Saint Martin Grand Case Beach

My husband Brian and I have been to Grand Case several times in the past. We went there mostly for meals and to see art. Once I tried swimming there but it wasn’t calm or shallow enough for me.

During our trips to Saint Martin in 2021 and 2022, our favorite beach at Divi Little Bay wasn’t always perfectly calm so we spent our beach days in Grand Case instead. There are spots along the beach where I can swim comfortably.

The spacing of loungers at Rainbow Cafe, Captain Frenchy, and LTC Le Temps des Cerises is a bit crowded for our taste.

Beach seating at Captain Frenchy.

Loungers at Rainbow Cafe.

We prefer to be in a quieter atmosphere. For this reason, we didn’t stay in those popular places but relaxed on our towels elsewhere along the beach.

Surprisingly the water was nice and calm on most of the days and I had great time swimming.

We went for lunch mostly on the beach as well.

Captain Frenchy restaurant was very different in 2019 (see my earlier blog post here). Since then they made changes to their restaurant and beach club and overhauled their menu. We like the new and improved Captain Frenchy. The restaurant has an attractive main covered area with tables and a bar.

As well as some beach seating:

The regular menu is mostly burgers, salads, and tapas and is not extensive.

The salads were just OK, not memorable or particularly fresh tasting.

However, we found that their daily specials were more interesting and tasty.

We had tuna tataki and wahoo carpaccio and we both enjoyed our dishes.

The chocolate version of creme brulee was something we never had before and it was delicious. We love creme brulee and were happy to try a new spin on the classic dessert.

Overall, Captain Frenchy is a nice choice for lunch if you order from the daily specials menu. The prices were not as high as in Rainbow Cafe or LTC Le Temps des Cerises.

Rainbow Cafe has been one of our favorites for an inventive lunch meal for a while now.

The dish I keep returning for is the Bo Bun salad which is like three meals rolled into one. You get a vermicelli salad with Thai-flavored dressing. It’s topped with chicken spring rolls, shrimp, and pieces of beef cooked in its own sauce. Not only it is very filling but it has all the different flavors working well together.

My husband and I love dishes with truffles. Rainbow Cafe usually has a truffle dish on the menu like this fish served with risotto with shaved truffle:

Or ham served with truffle infused pasta:

We do not like getting loungers at Rainbow Cafe. They are not comfortable and it’s always crowded on their portion of the beach. We do like their restaurant seating. It has several levels. You get a lovely view of the beach:

My husband and I don’t drink much other than a glass of wine with lunch or dinner when on vacation. After becoming fans of the “Below Deck” series we noticed that the cast members consume a lot of espresso martinis. We never had them before. We decided to change that and ordered espresso martinis with our lunches. Captain Frenchy’s and LTC’ (Le Temps des Cerises) versions were straightforward. Rainbow Cafe’s version was more to our liking as it was a bit different, kind of like cappuccino martini:

LTC Le Temps des Cerises street entry to the beach is easy to spot by the large red chair:

The beach loungers have nice thick cushions. We didn’t get to experience them firsthand but we had a couple of lunches in the restaurant.

We both had fish dishes. They were good but somewhat underwhelming for the price.

We noticed that most people around us had burgers. On our next visit we ordered burgers with fries:

They were quite good. We’d return to LTC for burgers. There are few seats overlooking the beach. The tables are small but enough for a couple like us.

A few times we had lunch at Talk of the Town lolo when we felt like eating Caribbean barbeque.

Ribs, rice and Johnny cakes are staples of the local cuisine.

Grand Case beach became the beach where we spent most of our time during our vacation in 2022. We look forward to returning in 2023. We hope to try lunch in a new place, maybe at Ocean 82 and/or Grand Case Beach Club.

Grand Case has plenty of options for lunch as well as some shopping. There is Tropismes gallery where you can see local art. As an artist myself I love checking out local art galleries whenever we travel.