Restaurant La Guerite, St. Barth

Dan's review of a new restaurant in Gustavia, St. Barth: Saturday evening we tried the new restaurant, La Guerite, that replaced one of Gustavia’s best eateries, Wall House. What’s the verdict? Well, there are pros and cons, as with any almost any deluxe restaurant. I’ll go over the items we had and our opinions on this newly renovated space. On the waiter’s advice, we shared a few of the entrees (or appetizers.) One was the pissaladiere, which was billed as a combination of caramelized onion tart with olive and anchovy. The other flavors were not discernible, but the soft, moist onion flavor was outstanding. We also had a too-liquidy taramasalata (the chef is Greek) and a superb pouple, finely sliced octopus in a delicate lemon oil. For the main course, Jim had gnocchi which was homemade and featured a wonderful tomato sauce. Dan enjoyed the Filet de loup (sea bass) which was lying in a delicious puree of artichokes but covered with some bitter arugala (also known as roques in French or rockets in English, another linguistic mystery.) The fish was extremely tender. We washed all this down with glasses of a good Malbec and a second rate Pinot Noire. Why didn’t we order a bottle of wine? Well, the prices on a bottle of wine are astronomical; it’s about 80 to 169 Euros for an average bottle of vin rouge. Could we afford it? Yes, but we don’t like the idea of being ripped off, to coin a cliché. That is the attitude of La Guerite. So…while the food is good, if you are a St. Bart’s regular this is a place to try but sadly not a place to repeatedly return to, the way we used to frequent Wall House.