French Verandah

If you search for the best restaurants in St. Vincent, the French Verandah will be one place that always comes up. It is the in-house restaurant of the Mariners Hotel at Villa Beach. It is situated smack next to the beach, with an open air format and breathtaking views of Young Island and the ocean. The ambiance is unparalleled, there are boats anchored and sunset vistas that provide unforgettable pictures and memories. There is also a full bar, associated with this dining destination. The restaurant opens at 7 am to provide a small but adequate breakfast menu. For lunch and dinner, the offerings are extensive with both small and large plates. While the choices for local food are disappointingly scanty (there is no Pelau), there are the usual standard salads, appetizers, wraps, sandwiches, pastas, burgers and desserts. Do you really come to a Caribbean location to have food that you can have at home or in your country? The only French dish on the menu is one with escargots. So the name is misleading. It should be only called, “The Verandah”. Simple, yet powerful. Also, it is more appropriate (and accurate) for this restaurant. I was able to taste several selections. Chili rubbed wings came with fries and salad. Shrimp roti, which actually was good, but had a lot of potatoes instead of shrimp. The roti itself was fantastic. The outer covering and the inside flavor was even better than at Veejays. I also had fish samosas (twice). Six of them come with a Filipino lumpia sweet-and-sour sauce, no kidding. Samosas should always come with green mint and/or red tamarind chutney, with a strong Indian influence. This menu item needs serious modification. Indian spice split pea soup was not that spicy, with no Indian ingredients, so what was that about? The soup was good, but it needs another name, to avoid disappointment. And the catch of the day, fried tuna came with chef’s potatoes, vegetables. Good. Salt fish buljol, a local dish, was unique and superb. The Chef was kind enough to give me both the bakes and doughboy, as sides. Both options very new to me. This dish exceeded my expectations. In summary, all the food offerings I had here were superb. So was the service…attentive, caring, friendly, timely, and excellent. Now, all they need to do is modify the name of the restaurant, to accurately advertise what their food is all about.

There is really nothing French about this restaurant. The restaurant is part of the hotel, with a beautiful waterfront view. Happy hour drink offers were limited to shots and beer. While the cocktail menu was extensive, many of the cocktails were unavailable as simple ingredients such as banana or mints were out. So I settled for a rum punch, which was fairly strong. We got the roasted pork to share, but it looked like we were at a picnic. Service was also spotty…

Came here at the recommendation of Kevin, he runs a boat taxi from mainland to Young Island. Did not disappoint, the service was impeccable, the food was delicious and I enjoyed my meal with against the backdrop of the ocean and Young Island. Very soothing, enjoyable and you can see the waves splashing ashore

I am not sure why I keep going back, last night we dined here and the service was not good. My daughter ordered seafood pasta, the fish had bones in it. My chilly wings were over coated with sauce, and the french fries were cold. We were never asked how our meals were, and while dining, the cleaners were mopping and rearranging the tables for breakfast the next day. The server needs to be trained as we had to ask for water for the table.

Update as of 23Jan23. I'm not sure what happened from the last time I was here to now. The food wasn't as good and the service was very indifferent. I could feel a difference of treatment this time from last time. All customers should be treated the same regardless of whether you are a local or foreign. Please return the standards of islander home welcoming. I will be back in the future, but until then this is my review. Let me tell you. This restaurant is top of the line. Everything that I ordered here has been top tier. I plan on coming again in the future and if you haven't come here yet then I recommend you come out of your way to come here. The staff was very professional, the prices of the food and drinks are very fair, and the food was freshly made everytime and freshly served. I can only speak nothing but wonders about this restaurant. Everyone here has a beautiful soul and I wish nothing but blessings upon the restaurant. Also, the restaurant is apart of the hotel and also it's own separate thing as well. As in you do not have to stay at the hotel in order to order at this fine establishment. Once again team. I thank you guys for making my trip here that much sweeter. Until next time.

Food was good and very friendly staff has great views, visited twice but not all options on the menu were available. I did have a very tasty shrimp roti The views are great from here directly across from Young Island.

The view of Young Island from this restaurant is just lovely. This restaurant affords an ideal place from which to see the Island. The shrimp cocktail was delicious, as was the beef roti. The portions were a decent size. The beef roti was tasty and I recommend it. The area outside is really nice because of the view and it is great to watch people from the hotel go for a swim. There were many lovely items on the menu, making it difficult to select a meal. The members of staff are really friendly and attentive. On our second visit, I had the tuna, which was delicious. The drinks menu is diverse and there is a great variety of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

The main attraction to this location is that it’s ocean side, so there’s a lovely view while you dine. The drinks were average, the Meat-lovers pasta (a penne carbonara?) was great too, and the burger that I had was absolutely wonderful - very well seasoned. Though, I was surprised that I wasn’t asked how I would like my meat prepared. I asked for cheese to be added and had to literally tear the burger down the middle to find said cheese. I thought it was absent and told my server who was respectful and apologized. After which, management (a lady), came over and insisted that cheese was added by the chef. After having to massacre the burger and complete an inspection with her hovering, the cheese was found. If it’s a cheeseburger, I shouldn’t have to complete a dissection and a hunt to find it. Other than that mishap, the experience was good, as it usually is.