The Twisted Cork Cafe — Restaurant in Charlotte Amalie

Rolled into The Twisted Cork Cafe (TTCC) for dinner on our first night in St. Thomas. After a long day of travel, a small flight delay, really buffeting winds aloft… we were ready for a very relaxed, enjoyable dinner, with a good bottle of wine! We had not made a reservation for dinner due all the unforeseeable things that can happen on a long travel day. We looked for a highly rated place within walking distance of our hotel, and viola, TTCC popped up. So glad the online reviewers were on point for this place. Totally laid back place, not at all crowded on a Friday evening at dinner time… fantastic service and fare included!

TTCC is not a big place, seating in a front bar area and a more traditional dining room in the back. We were initially seated in the back dining room, but with multiple AC units pumping the room with cold air, we opted for the less chilly front room… we had that room to ourselves the entire meal! The back room got pretty crowded as the evening wore on, but TTCC was able to easily able to accommodate the walk-ins. Most of the tables have a small, but real, oil lamp on them… very cute, nice touch!

Service was great, attentive but not intrusive. In the spirit of the islands we started with a shared rum punch. We anticipated the sweetness, no surprise there, it was darn good. We figured we’d be having fresh seafood, so we opted for a Folonari Pinot Grigio, which was presented at the perfect temperature, and paired very well with the food we ordered. TTCC is more of a wine bar, the wine list, while not exhaustive, is a thoughtful collection of the primary varietals from the old and new worlds, with a nice little selection of bubbles if you want that.

First up was a nightly special, Caribbean Seafood Chowder (think cioppino in Northern CA, Phil’s Fish Market in Castroville, CA, has killer ciopinno… if you visit, you can by a T-shirt with the recipe on it, to make it at home… it’s a day’s work, but worth it!). The TTCC chowder was full of a variety of fresh seafood, a tomato-based soup with lots of fresh veggies and wonderfully spiced. TTCC has an onsite herb and vegetable garden where many of their ingredients originate! Delish chowder!

For entrees we decided to share the lionfish piccata and the fried grouper sandwich. The lionfish was firm, tender and plentiful. A very generous portion, fried to perfection, served with rice and fresh broccoli. The piccata sauce was wonderful. The grouper sandwich was equally good. Another generous portion of fish, lighted battered, fried to crispy, served on French bread with a little mayo, a few capers, thinly sliced red onion and romaine lettuce… heaven on a bun! The side of duck fat fried pomme frites was amazing! Served piping hot (as ordered) served with truffle aioli… amazing! Next up dessert!

Based on prior reviewer comments, there was only one dessert to get… ballpark pie! The huge piece of pie features all your memories from the ballpark … peanut butter mousse on a graham cracker-pretzel crust. Topped with chocolate ganache, peanuts, whipped cream, caramel and chocolate sauces and cracker jacks. What an ending to an awesome meal! Not sure we’ll have time to dine at TTC.C again during our short visit on the island, but we’d definitely go back! They’re open for lunch and dinner Mon-Thurs, closed Sat and Sun. Highly recommend The...

NOT SURE WHY THIS PLACE IS RANKED SO HIGH OVERALL.. I am confused:(

There are many restaurants in St Thomas to choose from. Please save yourself a car ride, a taxi, and your money. DO NOT GO HERE!

Here are the reasons this place was horrible:

1. our original server was slow. She started out as our server and then the bartender took over our table. It took forever for “original server” to take our drink and food order. Annoying because the restaurant was not busy. The “original server” came to our table twice and didn’t ask how our food. She must have known the food was horrible. —the Bartender was very sweet and nice—

2. I ordered the special grouper bites as an appetizer. They were cold and chewy when delivered to our table . I am pretty sure they were not fresh, warmed up in the microwave , then left out for a long time before they were finally delivered to our table.

3. the reviews on TripAdvisor rave about their Chicken liver bites. Those were hot when delivered, but had no flavor and tasted like oil with hot sauce in top. I am not sure why these have such a high ranking. I am so confused. You could’ve gotten better fried livers from Chili’s or Applebee’s for half the price.

4. my husbands dish was also horrible and lacked flavor.

5. our bill was $145 for cold grouper bites, mediocre chicken liver, okay fries, 2 glasses of wine, and a meh fish entree, and gross bread pudding.

This meal was so disappointing that I am giving this review. I never give bad reviews. I usually do a good job of picking out restaurants, however, I really failed in this one.

I am Foodie and currently live in a very competitive high quality food city. I have no problem paying for high quality food. This restaurant has the price of a nice dinner in New York, San Fran, or DC, but the quality of Applebee’s.

This place was unacceptable, all around. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!

I am offended that they think their food is worth this price.

On a good note. I had the best meal in St Thomas at STONE HOUSE CAFE. It was so good we went back twice.*

Other great places instead of this place in the price category are Prime and...

EDIT (changed from 1 star) As you can see from the owners reply below, he's a stand up guy. I came back, he approached me right away and handled this in a very professional manner. Totally perfect....he clearly has a passion for his business and cooking...I appreciate that and his response.

Thank you.l! I'm back and will continue to do so. I will leave the review up to show authenticity.

But, all in all, you should know that the food is great, the atmosphere is perfect for me and the staff... ...even better, give them all your money, they work hard.

ORIGINAL POST : So I've been stewing on this for a few days now but it should be heard.

We are locals....and regulars...and we had a very awkward experience with the chef/owner who came out of the kitchen to join us for end of the night drink.

We were having a nice conversation, with the AWESOME bartender and the owner...at some point my girlfriend was saying something.....and the owner blurted out "JESUS! DO YOU EVER JUST SHUT UP!!! " Something along those lines, we let it slide, and paid our bill and left.

Unfortunately we cannot recommend the place that used to be our staple.

Hopefully others won't have to encounter this.

Regretfully 👎😞

UPDATE in reply to owners reply: Thank you very much for this....and it has just rubbed us the wrong way for a few days now. I appreciate this and I will share...