Orange Fever — Restaurant in Saint Martin (France)

So we enjoyed our time initially at Orange Freeze, but let me be clear what time we actually enjoyed...it was the time at the beach, eating and relaxing in the beach chairs that were 1st row chairs right near the water, which was reserved by our concierge, who actually is supposed to have a great relationship with the owner and was able to get the beach chairs for us at no charge. What we didn't enjoy was the rude behavior that came from the owner, Luc and our waiter. The beach was beautiful, the young man who adjusted our chairs and umbrellas was awesome, very nice and respectful which is why he received a separate tip from us because of this. Even our waiter was great........in the beginning. However, that quickly changed when it came to splitting the checks. There were six of us, three couples. When my sister and I approached the waiter and told him we wanted to split the checks to one check per couple, you would think I called him out of his name. He was so rude and disrespectful and told me I should have said that in the beginning. Didn't understand what the problem was. So he proceeds to say something to Luc, the owner in French. So we talked to Luc, and again, he reiterated how we should have told them about splitting the checks beforehand. I still didn't understand what the big deal was because they wrote our orders down on paper. It's not like they input the order into a POS system. We told him what each couple had, gave him our payment and that was that. It was pretty simple actually. So he closed out our checks. However, he charged us $10/each couple for the beach chairs initially. My sister asked him if the beach chairs were supposed to be included as previously told to us and without saying a word and with much attitude, he reached into his cash drawer and pulled out $20, and rudely handed it to me. My sister tried to leave him a tip for her bill, and he refused it. Then, as we walked away, he said something in French to the people around the bar. We knew he was talking about us. It was obvious because they all turned around and looked at us as we walked away.

So long story short, they (owner and waiter) had an attitude because they weren't told beforehand the checks were going to be split, the owner felt that because we had first row beach chairs that we should have spent more but it was lunch time and we were going to dinner, what we spent was comparable to what one would spend for lunch. He also felt we were treated professionally. That's another story, and that was not the case here, far from it. No one deserves to be treated like that, especially if I'm giving you business and my hard earned dollars. Also, the food was just okay. It wasn't earth-shattering. There's far better restaurants and just as...

My family spent nine days at Orient Bay in mid-late December 2023. My spouse and I have been going there every few years for 19 years. The place has changed quite a bit in that time, especially in the stretch where Orange Fever is located.

This area started out with a bunch of small concessions running from Kontiki (the last of the big operators) down to where Club Orient is (or used to be) located. If you wanted a small, non-commercial place to stay then this was it. Then, about six or seven years ago, it was all torn out and a row of new buildings with a sea wall were built. The flavor was completely gone.

Fortunately, this only lasted a few months until Hurricane Irma blew through. Irma caused a huge amount of damage on Orient Beach, but losing that new constructions was probably the only good thing to come out of it. Now, the small operators are back on the same stretch of beach where they used to be. Better yet, the storm widened the beach in that area to the point where they have lots of room for chairs out front.

Orange Fever is the first of the small operators you come to when walking down from the village. You get a chair and an umbrella for less than one third of what you would pay further up the beach. The restaurant has a good size menu with daily specials so you can have something new each day for lunch. And I say “each day” because if you tell the person working the chairs that you will be back he will have chairs reserved for you the next day.

Make the most of your stay and see the entire beach, from the nearly empty north end, through the commercialized village, to the small beach bar scene, and ending at the sun on your (butt) cheeks Club Orient. However, as a home base for your wandering you can’t do better than Orange Fever. Oh, and say hi to the three cats you live at the restaurant. They are very likely to stop by for a scratch and to try and convince you to hand over a few morels...

Visited this restaurant as we were told you could utilize their chairs and umbrellas if you ate and drank there. Confirmed it with the waitress. Had a great lunch Pizza escargot several other appetizers drinks for the five of us. Tip the server to set up two umbrellas and five chairs for us which he did perfectly. Went to the chairs to relax couple of us went swimming when I came back from swimming the person I presume is the owner was taking our chairs away. He was demanding that we pay another $20 to be able to sit and use the umbrellas and chairs. He became unbelievably rude and literally took the chairs right out from under us I would advise you not to use this restaurant due to the owner plenty...