Le Tropicana — Restaurant in Saint Martin (France)

I visited Saint Martin and ate at Le Tropicana a month ago, but I am still dreaming about my meal now. Almost didn't want to post this review because this beautifully little tucked away restaurant might become too popular and crowded!

This was literally THE perfect meal, and here's why:

Food: perfect, carefully crafted. Every bite was thoughtful, fresh, and innovative while respecting French culinary tradition. The onion soup tastes like it took 12 hours of work (confirmed by the owner as she walked by - no shortcuts!). The seafood salad is packed with different textures and flavors and fresh ingredients singing together in your mouth in countless combinations. The steak au poivre is a perfect medium rare, and the pepper is just as much a star as the beef. The salmon in framboise literally blew my mind: a perfect refreshing, pleasant surprise of a tart fruity sauce to counterbalance the fattiness of the perfectly cooked piece of fish. The mashed potato is creamy, airy heaven. The glasses of wine we had really made me want to ask where they got the wine because they were perfect pairings. Even the butter they serve with the bread here is from France and it is so tasty. The dessert is a special of the day and it is a work of ART. Three types of apples used in different ways, sculptural in its creation, while every bite promised something different between the cooked down apples, the ice cream, the crispy parts, and the fresh fruit components. I would eat this dessert every week if I could. An aesthetic and gastronomical treat!!

Atmosphere was perfect. We sat by a little harbor right along the water. Bright moon over head, gentle warm sea breeze in December. This is the ideal island life.

Service: the servers were personable, energetic, and incredibly efficient and helpful. The food here is a dream but the service really made the whole evening perfect. Our server Romy was knowledgeable, funny, and recommended the perfect items from the menu and suggested the perfect wines to pair. I LOVE a server who isn't afraid to share their honest opinion when you ask -- because they really do know best. She made sure we had everything we needed and made us feel at home without ever hovering. A masterclass in hospitality!!

This is really one of my favorite dining experiences of all time. If I only had 3 hours in Saint Martin next time, I'd spend all 3 at Le Tropicana, easily. Great job to the whole (small) team....

Arrived a bit late for our reservation. Prime table was ready and right up front. Service was attentive without being overbearing. Severs were charming , friends and cute. Wine list was perfect. Menu was impressive and just enough variety. We could tell that the chef really knew his stuff based on the choice of ingredients and flavor profiles in the menu with at least three or four choices to pick for each of the four people in our party. There are two things I always order as appetizers when they’re offered on the menu: gazpacho and Caesar salad. We also ordered the salade Tropicana and French onion soup. The gazpacho was almost as good as my Aunt Shirley. It’s simply the best gazpacho on earth. This was a very close second. I could eat it every day. The Caesar salad was excellent and well balanced. The French onion soup is competition worthy and would rank highly. The salade tropical is simply one of the best salads I’ve ever had anywhere between Europe, Asia and North America. It was pure magic on a plate. Delicate, hearty, light and danced on my tongue. This was simply divine. How does a salad rise above so many others? This was transcendent! We had the duck, shrimp, vegetarian dish and cordon blue as our mains. The profiterole and crane brulee were each well received among our desserts. Emanuele and his team are innovative while exhibiting a clear mastery of the classics. He is a friendly unpretentious and humble chef who is a skilled artist of culinary magic. I look forward to frequenting his dining room for many...

Amazing food and service! Great value! so worth it! We even got to meet the Swiss Chef! :-) He apparently used to work for high end restaurants before getting his own business. He seemed so down to earth and humble about his culinary gift.

Tonight, we had 2 main dishes, the lamb (28 Euros) and the special duck plate (26 Euros) and both were beautifully presented with great attention to details and the sauce that came with it was succulent.

We finish our evening with a nice dark chocolate mousse (10 Euros) but we are coming back tomorrow for the “Royal” chocolate decadent dessert for 13 Euros - I will try to make some room for it in my belly :-)

Encore Bravo au Chef et à toute son équipe!

This was one of the best restaurants from the 3 islands (Anguilla, St Barts and St Martin) we have visited in the past few weeks and to make it even better at a totally affordable price!

From all the places we have been, there were the only ones offering something to us for free… their in-house vanilla banana rhum digestive!

What a beautiful memory and evening you provided us. Merci. 😇

PS: de retour ce soir et le “Royal” au choco est unique! à essayer...