St. Regis Bora Bora: Unforgettable Gourmet Dinners in Paradise

During our five night stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora, we had three dinners on property at three different restaurants. Below are our thoughts on each.

View other posts in this series:

Let’s spend a brief moment talking about each of the St. Regis Bora Bora’s dinner restaurants. There are a total of five restaurants (not including room service):

Lagoon Restaurant
Bamboo Restaurant
Farniente Restaurant
Te Pahu Restaurant
Aparima Bar

We dined at Aparima Bar for lunch, and the menu is identical between the two. So check out the prior installment for more details on the food there.

Lagoon Restaurant

Lagoon is the St. Regis Bora Bora’s signature restaurant, serving gastronomic delights. The hours for this restaurant are the following:

Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 5:30PM – 9:30PM
Closed Wednesday and Thursday

Our reservation was for 5:30PM, which works if you’re looking for nice views both with the sun out and after it sets.

727 Bar

If you so desire, you can have a drink at the attached 727 Bar before proceeding to your dinner reservation. The host asked us if we would like to have a drink before starting. Since the kids were with us and were hungry, we declined, but there are stellar views of Mt. Otemanu from here.

The hours for 727 Bar follow the hours of Lagoon, with the only exception that it’s open half an hour later. You might wonder how 727 Bar got its name. It’s not a reference to a Boeing plane, but it’s actually a reference to the height of Mt. Otemanu (727 meters tall).

Drinks are mixed at the bar just inside. There is live music played here at the bar, which can be heard throughout Lagoon as well.

There is a bar menu available with plenty of drinks to choose from. The 727 Bar also serves the Cocktail of the Week, which is relevant if you have Marriott elite status. I don’t have confirmation on what other elite levels give, but Titanium Elite members get a 20% discount on that drink.

If you’re dining in Lagoon, you can also get drinks from the 727 Bar.

Inside Lagoon

Back to Lagoon, the restaurant is quite lovely, with plenty of natural lighting (highlighting Mt. Otemanu).

The kids loved looking at the glass panels to see fish swimming by. We did have to remind them to watch out for other guests as they admired the ocean below.

Our table was in the corner, an excellent location.

The Lagoon menu

Lagoon has three ways you can approach the menu.

A prix fixe tasting menu (Signature Menu)
An omakase-style tasting menu (Discovery Menu)
A la carte dining

We chose the latter option as we didn’t feel too hungry coming in. For us in this case, I think we made the correct choice.

*Discover menu (omakase-style) and a la carte options*

Drinks

To start the evening, Lola, our server for the evening, came by and asked if we would be interested in a glass of champagne. The options and prices are as follows per glass:

Barons De Rothschild Brut (2,090 XPF or ~$20 US)
Ayalla, Blanc De Blanc, 2017 (5,040 XPF or ~$49 US)
Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé (5,940 XPF or ~$58 US)

I noticed the prices but Jenn didn’t, but I let her pick what she wanted. She, of course, went with the rosé because it’s a rosé.

Lola excitedly poured us adults each a glass. Alex clearly wasn’t all that amused. Maybe one day?

It’s an excellent drink. And–spoiler alert–Lola ended up comping our glass of champagne. She never said why–just that it was on her. Was it because it was always intended to be free? Or that we were celebrating a birthday? Or was it because we encountered service issues (the missing room service order)? We’ll never know, but it was a nice gesture.

The kids ordered some fruit juice, which was similarly comped.

The food

Our evening started with bread, with options including a baguette and some seed bread. We also got three different types of butter: truffle oil, regular and smoked.

The kids loved the bread, naturally.

While we were waiting for our meal, Lola provided us an amuse bouche trio. The yellow treat is royal carrot (similar to a crème brûlée but with carrots). The poof in the back is a marshmallow with sesame seeds. And the drink is cucumber watermelon, far better than your typical cucumber water. Think of this trio as an appetizer, entree, and dessert in one.

Our first dish was the red tuna and coconut. You can think of the cold coconut milk as a shot you take before consuming. In the bowl itself is a combination of ahi tuna, local pineapple, cucumber jelly, coconut cream froth. It’s a good mix and quite refreshing.

Next up is the Tahitian shrimp, served three ways. I didn’t catch the specifics on each preparation style, but the sauces are divine. It might feel a bit expensive to spend 4,600 XPF (~$45 US) on just a few pieces of shrimp, but it’s quite delectable.

Our third item was the Lagoon fish (a.k.a. swordfish). It came with the broth of a spicy tomato, some sushi rice, and vegetables. This dish is a little on the spicy side. And despite the sushi rice, it tasted more Vietnamese than Japanese. As fans of raw fish, we enjoyed it.

Next up is the grilled octopus, which came on a bed of sweet mashed potatoes, a coconut emulsion, and some cabbage. This had to be the softest octopus we’ve ever eaten. So tender and tasty, we would love eating this one again.

I didn’t get a chance to get a picture of Alex’s pasta before he ate it, but he clearly knows what he likes. He got a pasta with a side of pasta. I previously thought that was only possible at Olive Garden but shows what I know.

Char ordered the kids chicken, which was simple but good. She loves her chicken and rice.

Dessert

For dessert, we ordered a dame blanche for the table. We watched as Lola poured the chocolate into the center of the treat.

This is a good ending to the evening. In fact, Char enjoyed it quite a bit and made most of it her own. Who wouldn’t like sponge cake with some vanilla ice cream on top? The almond cream adds a nice bit of flavor to round it out.

We also received some extra goodies. These are strawberry tartlets and brownie coffee bites. For those wondering, the white part of the bites is what tastes like coffee–not the brownie. The strawberry tartlets will burst in your mouth when you take a bite, so eat it all at once. You have been warned.

Part of the reason why I was fine with Char eating the dame blanche was I decided to order a lemon tarte meringue. It’s incredibly sweet and you will hardly taste the alcohol in it. I enjoyed it but it’s a bit too sweet for my tastes. Next time, I think I’ll stick to some port.

Thank you gift

As we were leaving, Lola gave us one final gift to thank us for the evening. It was a couple of boxes filled with coconut cookies. To our surprise, the kids actually liked them despite having told us that they don’t like coconut. Perhaps they were both wrong on their assessment of what they do and don’t like?

Our thoughts on Lagoon Restaurant

Lagoon Restaurant is a bit of a culinary feast. The execution of the dishes is well near perfect, with a great mix of flavors. This was our most expensive meal we had at the St. Regis Bora Bora (31,990 XPF or ~$310 US) and it would have been higher if they charged us for the champagne. But, we would strongly consider returning to this restaurant–even if we were staying at another resort. It’s well worth a visit if you’re somewhere on Bora Bora.

Bamboo Restaurant

Bamboo is the Asian restaurant at the St. Regis Bora Bora, open during the following hours:

Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 5:30PM – 9:30PM
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday

It’s located right next to Aparima Bar and Te Pahu Restaurant. If you’ve already been to Te Pahu for breakfast, just head from the restaurant towards Mt. Otemanu and Bamboo will be the first restaurant you encounter.

We had a 6PM dinner reservation and somehow the staff already knew who we were as we walked up. That’s good service, and somewhat expected when staying at a place as nice as the St. Regis Bora Bora.

One that immediately stood out to us were the beautiful charger plates under the napkins.

The menu

As you might expect from it being the only Asian restaurant at the St. Regis Bora Bora, you’ll find many different Asian recipes in the menu. The emphasis is on nigiri and maki, but there are plenty of cooked options from all over Asia.

*Uramaki roll (rolls with rice on the outside)*