a great place to eat!

I have to share this information because it's only fair to let everyone know:) There's a restaurant we discovered recently which is unbelievably good. We thought of going there already last year yet the ambience turned us off. We were wrong to let that (mis)guide us. Although the decor and general feeling of a place are important features when choosing a place to eat out, I think that in a place with limited options, as SXM, maybe that criteria should not get in the way too often.
It's not that the place looks bad or untidy or aesthetically incorrect...I'm just very picky. And it made me feel at least 20 years too young to be there. On second thought, knowing myself, 20 years from now, if the decor does not change, I will still most likely feel it is not my kind of ambience. It's all perfectly colour matched, tidy, spacious, modern....just whatever it is ...something's there or something's missing. Won't dwell on it, because it's much less relevant.

The food, the food was wow! I would go back any time, recommend it to anybody and praise it endlessly, because the chef deserves all the free publicity possible. I'm talking about the Temptation behind the Atlantis Casino in Cupecoy, Dutch side. I hope if the chef ever reads this post does not hold it against me for expressing my opinion on the look of the place, I honestly believe once you have his food in your mouth you loose all needs for being ambience spoiled, you forget everything, eating there is just such a pleasure:)

In fact I wanted to post more pictures, of the delicious dishes, but we literally forgot to take them before we started digging in, the look and smell were so tempting and the starter convinced us the the rest would be fantastic :) It would not do justice to the quality of the meal to show a messy plate with the food half gone... So I leave it to your imagination or better yet, to your own visit to the Temptation, to find out how wonderful and uncomparable is the food.

Bamboo Bernie's II

Bamboo Bernie's this time not only will get my verbal compliments, but also plenty of shots for our readers to judge and hopefully admire:)

I'm glad this time we got a nice minimalist japanese looking plate. Although I like very much the traditional boats they used to use, I can have them in other places. This plate served great and made the meal present itself wonderfully, much better than the other time when we were served on an oval dish with floral or other bas relief I could easily imagine wiener schnitzels on... So please use just these nice plain ones:)

[all pictures are our own]

And two last pictures showing a bit of the ambience and decor.

the new Bamboo Bernies

Last night, for the first time since its move, we dined at Bamboo Bernies. The new restaurant really impressed me, while the wholo Maho area impresses me very little; minus Bliss and the old Bamboo Bernies that is. I was reluctant to go and try the new location, because the complex it is in did not convey the mood I seek when thinking of dinig out. In general in the past we never felt the locales we tried in that area were really our thing. True also, we have not tried all places yet, plus yesterday realised there are a few we did not see before... So as much as I dislike generalising, we have always generalised the opinion about Maho based on singular expereinces. The reason I don't like the Maho atmosphere is that it makes me feel old at 30:( Bad feeling. The people around me give me a vibe of them feeling old...while old is not on my mind at all. And I am not referring to the age of the people...but to an aged air they potray regardless of their age. I think people who act old while being young are just unhappy people and intuitively try to avoid their company. Hence our scarce returns to the places of Maho.

But since most of the restaurants in our area are still closed, and I really wanted sushi, we decided to drive all the way to the other side of the island and give the new location a shot. What a nice surprise it was to realise than not only was the food great (no mayo in sushi!....which I happen to find constantly on the French side), good drinks, but also the interior, music and general ambience made a very good impression. Service was kind, air co not exaggerated, trendy bathroom (I always pay attention to the bathrooms, it's a fetish;), the lounge area seemed very cosy and lastly, there were no mosquitoes, as it's all indoors.
It's a shame it's all the way opposite edge of the island, otherwise I would turn into a regular:)

eating out

Choosing where to wine and dine on sxm should be easier now:) I was sent a link to a new site dine sxm which allows to choose your place based on a group of criteria; location, cuisine, price, hours, features.

For all of those who had to rely on the plentiful (but so old school and so for tourists) St.Martin holiday catalogues, this site offers hope of a more up to date approach on deciding where to eat out:)

I have not used their site myself, but hope to do so very soon. Bon apetit everyone!

peaceful palm sunday at maho

night life

We finally had a fantastic night out:) New year's eve was also good, but we definitely danced much more last night. At last I experienced sxm's party face. And I liked it:)
Dinner at Bliss with really good music accompanying us, followed by some dancing we couldn't resist before we headed off to the mansion. This club at first seemed like it was a bad choice, the music, compared to the just left dance floor at bliss, was nothing special and I couldn't decide what I thought about the drag queens, which I shortly realised were actually women...dressed to look like drag queens, or just badly dressed -? haha
But the music improved, the drinks kicked in, fishnet legged policewomen replaced the drag queens, and we danced like we haven't in a long time:)