Insider's Guide to the Best Restaurants on St. John
Let the grilled mahi mahi sizzle for a while after it reaches your table - the sumptuous side of asparagus will blend its flavor with the fish, and you'll never forget the unbelievable St. John fine dining experience.
Traveling throughout the Caribbean, one could easily become disenchanted by the commonality of every restaurant style that is presented to the constant flow of bewildered island vacationers. We've got seafood, is the common theme, but it's getting hard to surprise people with that. Many restaurants on many of the vacation destinations are worth eating at, but there seems to have been a loss of something special in the experience.
Fortunately, however, I've finally found a place where that "something special" is alive and well; St. John!
Come to St. John and sit back while the restaurant business struts its stuff for you while you visit one of the most savory of all of the U.S. Virgin Islands, cropped up in the heart of the fish-filled Caribbean Sea. Although the island is quite small, and its largest port and center of commerce at Cruz Bay is nothing more than a quite little village, happy island diners like you will be amazed by the vast selection and incredible quality of the top notch restaurants that there are to choose from here.
Due to the high prices, you may not choose to eat out every night - but then again, you might as well just go ahead and splash off into the sunset with a few samplings of the world's finest tropical island restaurants under your belt. That's why it is important to choose from the best of all of the restaurants on this fantastic island.
As a seasoned expert of the Caribbean - especially St. John - I'd have to start off my list of recommendations with the Mongoose Restaurant/North Shore Deli. It's one of the hippest eatery to say that you've been to, but I can assure you that there's no "emperor's new clothes" kind of spin going on with the well-earned reputation of the Mongoose Restaurant. That's because they are able to achieve a wonderful blend of ambience and attractive service with a solid foundation of quality food. First, however, you have to choose between the restaurant or the deli. While it's pretty good to be seen picking up a hefty sandwich at the to-go bar here, you'll not want to miss out on the jungly blue-lit swank-as-can-be interior restaurant experience. Here you can enjoy a deluxe variety of international cuisine including everything from seared snapper drizzled with a diced-fruit salsa specialty at dinner to a hearty quesadilla at lunch. Choose whatever is your heart's content from the menu, the quality is across-the-board excellent.
Another favorite place of mine is the Equator. If it were only for the unbelievable setting, I would give this restaurant my full approval upon first glance. The restaurant itself is housed in an abandoned sugar mill from the 1900's, and therefore guests are treated to a curving staircase and a circular (non-rotating) restaurant at the top that features incredible views of everything around it. Even the hollows wherein the molasses would turn into black sugar have been beautifully restored into ponds topped with lily pads.
For a night luxurious and romantic night out with the crème de la crème, book a table for two at Chloe and Bernard's. Located at the Westin Resort, this fabulous restaurant has created an atmosphere of such refinement that it is difficult not to feel relaxed in the grace and ease of simply everything that happens here. Enjoy both seafood and steak specialties always grilled to perfection with the finest cooked flavors and recipes on the island of St. John.
To eat out in a place that you can really let your hair down at, check out the Rumbalaya Bar and Restaurant. It's a fantastic place to throw down a few rum cocktails (it would be a specialty here, considering the name of the place). But the Rumbalaya Bar and Restaurant also offers a great menu selection of savory food that you can really sink your teeth into. You should know that one of the main purposes it serves is a dance club disco kind of atmosphere later on in the night. So stay around if you like good music!
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See you on the Island,
John "Big Hat" Walsh
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