StX Restaurant Ratings

Cute Noah.....real cute!:P

Please tell me we can still get the salad with grilled mahi. We are dieting, and that's about all we can have until mid-June. It's one of my husband's favorites anyway.

Yep, still there!

Update:

Ate at Angry Nate's on the StX boardwalk for the first time the other night.
It's a place you have to walk into to appreciate, ie, it looks better from the inside looking out, than from the outside looking in.

Appreciated:
Quick attentive wait staff.
Good prices.
Menu variety.

Concerns:
Wife's steak was well-done, when she had ordered it medium rare. For $20 it should be cooked right -and the place wasn't that busy.
My brisket sandwich, which they raved about, need to be leaner, and cooked until not chewy. Both entrees made me wonder if they had a real chef -or short order cook. That said, we'll be back to try it again. Good atmosphere and wait staff.

Rum Runner's Note:
We had gone down to the boardwalk to eat at Brew Pub, which was as crowded as I've ever seen it. So we sat down in Rum Runners which was half empty. and sat, and sat. Then the whiff of bathroom we first noticed when we walked in wasn't going away, so we got up and left and walked down to Nate's.

Also...anybody else notice that Rum Runners has put in small cheap plastic seats? They definitely don't incline you to want to go there and kick back for dinner. If I spend $20+ for an entree, is it too much to ask for a reasonably comfortable chair?

just a note on the cans at rumrunners,ceaser the handyman was working on them yesterday and today

Good to know. Maybe Caesar the Handyman can build some decent chairs too.

This is one of the reasons I didn't like Cane Bay Beach Bar -the occasional smells, not the chairs.

sharkys
went wed for the italian night. they advertised $2 wine. on the bill it was $3. got salad with dinner, they charged $1 for each blue cheese we wanted. the server was very nice but didnt tell us these things. we didnt know you could go and get your own dressing from the fixin's bar. food was not so great . i know, what should i expect from a bar. it was my first time there. i dont guess we will ever go back.

The islands too small to just give a restaurant one chance. I always give a place 3 or 4 chances (at least), and if you don't speak up.... You have to remember the waitress aren't trained in a lot of these restaurants. Especially the ones on the more moderate price scale like sharky's. This is no fancy restaurant, but they made themselves a nice niche. They have pool, which we like and they get whatever sports game you wanna watch. With the big games it turns into a party atmosphere with people cheering and yelling.

And even the ones I don't like I end up going back with friends that do like them. 😉

like i said the waitress was nice, she just didnt tell us things that should have been told to us. i loved the decor and atmosphere of the place and although i am not good i like to shoot pool too. if we go back we will at least know what to expect.

speee1dy,
Are you saying if you go to the fixins bar, the blue cheese dressing is free, but if the server brings it to you it's $1.00 each "serving"? I've seen and heard a lot of strange things in the restaurant business, but that one is ridiculous. It's the kind of "penny wise and pound foolish" treatment that leaves a bad taste.

I do agree with Betty about another chance. We usually go back, and if it's bad again we wait even longer and go back and if it's bad again.....etc. After many, many tries, we finally wrote off the Golden Rail. If you see us there now, it's usually to meet up with old yachtie friends, and we can put up with a bad meal (or bad service) if the company is good and the beer is cold!

I often go to Golden Rail for breakfast and am pleased with both the service and the food...go figure.

Yeah, Linda, it's all about each individual experience. This thread is good to give an idea about the different restaurant options, but it's certainly not the be all and end all. For people new to the island, you have to pay your dues, so to speak, and you will occasionally get a bad meal with bad service, or good, with good, just like we did, and you will find you own favorites or not so favorites. Just take it all with a grain of salt. 😎

I just heard today that Salud won Best Appetizer at Taste of St. Croix. Way to go Noah!!!!! Congratulations!

well juanita, im not sure if blue cheese was on the fixins bar, the only thing we were told about the fixins bar was to get our knife and fork from there. my boss likes to go there for lunch and told us salad dressing was on the bar?? dont know what kind but the nice waitress didnt tell us so not really sure.
we usually do give places a second chance, but there are so many other nice places that i just dont know if it would be worth it in this instance.
i like the golden rails food, sunday morning is not a good time for good service though
a friend recently went there with her small dog and was told the dog would have to leave, which we both found odd since there is usually a dog wondering around the restaurant. she was pretty upset about that. but i believe the attitude of the daughter of the owner was even worse.very rude.

Ah, now you've hit my hot button - dogs in restaurants.

Since many of our restaurants are open air, we do get the odd dog walking around. This is a health code violation which can result in a fine for the restaurant and every restaurant I've been in makes a practice of trying to shooing them out. What annoys me is the customer who either has a dog on their lap or on the chair next to them. Sorry folks but this is not acceptable behaviour, IMO.

Thanks Juanita! Braised goat with chickpea, date, and olive salad! Who'd think goat would win, eh?

The dog thing is tough since some people consider their dogs "another person". It is against health code to have them in a restaurant unless it's a service dog. Some people just can't stand to have their dog denied service. You're right Linda J, not acceptable. Even worse is when people are absolutely shocked or offended when asked to put their dog in the car while they eat.

Speedy,

I know about the dogs you're talking about at Golden Rail. They are dogs that live on their boats with their owners and homeless dogs. Customers feed them and the management/staff have a hard time keeping them out since there are no real doors. But I have seen them again and again sho the dogs away.

Now if you want to take your dogs to certain places I can recommend places. These are all places where you would have to sit outside the technical area of the restaurant. Like Angry Nates or Brew Pub. If you sit on the boardwalk area its no problem. Places like that usually have no problem. You just cannot be on the inside.

In NYC you see dogs in resturants all the time. Little pooches in purses. I have even seen women enter classy stores with their dogs on a leash.

We used to go to Sharky's here and there. Sometimes it was just nice to be in A.C. and away from mosquito's. I think it reminded my husband of a stateside bar and grill and my husband likes to eat cheap when ever he can. I hated it. The food was absolutely awful. I finally refused to go back. I can honestly say I never had a meal there that didn't upset my digestive system. I would rather open a can of cold ravioli and eat it with a plastic spoon!!!

changesinlattitude, you made me laugh. i am sorry about your tummy though
my only point about golden rail was usually they do nothing about the dogs in the restaurant that belong to the boatyard? weve been in there numerous times and the dog has been there laying at the customers feet. you cant bar one without barring them all, you know what i mean. at every outdoor restaurant we go to there are chickens, birds, cats or dogs in the dinning area,

Sometimes the dogs in restaurants are cleaner than the patrons. *-)

trade
so true

Sorry I personally dont see a thing wrong with dogs being in outside rest. as long as they are with their owners and they are on a leash and maintained. ( not mangy) Have seen some people in rest. who look like a bath and brush are foreign objects. Have been to rest. and dog friendly shopping malls in the state and they are much better behaved then alot of children are. Dogs don't run all over the place at cheeseburgers tripping the poor waitresses. Kids do that. Dogs dont cry and scream when people are trying to eat. Kids do that.
Most dogs lay quietly under the table waiting for some tidbits to fall.

I don't think most of see anything wrong with well behaved dogs in restaurants, but the restaurants will get heavy fines if they allow any in. And while some restaurants are open air and don't have any real walls the area within the roof line is where dogs are not allowed. Also think about the people with very real allergies to animals, it'd be horrible to see someone struggling to breath because a dog was next to them and they didn't know it. And lets face it many people are afraid of dogs here. Before you think I'm a dog hater, I have 4 rescued mutts that are treated like kings. If I want to take one or two of them out I take them to the boardwalk, several restaurants there allow them and I can walk them all over downtown. Its a win win.

And I think families need restaurants like Cheesburgers that are kid friendly. Its not like the food there is great, its pretty hit or miss like most burger joints, so they have to have a niche.

betty
your right about cheeseburgers being hit or miss. one time my prime rib sucked, so much fat, next time it was great. i dont think the burgers there are as great as everyone says. they are ok but nothing special. now they do have chili cheese fries that are very good. oh, and dont forget the noseums, love them.

How about chocolate covered noseums? We could get rich!!

loved that, chocolate covered noseums