Saint James Bora Bora Review – Great Food, Slow Service

~ Chris Wada

Our latest dining adventure takes us to the Saint James Bora Bora, which had some troubles with pacing during their dinner service.

First Friday Feast is a monthly series debuting on the first Friday of each month and elaborates on a recent dining experience.

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We’ve been trying to have a date night each month this year (and post about it on the first Friday of every month). Sometimes we bring the kids along for date night and sometimes they stay at home. But that’s fine by us–the kids are more than welcome to tag along if they want. Our most recent visit was to a famous restaurant in Bora Bora.

Arrival to Saint James Bora Bora

If you want to come to Saint James Bora Bora for dinner, you’ll want to make reservations in advance. For dinner, the restaurant will arrange for transportation from your hotel via taxi at a rate of 1,000 XPF per person (~$10 US). There are no discounts on the rate for children. For us, dinner service started at 6:30PM (though we encountered delays).

As we were staying at the St. Regis Bora Bora, we needed to take a water shuttle over to the main island. Once the dinner reservation is confirmed, I relayed the details over to the St. Regis so they could coordinate with Saint James Restaurant. The boat ride was a separate charge we paid to the St. Regis. (No, there is no relation between the Saint James and St. Regis.)

Once on the island, we found a taxi driver who mentioned he would take us the restaurant but that he also needed to pick up two other couples. We got into the van at 6:15PM.

We chatted with the other guests the driver picked up, including a couple who also lives in Southern California. After a lengthy drive in the dark, we arrived at the plaza and found the Saint James.

Once inside, the host directed us to our table for the evening, right up against the water. It would have been beautiful to get views of the sunset from here, but their dinner service was just too late to see the sunset. We would have needed to come for happy hour in the afternoon and arrange our own transportation.

The view out here is nice, even in the evening when you can’t see much. It does get chilly by the water so bring a sweater or a light jacket.

The Saint James Bora Bora menu

The host handed us some menus for us to explore and keep us busy. There are seafood options and local cuisine, along with some very filling steak choices.

Food menu and drink menu
Restaurant recommendations
Starters
Main courses
Desserts
Cocktails containing rum, tequila, gin, vodka, whiskey
Hard alcohol and virgin cocktails
More hard alcohol and beer
Wines

It seems appropriate to call out that the restaurant does have a kids menu. However, several options were not available. It’s unclear if they sold out earlier that day or if it was out of stock for quite some time. All we got was a nervous smile and a shake of the head. This was actually the case for some of the adult items too, but the kids were more disappointed about it than us adults were.

Children’s menu

A note on the rushed nature of dinner at the Saint James Bora Bora

OK, before I go any further, I need to call out that we were on a short timeline here at the Saint James. Let’s break it down a little.

  • We left the St. Regis at 6PM to take their water shuttle to the main island.
  • Taxi pickup was at 6:15PM.
  • It took us 30 minutes to reach the restaurant and pick up the other guests, putting us at 6:45PM.
  • The return water shuttle was supposed to take us back at 9:15PM.
  • That means we needed to leave the restaurant no later than 8:45PM to make that shuttle.

In theory, that leaves us with two hours for dinner. You’d think that would be plenty of time, but it most definitely was not.

  • While we were seated fairly quickly, no one came by to take our order for 30 minutes. The restaurant was far too busy and it appeared understaffed.
  • Our food didn’t arrive until 8PM, about 75 minutes after arriving at the restaurant.
  • The check needed to be settled by 8:30PM, which meant they could only offer dessert in a to-go box.

It’s unclear if the restaurant is always this busy at dinner, but the staff seemed unprepared for it despite the reservations and knowing we were on a short timeframe. Some prioritization for those guests on a short timeline would have been nice. We walked away feeling like this was not a well-oiled machine at the Saint James Bora Bora.

Drinks

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the food by starting with the drinks. We ordered a St. James Special and a Tahitian Punch. Yeah, both drinks looked quite similar to each other but you could tell the difference between them when drinking. As was the case with other drinks we had on this trip, they were plenty strong. We only needed one (well, more like Jenn had half and I finished her half, but that was still plenty).

The food

To start, we received some sourdough bread with a choice of salted or unsalted butter.

We each received some tofu tartare, which was a little surprising. Somehow they were able to take some tofu and turn it into a dish that does taste like tartare. The kids weren’t a fan but it was tasty.

And now the main courses started to show up. Alex went with the kids steak and fries, which he loved. Of course, he’s been in the mood quite a bit for steak and red meat, so not a surprise it was right up his alley. It is a rather small portion of beef. In retrospect, he probably should have just shared my meal (which will make more sense soon).

Char, disappointed with no macaroni and cheese available that evening, decided to just share off everyone else’s plate.

Unfortunately, Jenn’s first choice of entree (the whole fish) was not available. So instead she went with the Les St. Jacques, which are pan-fried scallops with a coconut crust. They’re good scallops and had plenty of flavor though it took away from a bit of the natural flavor of the scallop.

And then we get to my dish. I decided on the Côte de Boeuf, which was only listed as a price-per-100-grams size on the menu. Well, the choices on the size ended up being either 1,200 grams or 1,400 grams. Not much variety in size so I went with the 1,200. Our server cut the beef tableside.

In fact, it was such a long process of cutting the beef that everyone else at the table received their food and then continued to stare at it, wondering how I would eat it all. Perhaps the length of time it took for the meat cutting added to the rushed timeline?

I looked at my dish and both was thrilled to eat it and regretted my decision at the same time. Yes, Alex could easily have enjoyed my dish with me. The beef is delicious, and I enjoyed it more than the steak I had at La Villa Mahana. (Well, before it got too overwhelming from the sheer volume.)

Speaking of La Villa Mahana, it does seem like they serve the best version of the beef with truffle gnocchi. We didn’t eat it, but the other couple from Southern California did eat it that evening, and they mentioned the gnocchi was undercooked and the beef was way too overcooked. I’m glad my beef turned out well.

End of service

As I mentioned above, our server mentioned that there was no time to eat dessert at our table. She asked if we wanted to purchase any on a to-go basis, but we declined. Part of the enjoyment of the dessert course is a natural winding down from the main course. Getting rushed out just ruins the potential for dessert.

We were supposed to return with the same party we arrived with. However, one of the couples declared they didn’t want to leave because they were being rushed. So, we ended up leaving without that couple. My assumption would be that they needed to arrange for their own transportation back and work with their resort for a return water shuttle.

In total, we paid 25,690 XPF (~$250 US) for dinner plus the roundtrip taxi ride.

Recommendation: Not for dinner service

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I would say we didn’t care too much for dinner service at the Saint James Bora Bora. We found the service to be lacking and the pacing just off. Waiting 75 minutes for food to arrive makes for an uncomfortable visit–with or without hungry kids accompanying us. The food itself was good, but we found ourselves comparing dinner to La Villa Mahana quite often.

For dinner specifically, La Villa Mahana is superior in pacing, quality of food, and taste. The only exception is with the Côte de Boeuf I ordered from the Saint James Bora Bora, which was a bit more flavorful than at La Villa Mahana. Still, we’d prefer La Villa Mahana.

However, we’re guessing that lunch service likely isn’t so crowded and that happy hour surely has good views of the sunset. So, we’re not ready to fully rule out a return to the Saint James, but we won’t be coming back for dinner.

What is your favorite restaurant in Bora Bora?

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