Anguilla: Restaurant at Malliouhana (April 2016)

My spouse and I dined for dinner at The Restaurant at Malliouhana on a weekday night in late April 2016. The hotel’s main restaurant is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We drove to Malliouhana from our hotel (Cuisinart), but when we arrived, there was no valet to park the car, so we drove past the lobby and up an incredibly dark hill to find our own parking spot, which was not a welcoming arrival. We made a reservation for dinner via email, although when we arrived at the restaurant, we were disappointed that they did not have our booking, despite having an email confirmation. The restaurant was empty and remained rather empty during our dinner, so the missing reservation was not a problem, but it was a poor beginning to our dining experience.

The open-air restaurant is perched on a cliff-side that overlooks Meads Bay and the Caribbean Sea, providing a beautiful vantage point from which to dine. At night, you can see the lights from other Meads Bay restaurants and hotels like Blanchard’s, Jacala, Straw Hat, and the Viceroy. The entire Malliouhana resort reopened in 2014 after a three-year closure and total renovation. (The lobby and public spaces that lead to the restaurant are dazzling and unique in their décor and architecture.) In the restaurant, dark wood floors, blue pendant lights, shaded chandeliers, white columns, and ropes strung along the ceiling and handrails lend an attractive nautical feel to this open-air chic space. The white wicker/rattan chairs sport blue-and-white striped cushions; however, the chairs themselves are a bit narrow (they were tighter than the standard economy airline seat, for example). It looks like there is additional uncovered terrace space on which one could dine, although we did not notice any tables and chairs there. The menus are backlit so that you can see more clearly in the dimly candlelit restaurant. (Neat! We have not seen those menus in person before!) Restrooms are located a bit far from the restaurant, but in a convenient midway point between the restaurant, the Sunset Bar, and the swimming pools. A guitar player provided entertainment during part of our meal, but sadly, his shift ended before we were finished eating.

The restaurant serves upscale American cuisine with an emphasis on seafood. We received an amuse bouche from the chef; although we cannot recall what it was, we do remember that it was beautifully presented and set a good tone for the quality of our meal. We did not order a starter on the evening that we dined; however, most starters were seafood-based: sardines, lobster, crayfish, calamari, octopus, plus soups and salads. For our main courses, we ordered the organic chicken (served “Hainanese” style, which meant that it came accompanied by little bowls of scallions, broth, and white rice, but without instructions on how to actually eat the dish) and the yellowtail snapper (served with shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari). For dessert, we shared the vanilla panna cotta with sangria topping.

Wait staff was friendly, but they did not seem overly confident in what they were doing. (The service at Malliouhana is a bit more formal than other restaurants on the island, so perhaps with time the comfort level will change.) Overall, even with a few baubles, we enjoyed our time at The Restaurant at Malliouhana.