Oceana St. Thomas Restaurant and Catering

St. Thomas Restaurant review by Caribbean Travel and Life

"This island is all about nature and the earth" proclaims Oceana's executive chef, Patricia LaCorte, a Cordon Bleu- trained French native who moved to St. Thomas in 1979. "How could it not affect you?" The effect it's had at Oceana - alluringly set on the seaside patio of a historic house in Frenchtown - is that the freshness of the ingredients shines.
The restaurant's inventive inter- national cuisine bursts with flavor. Start with amazing focaccia studded with sun-dried tomatoes and red peppers. Visit the "tasting table," a long bar featuring the nightly array of talented sous chef Jennifer Litwin's creations, including salads such as smoked oyster-crab-avocado and wild rice- lamb-manchego, and portobellos topped with peppered bacon and goat cheese. For main course, tender sea bass gets a complex richness from grilled red onion, spinach couscous and red pepper sauce; diver scallops are charry and sweet, surrounded by gingered sweet potato puree and curried apple cream. Desserts - mango, papaya or pineapple tarts or a perfectly bittersweet flourless chocolate souffle cake - are sublime. (Oceana at Villa Olga, Frenchtown; 340-774-4262

St. Thomas Restaurant review by Passport Magazine

Patricia Lacorte, executive chef of Oceana, was born in France of restaura- teur parents, attended Cordon Bleu, came with her mother to St. Thomas on vacation, and decided to return "for six months or a year." Now, over a quarter of a century later, it seems she's here to stay. After a series of highly popular restau- rants she's opened Oceana on the patio of historic, beachside Villa Olga in capital Charlotte Amalie's Frenchtown district.
Start with a selection from the "tasting table." Along with chef de cuisine Jennifer Litwin, LaCorte has created a nightly array of tapas-style appetizers. On any given night you might find oyster/crab/avocado salad, portabellas topped with peppered bacon and goat cheese, or a blend of wild rice, lamb, and manchego cheese. Be careful of overloading, though, for your mains are still to come. Any restaurant named Oceana is guaranteed to excel at fish. Try sea bass, redolent with red pepper sauce, grilled red onion, and spinach couscous; or diver scallops, perfectly grilled to charry tenderness and surrounded by curried apple cream and curried sweet potato puree. Dessert? You can't beat the tropical fruit tart, though the bittersweet flourless chocolate cake wins for pure decadence.
If it tastes remarkably fresh, that's because everything is homemade and, more often than not, homegrown. They'll labor over a stock for three days before it ever gets turned into a sauce; herbs from the restaurant's garden go into your dinner, along with mangoes, avocadoes, and coconuts from nearby trees. "It's all about nature and the earth," says Lacorte of her adopted home, "how could it not affect you and the way you cook?" Villa Olga, Frenchtown, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Tel: 340-774-4262

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