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This is Part IV of a series of articles featuring our favorite tropical destination, St. John, USVI. You can read about how to get to St. John here, about our latest visit and stay at Coconut Coast Villas here, and about our favorite beaches and a special sunset cruise, here. This article will feature a few of our favorite restaurants on St. John.
David and I love to eat! Our favorite meal of the day is breakfast, and we are known to go “all-out” at home with a spread like no other! Therefore, finding great places to eat while traveling is on the top of our list, always! We have found a few “go-to” places we favor when we visit St. John, USVI, but have many more to try, so we need to go back for another visit! (wink, wink).
Favorite Breakfast Spot – High Tide Bar & Seafood Grill
Our favorite place to eat breakfast on St. John hands down has to be High Tide Bar & Seafood Grill. High Tide is located right beside the ferry dock, and has some of the best views on St. John. It is a waterfront, open-air, quaint bar & grill with umbrellas covering most of the deck area, making for a cozy but perfect spot to drink coffee, eat, and “people watch” as visitors and residents of St. John disembark from the ferry coming in from St. Thomas on a regular basis. High Tide serves lunch, has a happy hour and dinner as well, and their food is first rate! They also have a wonderful gift shop attached to their property, and we always have a hard time deciding what NOT to purchase!! Our favorite employee at High Tide, Kelly, has been greeting us for several years now, always remembers us, and she even lowered her mask for this photo so she could show off her smile!! She is so beautiful!!
When we left after breakfast one morning, we also saw these precious sisters with their Minnie Mouse masks on, and asked them (and their mother) if we could take their picture. They happily obliged, and you can even see their sweet smiles through their eyes in spite of the masks!!
Favorite Lunch and/or Dinner Spot – Banana Deck
Our favorite place for lunch or dinner is the Banana Deck. It is also an open-air restaurant, (most on St. John are) with two levels of seating for dining customers. We prefer to sit on the upper deck, which has a nice view of Cruz Bay. The food at Banana Deck is awesome, especially their steaks and salads. But the real winner, and the reason this is a must go-to for us for every visit, is their dessert, called the Xango–“banana caramel cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried. It is coated with cinnamon and sugar, and topped with vanilla ice cream, whip cream, caramel and chocolate sauce”. Oh. My. Gosh !!
XANGO!!!
The Tap Room – St. John Brewers
Another really cool place to eat is The Tap Room, located in Mongoose Junction in Cruz Bay. It is a restaurant/pub, and they are open for lunch and dinner. They specialize in locally brewed craft beers and sodas, and have a full menu of food items as well. We found the owners’ story so interesting. The two owners were college classmates who quit their jobs and moved to St. John. They started their business with a $50 beer-making kit, and, well–hop over to their website and read the rest of their story. It really is a good read, and David and I enjoyed knowing the history of the pub before going there for dinner. We ordered pizza, fish tacos and root beer! It was fantastic!
Cruz Bay Landing
Another place we like to eat dinner is Cruz Bay Landing. We don’t go there often enough, or our trip is too short, or something, because I just found out recently they make specials sometimes that aren’t even on the menu–like Pina Colada French Toast with pineapple sauce and toasted coconut! Goodness! How did I miss this? It is guaranteed–the next time we go to St. John, we will be going to Cruz Bay Landing for breakfast and ask about this french toast!! We did happen to go for dinner on another visit to St. John (pre-covid). They do have a Happy Hour, and live music. We loved listening to an island favorite, Erin Hart – Island Girl Music. She writes her own songs and her music is light, airy, and relaxing–just like the island!!
Extra Virgin Bistro
This restaurant is tucked in a little further up the road from Cruz Bay Landing, but has such a romantic ambiance. David and I sat out on the porch area outside, but it was really cozy and quiet. Extra Virgin Bistro grows their own herbs on site, and the fish is locally caught and served as well. Therefore, the menu changes nightly. It is a nice “date-night” restaurant, and was recommended to us by the managers of Coconut Coast Villas, Julie & Dave. Thanks!!
Other Restaurants
There are so many good restaurants on the island of St. John–but these are our favorites. We tend to stay on the “Cruz Bay” side of the island, therefore all of those mentioned above are on the Cruz Bay side. Coral Bay has many great restaurants as well. It would be a good idea to do some research if you are planning a trip to St. John. The restaurants all have different hours of operation, as well as their “closed” days. We made dinner reservations for each night while on the island, as all had capacity limits due to Covid-19 as of this writing.
We are ending the St. John series with a few random pictures taken on our last visit. We can’t promise we won’t write again about St. John, as we take at least one trip (or more) there each year. We do, however, travel to other places besides St. John, and will be sharing about those destinations soon! If you have any questions about St. John though, please feel free to reach out and we will try our best to answer!
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