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Iowaguy's Trip Report (Part 2)
Iowaguy's Trip Report (Part 2)
RESTAURANTS/BARS:
Overall: The food everywhere was good, we thought---better than we recalled on prior trips. It was also more expensive. I tried to console myself with the mantra: "the airline tickets were free" and this seemed to help (we booked ahead and used Aadvantage miles). Then again, we could have eaten Joe's BBQ or Cafe Roma takeout pizza and had good meals for a pretty reasonable price, but we didn't. Here are a few of our thoughts on restaurants we tried.
Rhumb Lines--This is a fun spot, and the best "value" of any restaurant we went to. Every dish has a lot of flavor. We ordered a number of pu-pu for the table including spicy cilantro-lime corn crusted shrimp, peanut sate chicken, cracked pepper crusted tuna (outstanding), margarita shrimp. A number of people ordered the mahi-mahi in banana leaf---I got the Barbequed King Prawns. It was all delicious. We liked the sweet potato chips so much that we ordered an extra batch for the table.
http://www.rhumblinesstjohn.com/
Tage---Best food we had on the island. Ted is back as the chef here. They started out the evening with a little complimentary tuna appetizer. Janie is a light eater so we frequently will order an appetizer, main course and dessert and split each course. Gives us a little more variety over a longer period of time. We ordered a beef tenderloin "sandwich" as an app, which was really more of a bruschetta with grilled bread, fresh mozzarella, arugula, tomato, vinaigrette and grilled beef tenderloin. Awesome. Others had
jumbo lump crab & rock shrimp cakes with remoulade to start--also good. Janie and I split the mahi-mahi for the main course, and there were numerous desserts--the bread pudding and a chocolate souffle come to mind. They were out of the wine we ordered so they brought us a couple of bottles of a nicer wine at the same price. Terrific meal---one thing I will say, though, is that in general, I prefer eating outdoors in such perfect evening weather. At Tage, we ate inside in air conditioning. It would be nice if they had a little more space for open-air dining.
Also, we had a conversation with our waiter that I would have preferred not to have had. He was an excellent waiter and we enjoyed his good service throughout the meal. After dinner we started talking about where he was from and how he came to St. John. He explained that it was his first winter here and how he really wasn't crazy about it and wouldn't return. He went into quite a bit of detail on crime on the island, explained that his girlfriend had been shaken down for money at knifepoint, and he gave us advice on certain places not to go (including Lizard's Landing---which we also heard from others). This was probably all good advice, but it was not what you really want to hear on a big evening out on vacation.
www.tagestjohn.com/
Beach Bar---We had a lunch here as well as our first night's dinner. Think I had the blackened mahi-mahi with fries both times. Surprisingly good bar food. Also stopped for drinks once or twice. T-bird was playing on Friday night. Definitely one of my favorite spots. Had a great conversation here with a guy living on a boat sailing around the Caribbean (Captain Ron?). Maybe he was making it all up, but probably not. I enjoyed it anyway.
Caneel Bay-- Equator: I know its popular to bash the food at Caneel, but we had a great night here. The food and sevice might have been a notch below Tage (and more old-school) but the setting is great. I love the old sugar mill, the stonework, the torches, the great view out to St. Thomas and nearby cays. You really feel like you're in the Caribbean. Janie and I split the seared tuna with an arugula salad to start(very rare and delicious), mahi-mahi for the main course, and some type of dense chocolate dessert. By the way, we initially called and made dinner reservations for the 10 of us at Turtle Bay Estate House. We told them we were not staying at Caneel and they said it was fine for us to eat at Turtle Bay Estate House. I later changed the reservation to the Equator because I wanted to eat outside. Here are our good friends and fellow Caribbean lovers Debby and Glenn at Caneel for dinner:
Ocean Grill: I hate to say it but dinner here was a bit of a disappointment. I will say that its a pretty space---nicely polished woodwork, classic stone walls, new furniture and fabrics. The general consensus of our group was that the food was a bit bland. My coconut shrimp appetizer was good, but the chicken Janie and I ordered was really dull (probably not a good menu choice---I should have followed what Betty from the Forum ordered). The fish was better, but didn't get rave reviews. It was basically deserted when we there (I think there were two other tables of two). We started dinner a little late (8:15 I think)but most spots still have a decent crowd at this time. Plus, I was under the misconception that this was more of a mid-priced spot. I thought the prices were as high as any other place we went---$48 for a 1 pound Caribbean lobster. I probably should have stayed for the banana cake Betty recommended but instead we skipped dessert this night and went to Woody's for a beer.
ZoZo's: We ate here our final night, and it was great, as it has been on prior visits. Our original intent was to have sunset cocktails at the bar, then grab a pizza at Cafe Roma to eat at home on the porch. We had cocktails in the upstairs bar, soaking in the incredible view. Of course, I forgot to take a photo at sunset and waited until it was almost dark (we really need a new photographer):
We were having a good time at the bar, and suddenly it was about 8:15 and we were hungry. We checked to see if they could take us in the restaurant (change of plan), and they had had a large party cancel so they had space. Overall, it was probably our favorite meal, considering both food and setting. I had the veal chop with fresh mozzarella and tuscan white beans (great), a number of people had the stuffed Caribbean lobster tail, Janie (the light eater) had bruschetta as a main course. All delish.
www.zozos.net/
Deli Grotto/Baked in the Sun: Had takeout lunches of sandwiches and salads from each of these spots: both excellent. I love the fries at the Beach Bar but my heart needs a break once in a while. Trunk Bay Chicken sandwich at Deli Grotto was especially good.
Skinny Legs. Still a great, juicy burger.
Woody's. We went to Woody's several different nights after dinner. One fun aspect to this was that we kept running in to some of the same people from night to night. On one of the last nights of our trip (Friday, 2/16) we were talking to our new "Woody's" friends from Chicago. They mentioned that they had gone to Tage for dinner that night and that Kenny Chesney had been there. They said they had also seen Kenny both at Rhumb Lines and at Quiet Mon the night before. They were not "Kenny stalkers" or even huge fans---it came up in conversation because they mentioned that a couple of the guys then in the bar at Woody's were part of his "entourage" they had seen with him and they wondered if KC might be coming in. Although I'm not a big country fan I do listen to some Kenny Chesney, primarily because of the St. John thing, and I must say I was looking forward to hanging out in Woody's with Kenny Chesney also there. We hung out at Woody's for quite a while, but no star sightings were to be had. Janie noticed that some of the "entourage" guys would go in and out the back door. I saw later on 60 Minutes that Kenny likes to hang out in the back of a burger joint in Cruz Bay, out by the propane tank. So maybe he was back there that night, or maybe his buddies were just making use of the back office. If I had seen this group of middle-aged Iowans in the front room I probably would have stayed back there too.
Sorry---thought I'd finish tonight, but I need to wrap it up for now. Thanks for your interest and nice comments. I wish now I had taken more and better pictures. Let that be a lesson. Final installment tomorrow.
Overall: The food everywhere was good, we thought---better than we recalled on prior trips. It was also more expensive. I tried to console myself with the mantra: "the airline tickets were free" and this seemed to help (we booked ahead and used Aadvantage miles). Then again, we could have eaten Joe's BBQ or Cafe Roma takeout pizza and had good meals for a pretty reasonable price, but we didn't. Here are a few of our thoughts on restaurants we tried.
Rhumb Lines--This is a fun spot, and the best "value" of any restaurant we went to. Every dish has a lot of flavor. We ordered a number of pu-pu for the table including spicy cilantro-lime corn crusted shrimp, peanut sate chicken, cracked pepper crusted tuna (outstanding), margarita shrimp. A number of people ordered the mahi-mahi in banana leaf---I got the Barbequed King Prawns. It was all delicious. We liked the sweet potato chips so much that we ordered an extra batch for the table.
http://www.rhumblinesstjohn.com/
Tage---Best food we had on the island. Ted is back as the chef here. They started out the evening with a little complimentary tuna appetizer. Janie is a light eater so we frequently will order an appetizer, main course and dessert and split each course. Gives us a little more variety over a longer period of time. We ordered a beef tenderloin "sandwich" as an app, which was really more of a bruschetta with grilled bread, fresh mozzarella, arugula, tomato, vinaigrette and grilled beef tenderloin. Awesome. Others had
jumbo lump crab & rock shrimp cakes with remoulade to start--also good. Janie and I split the mahi-mahi for the main course, and there were numerous desserts--the bread pudding and a chocolate souffle come to mind. They were out of the wine we ordered so they brought us a couple of bottles of a nicer wine at the same price. Terrific meal---one thing I will say, though, is that in general, I prefer eating outdoors in such perfect evening weather. At Tage, we ate inside in air conditioning. It would be nice if they had a little more space for open-air dining.
Also, we had a conversation with our waiter that I would have preferred not to have had. He was an excellent waiter and we enjoyed his good service throughout the meal. After dinner we started talking about where he was from and how he came to St. John. He explained that it was his first winter here and how he really wasn't crazy about it and wouldn't return. He went into quite a bit of detail on crime on the island, explained that his girlfriend had been shaken down for money at knifepoint, and he gave us advice on certain places not to go (including Lizard's Landing---which we also heard from others). This was probably all good advice, but it was not what you really want to hear on a big evening out on vacation.
www.tagestjohn.com/
Beach Bar---We had a lunch here as well as our first night's dinner. Think I had the blackened mahi-mahi with fries both times. Surprisingly good bar food. Also stopped for drinks once or twice. T-bird was playing on Friday night. Definitely one of my favorite spots. Had a great conversation here with a guy living on a boat sailing around the Caribbean (Captain Ron?). Maybe he was making it all up, but probably not. I enjoyed it anyway.
Caneel Bay-- Equator: I know its popular to bash the food at Caneel, but we had a great night here. The food and sevice might have been a notch below Tage (and more old-school) but the setting is great. I love the old sugar mill, the stonework, the torches, the great view out to St. Thomas and nearby cays. You really feel like you're in the Caribbean. Janie and I split the seared tuna with an arugula salad to start(very rare and delicious), mahi-mahi for the main course, and some type of dense chocolate dessert. By the way, we initially called and made dinner reservations for the 10 of us at Turtle Bay Estate House. We told them we were not staying at Caneel and they said it was fine for us to eat at Turtle Bay Estate House. I later changed the reservation to the Equator because I wanted to eat outside. Here are our good friends and fellow Caribbean lovers Debby and Glenn at Caneel for dinner:
Ocean Grill: I hate to say it but dinner here was a bit of a disappointment. I will say that its a pretty space---nicely polished woodwork, classic stone walls, new furniture and fabrics. The general consensus of our group was that the food was a bit bland. My coconut shrimp appetizer was good, but the chicken Janie and I ordered was really dull (probably not a good menu choice---I should have followed what Betty from the Forum ordered). The fish was better, but didn't get rave reviews. It was basically deserted when we there (I think there were two other tables of two). We started dinner a little late (8:15 I think)but most spots still have a decent crowd at this time. Plus, I was under the misconception that this was more of a mid-priced spot. I thought the prices were as high as any other place we went---$48 for a 1 pound Caribbean lobster. I probably should have stayed for the banana cake Betty recommended but instead we skipped dessert this night and went to Woody's for a beer.
ZoZo's: We ate here our final night, and it was great, as it has been on prior visits. Our original intent was to have sunset cocktails at the bar, then grab a pizza at Cafe Roma to eat at home on the porch. We had cocktails in the upstairs bar, soaking in the incredible view. Of course, I forgot to take a photo at sunset and waited until it was almost dark (we really need a new photographer):
We were having a good time at the bar, and suddenly it was about 8:15 and we were hungry. We checked to see if they could take us in the restaurant (change of plan), and they had had a large party cancel so they had space. Overall, it was probably our favorite meal, considering both food and setting. I had the veal chop with fresh mozzarella and tuscan white beans (great), a number of people had the stuffed Caribbean lobster tail, Janie (the light eater) had bruschetta as a main course. All delish.
www.zozos.net/
Deli Grotto/Baked in the Sun: Had takeout lunches of sandwiches and salads from each of these spots: both excellent. I love the fries at the Beach Bar but my heart needs a break once in a while. Trunk Bay Chicken sandwich at Deli Grotto was especially good.
Skinny Legs. Still a great, juicy burger.
Woody's. We went to Woody's several different nights after dinner. One fun aspect to this was that we kept running in to some of the same people from night to night. On one of the last nights of our trip (Friday, 2/16) we were talking to our new "Woody's" friends from Chicago. They mentioned that they had gone to Tage for dinner that night and that Kenny Chesney had been there. They said they had also seen Kenny both at Rhumb Lines and at Quiet Mon the night before. They were not "Kenny stalkers" or even huge fans---it came up in conversation because they mentioned that a couple of the guys then in the bar at Woody's were part of his "entourage" they had seen with him and they wondered if KC might be coming in. Although I'm not a big country fan I do listen to some Kenny Chesney, primarily because of the St. John thing, and I must say I was looking forward to hanging out in Woody's with Kenny Chesney also there. We hung out at Woody's for quite a while, but no star sightings were to be had. Janie noticed that some of the "entourage" guys would go in and out the back door. I saw later on 60 Minutes that Kenny likes to hang out in the back of a burger joint in Cruz Bay, out by the propane tank. So maybe he was back there that night, or maybe his buddies were just making use of the back office. If I had seen this group of middle-aged Iowans in the front room I probably would have stayed back there too.
Sorry---thought I'd finish tonight, but I need to wrap it up for now. Thanks for your interest and nice comments. I wish now I had taken more and better pictures. Let that be a lesson. Final installment tomorrow.
---Jim
Jim ... I am soooooo happy you had a great meal at Zozo's, I really hated posting that poor review. I am disappointed you had a poor meal at Ocean Grill! The night we went they had a large private party in an upstairs room and there were only 2 other tables outside that were occupied. It is such a great location, but scary not to be busy during the high season. Our foods were highly seasoned at O.G., and that was one of my complaints with ZoZo's, bland sauces. Restaurants can be off on any given night, especially the night the chef has off and his minions are doing all the cooking. I also noticed the prices were higher 
than previous years!
Looking forward to the villa review tomorrow!
PS you missed a great Banana Cake
than previous years!Looking forward to the villa review tomorrow!
PS you missed a great Banana Cake
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Tracy in WI
- Posts: 1624
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:39 am
- Location: Wisconsin
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cypressgirl
- Posts: 2178
- Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:42 pm
- Location: houston
iowaguys trip report
love your trip report. thanks for all the detail. really sorry to hear about the crime from the waiter. this is a little scarey to me. did you feel unsafe at any point? thanks
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Bill in Va
- Posts: 442
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:56 pm
- Location: Lake Gaston, Va
Trip eat report
Thanks for the "eat" report. Its great to get the latest stuff. It shows that things can and do change at the restaurants. Man I gotta wait till Dec 1st to get my fix....maybe I can get the Mrs in a weak moment and squeeze a green light last minute trip again.....Snow is melting. Enjoyed pushing 8 inches of the white fluffy on Sunday....Hey Jorge did you get any of the nasty stuff?....God bless...Bill
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obsessedmuch
Jim, was the souffle at Tage still the white-chocolate tarragon one? Please say yes! I'll add 20 miles extra to my treadmill routine if I can eat that souffle in May. I usually don't like sweets, but I am a sucker for that souffle.
Thanks for all the other reviews too!
Thanks for all the other reviews too!
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Thanks for the great report. We're off on our first trip to St John on Saturday, and I'll take these reviews with me.
Since you brought it up, I have a question regarding safety/crime, etc. I know crime is everywhere, likely worse at home then in St John. However one of the easiest ways to stay out of trouble is to avoid trouble areas, especially after dark.
Any words of wisdom? For example I read somewhere to avoid parking in the tennis court area at night.
Since you brought it up, I have a question regarding safety/crime, etc. I know crime is everywhere, likely worse at home then in St John. However one of the easiest ways to stay out of trouble is to avoid trouble areas, especially after dark.
Any words of wisdom? For example I read somewhere to avoid parking in the tennis court area at night.