Le Cool Heure: Fine Dining By The Roadside
For this restaurant review, I’ll let Irene do the story-telling!
“During my first visit to Sint Martin with Benji’s mom, brothers Justin and Jason and my Mom, we traveled to the French side and dined at a totally random French restaurant in Grand Case. Their menu was all in French and we just asked the owner for some of his recommendations. His wife prepared wonderfully delicious plates that were both aesthetically and tastefully pleasing. During this trip, Benji and I revisited the restaurant and discovered that the restaurant’s name must be Cool Heure because it was the only sign we could find on its building. On its menu that was entirely in French, I thought I saw the word “moutarde” that I thought was mustard, so I ordered it. The owner explained to me that this was “dinkey.” Dinkey? I thought he was trying to tell me donkey, so I was thinking, “oh, okay, what an adventurous dish. I’ll take it!” He asked his wife if she could help translate the word for me. She didn’t know either so she whipped out an invoice with words that read, “kidney.” Benji and I had a really good laugh and we enjoyed our meal once again. Cool Heure is now my most favorite French restaurant in the entire world!” – Irene.
Of course, if you don’t want to get the kidney, you don’t have to. I personally prefer pork, lamb, beef, or veal. But whatever it is, they know how to make it right.
All in all, Le Cool Heure is a cute, local, laid-back eatery run by a nice husband-and-wife team with a fine dining experience at a good price. Highly recommended!
Atmosphere:
Le Cool Heure is a casual, laid-back place to dine. Despite being outside, the owners keep the place tidy and beautiful.
Service:
The owners, a cute French couple are really nice and try to use the little English they know and hand gestures to give recommendations.
Food:
For an atmosphere as casual and laid back as it is, Le Cool Heure’s food is actually quite fancy. The plates are all aesthetically prepared in the typical French manner and the food is high quality. The flavors are not too light, and not too strong, but just right. It’s not uncommon to see French regulars have a glass of red wine with their lunches here and finish off with a small cup of espresso.
Located outside of Grand Case, Le Cool Heure is definitely a more local eating establishment away from the main tourist crowd in Grand Case on the French side of the island. If you are coming from Marigot, drive on the main road towards Grand Case. You’ll get to a really straight road that goes down a hill (and you see Anguilla in front of you in the distance). You’ll pass a Go-Kart racing place, a fire station, and a gas station, all on the right. Right before the straight road makes a 90 degree curve to the right, on the left you’ll see Le Cool Heure. If you enter Grand Case, you’ve gone too far.
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