ST. MARTIN - BEST Restaurant for Fine French Dining Experience?

Hey guys! I am a HUGE foodie, going on Carnival Valor's southern caribbean itinerary a month from now. Now, I know I'm for sure not going to get a "gourmet" experience on the boat (though I'm sure everything will be perfectly adequate), so I'm hoping I can satisfy my inner foodie needs on some of the islands.

I've heard Grand Case in St. Martin is a great place to find authentic french food. The question is...how do I choose?? I've looked on trip advisor and seen their top choices but I'd really like to hear if any of you fellow foodies have had first hand experience.

Also, if anyone knows if any restaurants have prix fixe type tasting menus that would also be nice to know...

Grazie!

Addendum: Will also need to be a place that's open for lunch :( (Cruise leaves port at 5:00pm)

You will receive more responses on a forum such as Chowhound than on Cruise Critic. Here is a link to a fairly recent thread on a similar subject: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/844646

You might want to see if any of the restaurants mentioned on that thread are open for lunch and look good; if not try posting a question on Chowhound.

Many thanks! Wasn't sure where/who to ask. :)

Wish I found this post earlier! We lived in St Martin for a few months and I would highly recommend Le France. We would eat there once a week and their escargot is to die for. They serve it in a puff pastry. Where did you end up going?

Based upon your dates, I know this reply is a bit late, but I had to weigh in - we too had heard what a foodie mecca Grand Case is, so we were very excited to go for lunch, on our day in port off of the Celebrity Summit this past October. We were honestly, super disappointed in Grand Case as a town - after reading all of the hype, I think our expectations were very high. We did, however, have a very good lunch at Le Tastevin - excellent red snapper, beautiful table right at the water, all very nice. You can read my review on TripAdvisor. Which, in fact, as someone else wrote, is a better place to get recommendations - which is why we decided upon Le Tastevin, that, plus once you are boots on the ground, so to speak, you get a better feel. I would love to hear where you went!

The one venue that we indisputably LOVED was Sarafina's in Marigot, WOW, pastries like we have never had before, amazing!