USVI-On-Line

Has anyone hired Ted to cook an in-villa meal? I saw three good reviews on TripAdvisor and will be in St. John for five nights in a Westin villa. I was thinking one night would be fun to hire him to cook us dinner in our villa. It was mentioned that this would be "less than or the same as eating out".

Any feedback? Thanks.

This may help;

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... upper+club

and

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... ht=#192513

What Pia said! They are both fantastic. I am a Ted fanatic, love, love his food. I would follow him to the ends of the earth.

I had Mathayom come to a Westin villa for my honeymoon and they did a fantastic job. It was the first chance I had to have something catered and I was thrilled with everything. Mathayom has great attention to detail, and that is something I can really appreciate.

Let us know how everything goes!

Thanks guys...Ted is working on a menu now so we will see what happens!

You will not be disappointed! We had Ted cook for us in April and my husband (the foodie) still talks about it to anyone who will listen. It was FANTASTIC!!!

I surprised hubby with the dinner - he was confused all day that day. All I had told him was that I had made plans for dinner that night. He kept asking me what time we needed to leave the villa so that we would be on time for our reservation. We stayed up near the top of Bordeaux Mtn so he was trying to plan for a trip to Cruz Bay. I am a terible liar so my answers were weird - I tried to answer honestly w/o giving away the surprise! It was like a bad Brady Bunch episode.

texasmermaid wrote:You will not be disappointed! We had Ted cook for us in April and my husband (the foodie) still talks about it to anyone who will listen. It was FANTASTIC!!!

I surprised hubby with the dinner - he was confused all day that day. All I had told him was that I had made plans for dinner that night. He kept asking me what time we needed to leave the villa so that we would be on time for our reservation. We stayed up near the top of Bordeaux Mtn so he was trying to plan for a trip to Cruz Bay. I am a terible liar so my answers were weird - I tried to answer honestly w/o giving away the surprise! It was like a bad Brady Bunch episode.

LOL mermaid. I am also not a good liar. I tell the truth almost all the time because keeping track of lies is just too much work.

Now about Ted. Everybody keeps saying it is about the same cost as going out. I suppose that depends on where one dines out. Do you mind saying how much it cost? In actual dollars, that is. I would really like to try it next trip.

with tip we paid $200/ couple in April. that included 4 passed appetizers, salad, entree and dessert. no liquor.

I should say I think Ted's actual bill was less than that but we rounded it up to $200/ couple for ease. I think he included a tip in his calculation but I can not confirm that 100%. I know he showed us an itemized bill with a total and we decided on $200.

GraysonDave wrote: Now about Ted. Everybody keeps saying it is about the same cost as going out. I suppose that depends on where one dines out. Do you mind saying how much it cost? In actual dollars, that is. I would really like to try it next trip.

Great question! To be honest I am trying to spend under $200 (hopefully under $150!) for our family of four (kids 13 & 7). I would think eating out would be in the $150-200 range in the nice restaurants right? I am hoping for a little less since drinks are not factored in.

gores, I think we cross posted so see my response above. if you want more details of what we ate let me know and I will try to answer.

GraysonDave - everyone's interpretation of where and how much a nice dinner out costs can be very different. And I think the reference to being similar to dining out may also need to be qualified with 'on STJ' (or in a large metro area). As in, similar to the cost of dining out on STJ.

Pricing might vary depending on number of people in your group but definitely based on what all is on your menu. We paid a little more than mbw1024 did but there were only two of us. That did include tip. And we had leftovers for a meal the next day.

When I initially contacted Ted he was open to working with my budget so I think you just have to call or email him to see if you can work something out that is agreeable to all. I wanted something really special as an anniversary dinner, so I was ok with the cost and what we received for it. We were able to enjoy the incredible view from our villa (Monkey No Climb) and we didn't have to drive ourselves home after our gluttony!

mbw1024 wrote:gores, I think we cross posted so see my response above. if you want more details of what we ate let me know and I will try to answer.

We did....thanks! I actually talked to Ted just now. $85 per person for the three course meal and the two kids would be less. It might be slightly more than our $200 budget but I am keeping an open mind!

Having never been to St.John (but having been to many other Carribean islands) is it fair to say that in a "nicer" St. John restaurant, 2 adults and 2 kids should be around $150-200 including tip? My wife and I typically have one or two drinks with dinner. Thanks.

good point made above. I didn't coordinate this dinner but we did give Ted a budget of $75/person and he came pretty darn close to that.

Pia wrote:I think you will spend much more than $150 including tip at a nicer restaurant for 4 on STJ. Here is a link to ZoZo's menu for you to look at......

http://www.zozos.net/menu.shtml

Pia

glad someone other than me said it we don't try and skimp on vacation so we rarely get away for less than $150/2. But I'm sure we are not the norm. In fact there's nothing "normal" about us! LOL