Restaurant Saint James — Restaurant in French Polynesia

Please heed this warning. BEWARE!

The food at Saint James is pretty good. However, I want to review the service.

First, we booked Saint James and had out hotel and confirm the shuttle to pick us up for our reservation. Shuttle never came. We had no wifi or cell service so we could not contact them or our hotel. Fortunately someone from our hotel came over on a boat 30+ minutes after waiting and called a taxi for us which was 5000xpf ($50).

Secondly, our group ordered dinner and a 8700 xpf ($87) bottle of wine. We had enough time left during dinner to order a second one. We were looking for a

While famed as the best restaurant in Bora Bora, the place is rustic and has no dress code, the couple next to us wore tanktops and sandals. We arrived properly dressed with another couple from our five-star hotel located on the reef. The restaurant was empty upon our arrival. They sat the other couple on the front row next to the water, but they sat us on the third row next to the restaurant entrance. When I asked to be seated next to the water, the receptionist told me it was not possible because they had to honor the older reservations first, and she asked “When did you reserve, yesterday?” I showed her an email showing our restaurant reservation confirmed two weeks ahead. She then spoke to the manager (in French), he insisted other people had reserved ahead of us, but agreed to upgrade us to the second row. “Best I can do”, he said. We were not the only couple to face this issue, another group experienced the same, but apparently negotiated better because they were moved to the only front-row table left at the time. In my opinion, the maitre d’ should do first-come first-seated or have a minimum cover charge for waterside spots, but their discretion in assigning tables leaves much room for improvement. When you travel thousands of miles and spend tens of thousands to visit a place like this, one should not be confronted with this kind of stress. In fairness, the food was very good. Our bill was about $460 including two appetizers, two entrees and a bottle of...

For me, this was the best restaurant on the island (my boyfriend put it at #2). We came for dinner on our very first night, and it was an awesome kick-off to our trip.

We started with happy hour in the bar area. Unfortunately, we got fried that day and didn’t get a table in the shade (lots of tables said “reserved” so maybe call ahead?), but the drinks were cold and flavorful, the bartender was attentive, and we had olives to snack on, which is way better than Americans provided things like peanuts!

For dinner we had a duo of carpaccios and a tuna tartar, which were fresh and flavorful. We even got to see the fresh fish before they chopped it up for us, which was unique and memorable! For dinner we shared a mahi mahi entree, then were given a complimentary dessert of macaroons.

Our server was amazing — he was kind, fun, and approachable. For our first night on the island, he was informative, and we left all smiles.

We actually went back a few days later for breakfast. They opened a French patisserie next door, so we thought we were going to just grab-and-go, but we were able to sit in the bar area to enjoy the croissants and coffee, which was way better than biking back home!

The views here are spectacular, staff was exceptional, and food was super fresh and delicious. Highly recommend to all traveling...