Dining in Bermuda

The Newport Room is widely considered to be one of Bermuda’s top restaurants. Indeed there really is only one other on the island that in my view could be considered to be of the same or similar ilk. During my two years living in Bermuda, I have been to the Newport Room three times, most recently to celebrate my last birthday on the island.

The restaurant is based within the Fairmount Princess Hotel in Southampton. Tables are greatly in demand from both local residents and visitors, so reservations are essential. For a Saturday night, I would definitely recommend booking a couple of weeks ahead.

A nautical theme prevails. The entrance lobby is wooden decked and looks like a captains bridge. The main restaurant contains a lot of dark wooden panelling and the predominant colours are aqua and red. The theme is not overdone though, it is very elegant and not a fake porthole in sight.

Formal dress is required, jackets for men but they don’t necessarily have to wear a tie. The jackets rule is strictly enforced, on a previous occasion my husband took his jacket off as he was hot half way through his meal and he was politely told to put it back on. Last night we saw somebody try to enter without a jacket, I thought that was rather foolish as they do make this rule very clear at booking, but they obviously keep jacket supplies somewhere and found this gentleman one so he didn’t miss out.

The rule might seem kind of stuffy in a way, but I think that getting dressed up and going somewhere where everybody else is dressed up makes an occasion and a place seem a bit more special.

Anyway back to the restaurant, well it is not often the tables for two are the best tables in a restaurant but I think they are here. Around all sides of the restaurant are horseshoe shaped booths for two. They are huge, and would probably fit six people (seating that is not eating) but as they only ever put two in the booth it is spacious and very comfortable. The table sorts of swings out each side to enable you to get in and out of your seat in a slightly more dignified fashion than shuffling around to the end on your bottom.

The tables for four or larger parties are in the middle. The tables are big and there is plenty of space between them. The chairs are oversized, well padded and look very comfortable.

Our reservation was for 7.30pm, we arrived a little bit early but were taken straight to our table. The organisation and service operates as smoothly as a well-oiled machine. Within five minutes we had been offered water, an aperitif, bread and of course had received the menus. And all by different people. Next the maitre de introduced himself to us, exchanged pleasantries and asked if we would like him to explain the menu. We did.

The first option is a six-course tasting menu. I would have liked this but my husband didn’t and of course a tasting menu works best if everyone at the table has it, although it was pointed out that this is not a requirement at the Newport Room. I cannot remember the exact details, but it starts with a salad, definitely included a lobster, then another fish course, followed by courses of meat, cheese and a dessert. The cost was a very reasonable $110 per person or $220 per person with wine pairings.

The next two pages of the menu are the a la carte options. Items are not individually priced, a three course dinner is $85 per person and a four course $95. Again though it was pointed out that we could have as many or as few course as we desired and the bill would be appropriately adjusted. Also, whilst the menu was divided into ‘first appetizer’, ‘second appetizer’ and entrees we were told we could chose whatever we liked from whatever section. We liked the menu structured as it was though and the gentle but useful suggestions of what might be a suitable ‘second appetizer’. One does not want to look greedy after all.

Finally, there was also a Vegetarian Menu. This was priced at $70 per person for three courses. There were three options for starter and main course, compared to about seven or eight options for each on the non-vegetarian menu. I think this is a reasonable balance and most vegetarians would have been pleased.

We decided we would go for four courses tonight. Before we got started we were brought a complimentary pre-appetizer, always a welcome touch and last night was a small mushroom soup with truffle chips.

For first appetizer I went for my usual foie gras, which was served with a ginger crust and on apples and brioche. It was beautiful. My husband went for braised pork belly, sounds quite revolting to me but he said it was melt in the mouth delicious.

Second appetizer for both of us was lobster bisque. The bowl is brought to the table containing a small dollop of lobster in mousse, the soup is poured over in front of you and finally a ladle of flaming armignac tops it off. The soup was served nicely warm rather than hot which helped the lobster flavours come out. We both really enjoyed the soup and the little serving ceremony that went with it.

After second appetizer we were brought a small pineapple and coconut palate cleanser before the main. I had ordered veal in parma ham and my husband duck and quail. I was worried at the pinkness of my veal when it arrived (I had ordered medium so this was hardly surprising really), and for a few moments I was tempted to ask my husband to swap. We hesitated because we were not sure how swapping these gigantic plates would look in this establishment and so I decided to brave a mouthful, immediately concluding that swapping would not be necessary after all! That melt in mouth phrase springs to mind again. My husband was equally happy with his choice, the duck had a lovely crispy top and was served in slices with the quail and a small serving of foie gras to the side.

We were both quite full by this point and even after a comfortable fifteen minute break (through choice not slow service) we decided to skip dessert and just have coffee. Interestingly this was served with a tray of white and dark chocolate shavings and orange peel. I have never had any of these things served with my coffee before but gamely chucked some in. I was a bit surprised that we did not get our tray of petit fours with our coffee as I am sure we did on the other visits. All was explained a few minutes later when the waiter returned with a small chocolate cake with Happy Birthday and a candle on top. Not pre-ordered by my husband but simply because I had mentioned it earlier on when the maitre de asked about our day. As we left we got some chocolates to take away as well.

The bill for the evening, including an $85 bottle of wine, two champagne cocktails and a bottle of water was $325. A 15% service charge was added to the bill as is customary in Bermuda and this was an additional $48.

As I mentioned at the start, this was our third visit to the restaurant and each time the food and service has been exemplary and well worth every penny. It is a superb dining experience and its reputation and accolades are well deserved.

The Elbow Beach Resort is part of the exclusive Mandarin Oriental chain and Lido Restaurant is one of two fine dining experiences offered at the resort (the other being the Seahorse Grill). A third sister restaurant, Mickey’s, is outdoors and literally on the beach. Lido’s has the advantage of being situated directly overlooking the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, but offers a more formal dining experience than the tables on the beach.
I have dined here several times. I often had business visitors whilst I lived in Bermuda and Lido’s never failed to impress, not only with food but the stunning views. I have also brought two parties of visiting relatives here and they also came away very happy customers.

Outside the restaurant is a patio area with plenty of seating, table service is provided for drinks, snacks and great sushi. My husband and I loved coming here after work and usually did at least once a week if not more often. We never ever tired of looking out to the ocean sipping a cool glass of wine as the sun went down. Oh how I miss that. Anyway back to the main restaurant...

Entering the building, there is a nightclub straight ahead which earlier in the evening doubles as a very nice place for a pre dinner drink. I have never been here when the nightclub is in full flow, so presumably it does not start until a fair bit later. Something I and I am sure many restaurant goers would be very pleased to hear. To the left of the entrance are the bathrooms and to the right the main restaurant.

The restaurant is large and allows for the tables to be spaced a more than comfortable distance apart. The decor is light and the tables covered in crisp white linen. Ceiling to floor picture windows take up the whole of one wall and provide those exquisite ocean views. I have been fortunate to have a table right next to the window on a few occasions, including the first time I went here which was with a party of ten colleagues from overseas offices. I was delighted to be allocated a huge round table in what I thought was the prime position in the whole restaurant.

Even those tables not immediately beside the window still enjoy fabulous views and at the end of every meal I have ever enjoyed there, everyone tends to take a stroll outside along the ocean wall before heading home.

The menu is quite comprehensive for a fine dining restaurant, sometimes I find restaurants of this class offer a much smaller selection of dishes. Bermuda offers fabulous seafood as you would expect and indeed Lido’s does too, but I found that the emphasis on seafood not as significant as I had thought it would be. Indeed you can also make a selection from the grill and there are main courses in all of chicken, pork, veal and duck. Additionally pasta dishes are available as either starters or main courses and vegetarians are well catered for, by that I mean that they will have two or three to choose from for every course, as opposed to one starter and one main course. It was always interesting to know what the catch of the day is and in season, (about November to April) fresh lobster is on the menu. Sadly I don’t think I ever sampled that here.

Service and style is formal and attentive but not intrusive. Great attention is taken with the presentation of the food, which in my opinion makes the dining experience particularly special. I have always been extremely pleased with the standard of food and being the Bermuda based hostess, I am always confident that I can bring guests here or recommend this restaurant and know that everybody will go away happy at the end of the night. With wine, prices per head average around $150 for three courses.

When I first moved to Bermuda the Harbourfront Restaurant in Bermuda used to occupy a spot on Front Street, Hamilton’s main shopping street. The entrance was tiny, but the premises reasonably large and pleasant if starting to get a little dated. It had a good reputation for seafood on the island.

About two years ago, the Front Street restaurant was closed down and relocated into the same buildings as the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI). The new position is an enviable spot, literally on the harbour front, but just on the outskirts of the Hamilton town centre. As residents it was easy for us to drive here, a visitor would probably prefer to catch a cab or a bus from the town centre. If coming over for lunch, then it would be well worth combining with a visit to the very interesting BUEI centre. (IGOUGO's address shown is out of date).

The restaurant is divided into two very distinct areas, although divided mainly by the style of decor and not by brick walls, you can see from one area to the other. Overlooking the harbour is the contemporary styled fine dining restaurant. I have eaten here only a couple of times and these were business dinners, although the restaurant is popular with local residents, holiday makers and business people alike. The decor is light and fresh, lemon and white table linen and the tables nicely spaced out.

Unsurprisingly, the main focus of the menu is seafood. There are other options, but these are vastly outnumbers by the fish and shellfish options. I would describe the menu as extensive. To start there are about fifteen options to choose from of which about ten would be seafood, a couple vegetarian and the remaining few meat or poultry options. Then there are a half dozen pasta dishes, three of which are seafood. For the main course, meat lovers can make a selection from the grill and the rest have about a dozen other options, about half of which would be fish but also chicken, veal, duck and pork. It is also possible to make selections from the sushi menu. I have often found that an extensive menu such as this can lead to a reduction in quality, but I have not found that to be the case at the Harbourfront and in its new location its previous strong reputation continues. Service is formal in this side of the restaurant, but not overly stuffy. It is a smart restaurant but no need to stand on ceremony.

My favourite part of the restaurant was the other side though, the sushi bar. During our last few months of living in Bermuda, my husband and I were here for Saturday lunch most days. The sushi bar is decorated in red and black and a traditional Japanese look has been captured very effectively. The restaurant has a website, but I do not think the photographs of this part of the restaurant do it the justice it deserves. There are a few seating options, some booths for up to four people down one wall, tables in the main area and there is seating along the sushi counter itself on the other side of the room. We liked to take a seat here at the bar so we could watch the sushi chefs at work. Behind them is an artistic display of saki barrels and there is also a wall mounted digital photo display which reels through some excellent pictures of the proprietors visits to Japan.

The sushi is incredibly good. There is a lot to choose from on the menu; tempura, maki, maki mono, sashimi, nigiri, temaki and maki specials. After sampling much of the menu on various visits, we found our favourites and started to have the same things every time. We reached the point when we barely needed to order!

On one occasion we came here with my in-laws, who are very wary of food that does not fall into British "meat and two veg" style. We were determined they would try our favourite lunchtime spot though. This time we sat in one of the comfortable booths and as they were bewildered by the menu, my husband and I ordered for everybody. We started with vegetable tempura, which eased their nerves and then moved onto the sashimi and a selection of rolls. It went down reasonably well and they cleared their plates, although they did draw the line at chopsticks and ate with their knives and forks.

Since returning to the UK, we have not managed to find anywhere serving sushi as good as the Harbourfront and we also miss the "special sauce" that was frequently served. I would love the recipe for it. Along with the views of the Atlantic, the Harbourfront is one of the things I miss most about Bermuda.

Three years ago my husband made a spur of the moment decision to apply for a job he saw advertised in Bermuda. Before we knew it, we were heading over there for a reconnaissance trip to Bermuda in May 2006. Bermuda is a stunningly beautiful place, but when we arrived that Friday night it was raining and gloomy and our first impression was not that good. This proved to be a very unusual first impression as most people are won over on the journey from the airport.

After dumping our things in the guest house that had been booked for us we set out for a walk into Hamilton at about 7.30pm. I don’t know why but we found it quite an intimidating place initially, with gangs of youths hanging around on the street. We walked down Front Street, one of the main shopping streets in Hamilton and the first place we decided to venture into was the Pickled Onion. I recollect we were attracted by the name and by the outside tables along the first floor verandah and it seemed a lively busy spot.

The restaurant occupies what we call the first floor in UK, the street level floor being known as the ground floor. We headed up the stairs still feeling a little glum, but we cheered up immediately when we entered a fashionable bar restaurant and were greeted with warmth and friendliness. We had a lovely evening here and it was our visit to the Pickled Onion that made us start to feel more positive about Bermuda and we went on to enjoy the next few days and indeed a few months later we returned to start our ex-pat life.

During our two years in Bermuda, the Pickled Onion remained a firm favourite. It was closed for a short spell whilst it was being renovated, however reopened with not much more than a face lift and change of colour scheme, but the layout remained essentially the same. So open entering the restaurant, you first enter the bar area. On certain nights of the week, like Friday when we first visited, this area will be very lively and attracts locals and ex-pats alike. At other times, it is quite easy to get a seat at the bar and perhaps a snack or light meal, my husband and I often met and sat here for lunch. We found the bar staff very friendly and got to know a couple, although as they were doing the drinks orders for all the tables as well, they did look quite swamped at times. Set back slightly from the bar, there are some booths which are not generally set out for eating, although you can eat here if you want to, mainly people can use these tables for drinks. Those that cannot get a table, will end up just standing around in the area between the booths and the bar itself.

Beyond this area, up a couple of steps is the main dining area and beyond this is the verandah with tables overlooking Front Street and the harbour. The outside tables can be very popular at times, we would sometimes select one of these but other times we would be happy to sit inside out of the sun.

The dining is a casual experience and the menu a typical "gastro pub" style, a bit of everything. The pizzas are delicious as are the burgers, but if you have healthier tastes then there is also a good selection of salads, fish and chicken dishes. A full range of soft and alcoholic beverages is on offer including several wines by the glass.

I would recommend the Pickled Onion for either dinner or lunch any day of the week. The restaurant makes a smooth transition from being family orientated during the day and early evening to being a lively night spot later on. This is not fine dining but the food is reliably good, service generally efficient and the prices won’t break the bank.

Another week into my new role in Bermuda brought another set of corporate visitors from Europe. It is surprising how many people need to spend at least a week here on essential business matters around this time of year. I have never felt so important. Anyway this was a good opportunity to try out another of Bermuda’s expensive restaurants without too much concern for the budget.

The venue was chosen by a member of my finance team and when I mentioned it to my husband in a bar that evening, a Scotsman sitting on my other side overheard and informed me that this was Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ restaurant, very famous and that he (the Scotsman) designed it.

In fact the restaurant is based within the Ariels Sands Hotel which is owned by Michael Douglas’s Bermudan family. The actor is merely a shareholder but about five years ago he paid for a huge refurbishment transforming what was apparently a dilapidated old hotel into the stunning, small resort hotel that it is today.

The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating. I thought that the interior space was quite bland with plain red walls, wooden floors and no eye catching ornaments or décor at all. It had not attracted any diners the night of my visit.

On the other hand, the outside tables were all taken and not surprisingly as the setting was simply beautiful. The tables were on two levels, some on the verandah and the rest down some steps and on a wooden deck situated on the beach itself. There were about fifteen tables of varying sizes here, nicely laid out and spaced out. We were on a round table for six and I was very pleased to bags one of the seats looking out to the ocean.

We were presented with our menus to peruse over an aperitif, it was an extensive menu and the dishes sounded wonderful and inventive. There was a strong bias towards seafood as one would expect from the name, but there were a few meat and vegetarian options as well. I decided upon scallops for my starter and a lemon crusted rockfish for my main course, but unfortunately it was shortly after making this decision that things started to fall apart.

Firstly, it took a staggering 45 minutes for us to have our order taken. I have been told that service is slower than one expects in London but I have eaten out a lot since I arrived on the island and have not noticed this anywhere until now. After 30 minutes, one of the Swiss visitors told a waiter that we were ready to order but it appeared that the waiter did not know what he meant by this and after a few minutes he just wandered off without taking any action. Fifteen minutes later we tried again with another waiter but after taking the wine order we were dismayed to see him turn his back and disappear before we could stop him. Fortunately he returned shortly afterwards and we finally placed our food orders.

The wine arrived after 15 minutes, I thought this was a little slow but the delivery of the starters and main courses was about what I would expect. Our six starters all arrived at the same time and were beautifully presented. The scallop dish I ordered for starters comprised four or five scallops with a salad and my main course rock fish was on a bed of vegetables, the portion sizes were just right. Everything was cooked perfectly although could have been a touch warmer, but it was definitely high quality fish and very tasty. My colleagues had also all chosen fish of one description of another and there were many beautiful looking dishes served and empty plates at the end.

Unfortunately the service problems persisted, mainly because it seemed to me that the waiting staff simply will not tolerate a customer making any requests or asking questions and in fact they had the attitude that we should only speak when spoken to (by them). For example, one person at my table asked for dressing for his salad and was treated as this was the most bizarre request that anybody had ever made, another mentioned that his order was not quite right (he has asked for something he didn’t like to be left off but it was not) and again was treated with open hostility. I was also treated with the utmost contempt when I dared to ask where the bathrooms were, the waiter I asked gave me a filthy look and nodded over there over his shoulder as he stalked off.

I did not see the final bill for the evening as this was a business dinner, however the average cost of a starter was about $15 and a main course about $35 (say GBP8 and GBP 20 respectively). There are a few restaurants that are more expensive than this and even fewer that would be cheaper, so I would say that these prices are very typical for a restaurant in Bermuda where there is less of a range of prices than in the UK. Unfortunately I did not see the wine list at all, but generally I find wine a little cheaper in Bermuda restaurants than in London restaurants and it is unlikely that wine would be prohibitively expensive, I have found it very easy to find a good bottle for about GBP 25 in every restaurant I have been to. All restaurants in Bermuda will add 15% gratuity for your convenience and the extra box says "additional tip" if you were completely overwhelmed by the fantastic service.

Summary

I certainly enjoyed my food at Aqua and judging by the empty plates so did everybody else in the party. The view, setting and the proximity to the beach and ocean were all fantastic and a meal here would be a memorable experience for most people. I think couples would love it in particular as it would be an extremely romantic venue.

That said, these positives were not enough to compensate for the incredibly rude staff and dreadful service. In fact I think that the staff and management must believe that the beach setting and the famous person link are enough and act as if diners should be grateful to be there at all.

Unfortunately they could have a point as a lot of their custom will be from holiday makers and they won’t expect repeat custom anyway. So, if you are going on holiday to Bermuda, I would say give this one a miss, it is not the only restaurant with an ocean view and I personally would not be prepared to sit there and be treated like a huge inconvenience just because it has a famous shareholder.