St. Martin: Beau Beau’s

Two weeks ago, Ken and I took our first vacation together to St. Martin. I flew from New York and Ken flew in from Orlando because he was there for a company off-site. Originally, our flights were supposed to arrive within 20 minutes of each other (mine arriving 20 minutes earlier) but Ken’s flight was delayed by a couple of hours and it pushed our plans back. I sat at the airport and read up on travel magazines and Ken finally arrived in the late afternoon. We picked up our rental car and set off for our hotel, which we didn’t reach until after sunset. The island, although very small, was slightly difficult to navigate (and since the roads were so bumpy, I got carsick more than once!)

After we checked into our hotel (the Westin at Dawn Beach) we went to the concierge to ask for a dinner recommendation. Our original plan was to hang out on the beach after we arrived and then eat in town but by the time we arrived at the hotel, it was already a little too late to go back into the main part of town. The concierge suggested we try Beau Beau’s, which had seafood, al fresco dining, and wasn’t very far from the hotel. A $6 cab ride later, we arrived:

Beau Beau’s is actually located on a time share complex and was very close to our hotel (during the day, it might have been walkable but at night, since there were no streetlights, it would have been too dangerous). We started off with some cocktails – I wanted to try their guavaberry daquiri:

It had a nice combination of coconut cream and alcohol (maybe a little too much alcohol) and a nice mix of St. Martin’s national liqueur, the guavaberry rum.

I was quite hungry since I’d only eaten a yogurt in the morning before my 7am flight so we ordered right away. We started off with the fried conch salad:

The conch is hidden in the salad, but the tiny pieces of fried conch had a light sweetness and chewiness that we both enjoyed. There was also a house-made vinaigrette with the salad that was refreshing and light.

For my main course, I ordered the Island ribs with a side of rice:

And Ken ordered the Caribbean chicken:

We were both a little surprised when Ken’s order arrived because it looked like chicken fingers from Trader Joe’s (in fact, we had made the exact same meal earlier in the week). My ribs were on the tough side even though the menu promised ‘fall off the bone’ meat and overall, we weren’t impressed with our main courses. In addition to the chicken being a little on the amateur side, it was also really undercooked and ended up making Ken ill for the first full day of the trip (ack!)

We sat outside and enjoyed the sound of the waves as we tried to enjoy dinner and then took a walk on the beach after dinner. While I wouldn’t recommend Beau Beau’s for their food, it’s a nice place to enjoy a drink at sunset if you’re staying at the Westin.