St Barth: Sand Bar at Eden Rock (April 2016)

My spouse and I enjoyed lunch at The Sand Bar restaurant at Eden Rock Resort on a Sunday afternoon in late April 2016. The Sand Bar is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily; however, it closes annually from the end of August to mid-October. We suggest that you make a reservation, even for lunch; we were not seated at one of the choice tables adjacent to the sand because it was so crowded and we arrived without a booking. (Eden Rock’s more formal restaurant called On the Rocks participates in the Open Table reservation system, and it seems to accept reservations for lunch, even though it is a dinner-only restaurant, so we think that the lunch reservations must apply to The Sand Bar instead.) Eden Rock offers complimentary valet parking for diners who are non-hotel guests.

The Sand Bar, which overlooks the beach and the clear-blue sea in St Jean, retains an elegant atmosphere, despite patrons in swimsuits, cover-ups, and bare feet for the lunch service. The décor of the open-air Sand Bar features lots of white, with red pops of color from placemats, cushions, and pillows, which contrast with the dark wood deck/floor and lighter wood of the beams that support the roof. The restaurant offers table seating as well as seats at tables at which one side shares the cushioned banquette. As with most restaurants on the island of St Barths, roll-down clear plastic shades protect from rain and cold when necessary. The restaurant features an interesting copper pizza oven, an atypical site on the island. The hotel bar area adjacent to the restaurant space (some of which offers indoor seating at high-top tables) looks a bit dated with its nautical feel including lots of wood and brass-rimmed porthole windows, but otherwise, the Eden Rock property is lovely. Restrooms are located a bit far from the Sand Bar restaurant, out past the shops and adjacent to the parking lot and valet stop.

Jean-Georges Vongenrichten, who comes from Alsace France, created the menus at both The Sand Bar (and On the Rocks). The executive chef is Eric Desbordes from Paris. Vongenrichten holds three Michelin stars in one of his restaurants (Jean-Georges in New York City), and Desbordes holds one from his previous restaurant. The menu at The Sand Bar features international cuisine, with items at many price points and degrees of formality; for example, at lunchtime, you can order a less expensive hamburger, pizza, or salad, or you can break the bank and order the lobster or the Dover sole. (We watched guests order menu choices from both ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between.) As we perused the menu, our server delivered three small bowls of complimentary nuts (cashews and almonds), each coated with a different type of flavoring/herb/spice. We also received bread and oil as we waited for our meal. We shared two menu items, but we requested that they be delivered in two courses: first, we shared the pizza Jambon San Danielle et Roquette (topped with prosciutto and arugula), then we shared the Sandwich de Poisson Pays Grille and Frites (grilled local fish sandwich with fries; the top of the sandwich bun features the initials of the hotel ER written with black poppyseeds, which was cute!). Our food, as well as two rounds of drinks and a large bottle of water amounted to just over $100 (service included), which is not much more than we would spend for a similar lunch at a scenic restaurant in the United States, so we did not feel that the prices were outrageous.

We enjoyed our leisurely lunch at The Sand Bar, and we would visit again, or more likely, to visit On the Rocks at dinnertime.