt to have it turn out that way either.

I would second Little Jerusalem shwarma. It is great and very inexpensive.

Lee's and Greenhouse.

We had 3 meals at Lee's.....consistent, friendly, good food, and basically outdoors

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Lee’s and also at Mark’s. We tried several nights to go to the Greenhouse (near the Atrium) but were never able to find a place to park. Planned to have a late afternoon lunch at the Pberg location but we got side-tracked so we ended up at Mark’s instead. No regrets because the food there is always good as well.

Should be able to find parking in the now closed BBB lot unless it is blocked off.

Right now probably would be a different situation with regard to parking anywhere..

We used to go to the Greenhouse a lot when we were staying at either Royal Palm or Atrium and didn't have to worry about parking. Always enjoyed Happy Hour there..

The lot below is blocked off...there are some spaces up top but they are rarely available

That's a shame that lot is blocked off.

To bad. Would be nice if Greenhouse or Lee's could swing a deal and lease the parking.

Not only is the BBB parking lot not available, they removed the decking from the large dinghy dock right there! It was really convenient. I guess someone's afraid of liability claims?

My last meal in St. Martin before leaving for Grenada for storm season, and my first meal upon our return. LOVE it.

Ritchard--that's my guess also, as well as worry about potential damage to the property itself, with no one around ever to protect it.

Had a very nice dinner at El Zifiro last night. Great quality and presentation.......unfortunately we were the only customers there!!! Drove thru Welfare Road area prior to dinner and it was eerily quiet.....SB Sunday and SBYC was 1/2 empty. Without am infusion of suppòrt not sure how many here can hang on. Waitress at dinner said they were cutting back hours, that things were getting worse instead of better. Very sad state of business affairs island wide.

Little jerusalem will tastily fill you up and wont break the bank

Yes very true and rough for a lot us in business. Prayers .