TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Saturday - 04/24

Another morning of coffee-and on our porch over-looking the brilliant blue green Caribbean waters. It’s such a treat to wake up to this each morning and sip our coffee as the occasional catamaran or sailboat passes by. Dreading the realities of going home soon because we won’t be having our coffee on our rear porch for a while yet.

We spent some serious time at the pool today and being the only ones there was pleasant, too. We also spent some time watching the Jet Blue flight that I’m thinking might not have made it out today. From our vantage point it looked like there might have been something wrong with a door but that’s strictly a guess, and it’s possible they did get out and this evening we were looking at a different JB plane in the same general area. I probably shouldn’t speculate ........ too late!

We had dinner at Mario’s Restaurant at the Cliffs. The service was incredible, the food delicious and the best of the best was our dinner companions. Thanks for making the evening so enjoyable.

I had the crispy duck and of course, the creamy onion soup Mario is noted for. We’ve been fans since he was by the bridge in Sandy Ground and followed him to Porto Cupecoy but I have to say, this location is, IMHO, about as good as it gets. It wasn’t what I’d call an inexpensive evening but, IMHO, it was worth every penny to spend an evening with these friends in such a lovely setting.

We returned home at about 11:00 and we were both surprised to see considerably more activity around Maho than we’ve seen any other night since we’ve been here.

So home and to bed, hoping to hit the sleepy-byes quickly tonight.

Your trip sounds wonderful, thank you for sharing it with us. We've been going to the Island for many years and have never tried Mario's. Maybe this year we will have to make it happen! You get so used to your "regulars", everyone wants to go back to the same place. Enjoy the remainder of your trip!

Pat--thanks for all your notes, sharing your vacation with us. I don't know whether we will try Mario's at the new location or not. It seems the prices there are much higher than when he was in Puerto Cupecoy? From my understanding, the location is much smaller?

Pat, although I haven't commented much, I've read every one of your daily reports and enjoyed each one. I wish we had been there to join your group at Mario's last night! We've not been to the new location, but will definitely do that in November! Hoping you and John will be back then too!!

Re the comments regarding Mario’s at the Cliffs at Cupecoy area, I would recommend everyone try it at least once and decide for yourself. Quite truthfully, we are middle of the roaders when it comes to dining out - not foodies at all and don’t particularly enjoy spending my right arm for a meal but on the other hand, I won’t pass on the occasional high-end experience for the sake of a few dollars above my norm either. I have to say, last night was well worth it.

You can keep the costs down a bit by avoiding the bottled table water and apps and sharing a dessert if it’s even in your wheelhouse to order these items in the first place. We didn’t do any of the above last night. The creamy style onion soup was delicious and we all absolutely enjoyed our entrees. I ordered the duck which was very good. And the desserts? To die for!! I’m pretty boring in that I only ordered a scoop of raspberry sorbet as my dessert but it, too, was heavenly.

One recommendationsvfor those planning on trying it - make reservations!! To me it seems a bit smaller than their prior locations (I could be wrong on that) but a bit more upscale in my opinion and the parking last night was tough.

Ha I can’t wait to go, made my reservation right after Easter for Mother’s Day!!!!🤦🏻‍♀️ Still can’t believe we haven’t walked over. I hear their lunches are amazing as well. Did you get there for Sunset? Much for upscale compared to watching sunset from the Cliffhanger!!

No sunset but it was a gorgeous setting. Our host had reserved a table on the water side of the dining room and it was lovely. More upscale than the old Cliff Hanger? Ya think?! Oh, yea!

Pat--parking issues? I thought you just drive in and park in the Cliffs parking? Is there valet parking available?

You drive through the main gated entrance - there’s a speaker box there but the gate opens automatically - but the parking, while seemingly adequate for the restaurant, comes up short if there’s another event going on and last night there was. It all worked but we got there ahead of the rest of our group and we hoped they’d be able to use the only spot left. The event broke up shortly after and by the time we left there were all kinds of spaces but it was well after 10:00 at that point.

You don’t park in the lower resident parking area.

Edited to add - no valet parking that I saw.

OK, thanks. That is still concerning to me, to possibly even make reservations and no place to park????

You worry too much. It will all work out and the food was worthy of the concern over the parking.

I guess I was just surprised about there being parking issues there, as I hadn't heard that before.

I’m pretty certain the lack of parking was only due to the special event being held at The Cliff that had nothing to do with Mario’s. There were a lot of people there in attendance when we arrived and there was only one parking space available. We parked and waited only a few minutes before the rest of our group arrived and they were able to take the only spot that had become available while we were waiting.

OK, thanks

Mario's was the one place we never got to that we had on our list. I wanted to see their new location and it sounds like it is very nice. Will definitely make it on our return trip in August.

We had lunch with a friend at Mario's a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing, every mouthful! We're like Pat, we like good food but honestly can get great food here for not much $. This was a real treat and so glad we went. Our first time at any of his locations, now I'm sorry we waited so long. Yeah, it was an expensive lunch but next special occasion.....

We walked, it's just next door. No problem parking, there were plenty spaces at that time. Two other tables, a large family and another couple.