St. Croix Restaurant Recs- help me with my list!
 

The five of us leave in just 3 1/2 weeks... we'll be on STX Dec 20- Dec 27 and staying at Pelican Cove Condos. Our goal is to "cook" twice a day and eat out the other meal, either lunch or dinner. I don't really see us eating breakfast out . The men will be golfing at least three times. We'll take a trip to Buck Island for one day, and scuba dive two times (with a night dive stuck in there). So we're going to be busy.
We're "foodies" in that we like good, well-prepared food. I'd like two "nicer" restaurant recs (a good wine list is always a plus)- one for either Christmas Day or Eve and some casual, lunch and dinner spots. Again, always looking for great food!
Where can I get the best lobster??
Also, is there something fun and "islandish" that we could prepare for breakfast? Here in Texas, we eat breakfast tacos 3-4 times a week. Any suggestions for the VI?

Here is a list of restaurants that I've compiled. Quite a few of these seem fairly nice, so what are the "musts" and what are the "misses"?
Salud!
Kendricks
Savant
Bacchus
Duggan's Reef
Le St. Tropez
I think these are more casual...?
Elizabeth's
Sunset Grill
Villa Morales
Rumrunners

Any to add? Or take off?

TIA!

Salud!: Has a great 'foodie' selection. Youll be pleased. Dont be disuaded by the random hole in the wall location.
Kendricks: Always a favorite for some, but tipical dishes, no surprises.
Savant: never made an impression on me.
Bacchus: Great location. My dad used to live in what is now the pool room. Very west indian architecture. Good menu.
Duggan's Reef: Nice location for lunch.East end, on beach.
Le St. Tropez: wonderful atmosphere! great owner/hostess.

Rumrunners:skip.

Loved Salud--The duck was fantastic. Duggans Reef for the whiskey lobster, Bacchus was very good. Would skip Rumrunners and do Paradise Cafe instead for lunch. They have a very nice Breakfast Buffet At Bucaneer. Beside the buffet you can order items off the menu that arent on the buffet. Sort of all you can eat--believe it is $15 for non guests. Kendricks was closed when we were there but gets excellent ratings.

Thanks! Any other suggestions? 15 days- woohoo!

We loved Kendrick's, but be sure to make a reservation. We also had both lunch and dinner at the Carambola Golf Resort - it's never crowded and the meals were very good. It's a open-air terrace that overlooks the beautiful golf course - I hope you're renting a car so you can explore the entire island. We stayed at the Carambola Beach Resort and loved their Friday Night Pirate's Buffet, complete with entertainment. Rumrunners is a nice casual place - food is not fancy but it is good. We hoping to return to St. Croix again in February - we love it there.

We have rented a car! Since there are 5 of us, I think we've rented two!

Kendricks - Huge miss with us tho it was more likely an off night based on other reviews. I will not be back.

Savant - Loved it. exotic, spicy, nice carib/thai/Mexican blend if I remember correctly.

Bacchus - Probably the best meal. Def had the best Lobster.

Duggan's - very good tho the lobster pasta was just ok for me. Best kids meal fish ever.

Rumrunners - was ok. decent lobster.

Where would you suggest we go for our first dinner? We want something casual and good. Something along the lines of Rumrunners or Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Would either place be a good choice? TIA! I know CinP does not have an ocean view... and I think we'll want an ocean view.

Eat at the restaurant at Pelican Cove. It's outside right on the ocean. You'll be really tired after the flight down and probably wont want to be driving on the Left for the 1st time at night.

Thanks Cruzan- I guess I didn't know there was a restaurant at Pelican Cove. Or are you referring to Elizabeth's or H2O at Hibiscus?

Ahh yes, i always get pelican cove and hibiscus beach mixed up. Well, i think they are right down the road from one another. So, H20 and Elizabeths are very close, (I believe elizabeths is even in Pelican Cove condo area?...they keep changing names so i get confused)

Topping this so TXgalinGA can give us some of her restaurant reviews...what did you think of H20 and Salud...others?

H2O was fine. It was great for my brother and husband who had "All you can eat crab legs." The other meals were fine. Not great, just fine. Salud was FANTASTIC!!! My dad (major foodie) had the best rabbit of his life there (go figure!) We loved Bacchus and Elizabeth's. Bombay Club was very, very good as well. Rumrunners was not memorable.
I am very bummed we did not get to Savant or Tutto Benne. There will be a next time!!!

Oh, and we ate at Duggan's Reef for Christmas. The lobster was good. But not the best ever... I was surprised at that!

Thanks for your recommendations . . we leave on Feb. 4 and I think we'll try Salud. Can you tell me where it's located as it's a new place and not mentioned on any web-site that I can find that lists St. Croix restaurants.
I'll let you all know how the restaurants were that we visited.
I like Rumrunners for a quicklunch - the view is nice. We're also planning to eat at Kendrick's as we had a fantastic meal there last year.

Salud is sorta across the street from Food Town. You'll love it!

Thanks TXgalinGA!
Sorry that the lobster at Duggan's was not the greatest....I have found that their food isn't as fabulous as it was when we first visited STX in 1998...but it's still a family favorite and a must do.
Knew you'd love Bacchus. Don't worry about missing Tutto Bene--we don't get the hype. It's very loud in its new location and the food is o.k. Some people love it because it's good value.

Can't wait to try Salud--may go our first night in case we want to repeat. For Beth48 (and maybe someone can confirm), I think Salud in the Princesse area which is just north west of C'sted. Near the McDonald's I think....Am I right? I don't know the Foodtown.

Did you not eat at Kendrick's?

And please describe Elizabeth's food and atmosphere...trying to figure if it's worth the cab fare from the Buccaneer.

We did not eat at Kendricks.... after so many $$$ meals we chose not to. Bacchus was our big splurge; totally worth it!
Elizabeth's has just about everything you could want on the menu. From seared tuna, to steak, to crab cakes (Mom said they were the best EVER) to lamb.... everything! They also do a really good chopped salad. The dining is open air. Their Sunday brunch was great too!
As you can sorta tell, we're foodies and we really like good quality, well prepared food. My dad especially. And we ate there twice. However, it was right next door to where we were staying.
WHEN we go back, here is a list of places I would want to eat at (high-end dining)
*Salud
*Savant (totally bummed we missed this)
*Bacchus
*Kendricks
*Elizabeths

not in that order. I would give it a try- it *really* is good! Great service and presentation too! And good sized portions (important for my H)

Just got back Monday, but can't help with high-end dining. We had planned on Kendrick's, which was to be the splurge, but it didn't work out. Big disappointment. Instead, the lobster at Breezes was about as fancy as we got. Not bad. Scallops were nicely done there.

We probably would have made more of an effort if there was more local fare on the menus.

Instead we sought out casual, local hangouts and really enjoyed them. Had a great goat roti in F-town. Others enjoyed the boneless chicken. No conch rotis that day.

But the best two places we found for local fare were Amigos on Centerline and Singh's in C-town. Both had a wide variety of STX favs and we were the only tourists there.

Also wanted to get abelskivers but didn't get a chance.

We bought plenty of roadside food, including wonderful pineapple, starfruit and avocados. On the last day, we saw a guy selling huge chunks of very fresh tuna out of the back of a pickup.Had we been there another day, it would have been on the grill.

After lackluster reviews, we only had drinks at Rumrunners, but it's fun to watch the tarpon feeding -- some are close to 5-feet long. The nearby brew pub was OK for quick lunch bites.

Buck Island was the highlight, especially the barracudas that we'd never had a great look at before.

Can you tell me where Elizabeth's is?
We've never eaten there but sounds like a great place. We will have a rental car so transportation is not a problem. We love driving all over the island!