BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – POPULARLY known for its excellent local and international cuisine, assorted drinks, water sports (including kayaking) and massage service, the Carambola Beach Club has been ranked the number one restaurant in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Situated at South Friars Bay in the Southeast Peninsula of St. Kitts and surrounded by lush green mountains and the clear blue Caribbean Sea, the luxurious hacienda-style Carambola Beach Club has been offering its top of the line service to both tourists and locals since December 1, 2011.
And because of its offering of a spectrum of delightful activities, services and compliments that emanate from patrons, the Beach Club had attracted the attention of the Caribbean Journal Magazine, which has it ranked among the top 50 restaurants throughout the Caribbean region.
In a recent release, the magazine has ranked the Carambola Beach Club as the number one restaurant in the twin-island Federation and 16th in the Caribbean.
Speaking with SKNVibes Business, Carambola’s General Manager Christopher Evelyn said the restaurant is a very unique twofold entity that caters to both tourists and locals who are interested in a place to dine.
“For 2013 we were rated 16th in the top 50 Best Restaurants in the Caribbean by the Carib Journal Magazine, and it’s quite a feat for us because we have only been opened for three years and to be recognized in the first three years as one of the top 50, not just in St. Kitts and Nevis but in the Caribbean, is a tremendous feat.
“They were actually rating restaurants from as far North as the Bahamas right down to Trinidad, and that includes Cayman Islands, St. Maarten, Aruba, Puerto Rico and those territories. In addition to that, we were the only restaurant in St. Kitts to be featured on the list. There were a few from Nevis like Four Seasons and Montpellier, but we were rated above them,” a very elated Evelyn said.
He briefly explained what the entity has to offer patrons and its modus operandi.
“What Carambola has to offer is a little different from other restaurants. We have two types of operations! We have the day time operation which is more cruise driven with the cruise passengers, and then we have pretty much the evening which is a fine dining atmosphere. So you can call it two different restaurants within one.”
With the breathtaking view of the Caribbean Sea and the wonderful beach front, the restaurant, even though some others may have similar amenities, has a vast array to offer its customers.
“We obviously have the beach which is one of the best beaches on island. And I will be a bit bias…we do have the dock facilities which make it easy for the cruise ships as well. We obviously have an area for the buses to come and drop off and park and everything else. And a lot of other restaurants don’t have those capabilities; so that’s one of the thing that we have put into the mix as well.”
Cuisine and Buffet
When it comes to the cuisine, the restaurant offers fresh scrumptious seafood for the ocean lovers. And for those who are not too much into seafood, they can have an assortment of meats in beef and chicken, while vegetarians can have burgers or one of its various vegetarian dishes.
“In terms of what we offer in the daytime, we offer obviously the beach experience which a lot of people love. We offer Sushi from the Sushi Bar, it is fresh daily. We also offer a tone-down version of a beach menu, whereby you can have anything from burgers right up to lobsters, salads and that sort of stuff during the daytime. In the evening time we take it to the next level, whereby we still have the Sushi being offered as an option, but we have a fine à la carte menu which consists of beef tender loin or lobster tail or lamb racs…anything that you can find at a five star establishment.”
The General Manager outlined two new areas that they would be establishing for the New Year of which he noted could not have been done earlier due to the busy Christmas and holiday periods.
“Every last Saturday from January onwards we would be doing our Caribbean Night Buffet, which is pretty much a bonfire buffet with fire eater, live entertainment on the beach and everything else. And that is going to be a dinner event. In addition to that, we would be doing, starting the 19th of this month onwards, every Sunday we would be doing what we call Chef Table, whereby our culinary team led by our chef in the kitchen, Dwight, he is going to be creating a menu of a selected number of items that would be offered on that Sunday night. What we are trying to do is to keep it in a certain price range where locals and foreigners can appreciate it.
“I think the price range we are going for is about US$39 per person plus tax, which would keep it at just around EC$100. So you could come in and have a nice three course meal. You could even bring your significant other and it wouldn’t break your pocket, so to speak.”
Reviews
He stressed that while many large restaurants within and without the Federation count stars, Carambola, on the other hand count on the feedback from its guests.
“If our guest come back and say nothing negative, then we know we did what we are suppose to do. We rely a lot on Trip Advisor and look at that for our reviews and what our guest have to say as well. However, when we look at Trip Advisor we look for the negative reviews every restaurant has, whether it be good or bad, and we look at it and see how those negatives can be constructive criticism and we use those comments to fine tune our restaurant.”
Amenities and Wine collection
In the daytime the beach is said to provide full activities for it paying customers, which include beach volleyball, aqua sports (snorkeling, kayaking and wind surf), and also a fulltime mousse for persons willing to have a massage while spending the day out at the beach front restaurant.
With its whopping 4 000 bottles wine collection which is being updated frequently, this sets Carambola apart from the other large establishment restaurants in the Federation and the Caribbean.
“Like I said what made us one of the top 50 is what we offer. What we do is the experience, and the reason why we do that is if you look at our wine list it’s long. We also have a sister company call Opus. Opus pretty much controls 90 percent of the wines in the market in St. Kitts and Nevis at this point. And what we do is feature only the wines we offer through Opus. If you look at our wine cellar, we have a 4 000-bottle cellar and we are the only restaurant in the Federation that has that. We have one of the more extensive wine list that you can find anywhere on the island as well with some of the best wines you can find anywhere,” Evelyn explained.
Customer Service
The restaurant prides itself in providing quality customer service as was witnessed by SKNVibes Business upon arrival at the venue.
On arrival at the restaurant, this media house met a bright smiling gentleman at the front desk who greeted us with a “pleasant good afternoon” and requested the reason for the visit.
“Are you here for the beach experience? Are you lunching or just here to see someone?” were the questions he asked in a very courteous manner.
“When it comes to customer service, one thing I would like say is that you can’t do it alone. You need dedicated staff to actually perform a feat like that and to make a place like this operate. Obviously, you need staff that are looking for their customers’ best experience at the same time. With that being said, what we do is every four months we put our staff through a training programme,” the General Manager explained.
He noted that last year one of their training programmes was facilitated by the People Employment Programme (PEP) on Customer Service.
In encouraging individuals who have never visited the Carambola Beach Club, Evelyn said: “As long as you’re a paying customer you can come and use any of our facility. There is not cover charge for anything.”
