Karibuni @ Isle Pinel

Best restaurant reviews SXM – Karibuni Restaurant

Karibuni
The day dawned windy and a fair number of squalls passed by on the Eastern side of the island. (Does it seem that the weather is like this every weekend after great weather during the week?) We had heard that Karibuni and Yellow Beach, the other restaurant on Isle Pinel, were up and running. We wanted to go to Karibuni for lunch, it would be our first visit since Hurricane Irma came by.

Bad weather never lasts for long here in the Caribbean and before long we were out there making our way to the public ferry that leaves from French Cul-de-Sac to Isle Pinel.  The same feeling enveloped us, as it always does, on our approach to the island – pure joy to be back!

We hopped off the ferry at the dock and made our way to our favourite place. The beach has been cleaned but one could see just where the huge surge had swept through wiping out everything in its path. The Iguana residents on island, were looking for snacks.

The hurricane took the the beach and boatbar who knows where, as it did to everything else in its path.

The sign welcoming us all, so French.

Eric and his amazing team set to work to rebuild and once again a beautiful building is there housing kitchen, bar, deck and tables all ready for us to enjoy.

A new kitchen with every last bit of equipment has been reinstalled and boy are the plates coming out of it good!

 

 

 

 

 

The food is as yummy as it always was – so are the beers and wine!

 

 

 

 

 

It was wonderful to see Eric. He and his team have done such an amazing job.

The building has been constructed with as much natural material as possible. The GREEN concept is being utilized down to plates and flatware, much of it is now biodegradable.

 

 

 

 

 

The birds are back and enjoying the sugar that has been put out for them. Aren’t these so cute?

The amazing plates we enjoyed were starters of Accras and Calamari done the Karibuni way,  followed by Seared tuna, Karibuni salad, Mahi-Mahi, Lobster,  and Freshwater prawns from Guadaloupe.

 

 

 

 

 

Our first visit to Karibuni was about 28 years ago. My Mum fell in love with the chocolaty, fudgy cake they served back then. We finished our meal in memory of her with the same chocolate pud and shared the banana flambe!

Happy to be back but the end of the day came all too soon. The last ferry was pretty full on the way back.

The only things left of Karibuni was a foundation and the outhouse up on the hill with an untouched roll of loo paper there-in! It is quite incredible how the storm did damage so much, and yet small things were untouched.

From This……………………..

To This…………………….. 6 weeks to clear and 6 months to opening after the worst hurricane in living memory passed across the island.

#SXMSTRONG!!!!!