As much as any island its size in the Caribbean—35 square miles—Anguilla has its fair share of high-end resorts, not least the Four Seasons, Mallihouhana and CusinArt.
The Four Seasons, with 181 luxury accommodations set on 35 acres of beachfront on Barnes Bay and Meads Bay, was last year taken over from what had been the Viceroy, and the Toronto-based hotel group has carefully been renovating the property while keeping the dramatic, solid modernism of the original design of low-lying buildings banked away from the sea. The manicured and angular spread of the property has the cast of a futuristic world afloat in a sea of serenity, right down to the great carved heads (above) set as totemic protectors. Tall glass walls and thick beige and white travertine marble columns play with the shifting light, while the extensive greenery provides slow-moving shade. Rows of palm trees sway drowsily in the warm, omnipresent trade winds above sun-flecked infinity pools. The outside off-white colors are echoed in the spacious rooms and large marble bathrooms. With considerable devotion to the environment, the resort has an on-site reverse osmosis plant to produce fresh “spring” water for the resort that is then recycled to irrigate the native flora.
The resort’s principal restaurant is called Coba (below), windswept and open to the sea, serving a menu by Chef George Reid, with some of the best seafood I had on Anguilla, including local red snapper ($36), spiny lobster ($46 per pound), and crayfish ($30), along with silky, char-grilled octopus with an aïoli, capers and hot spicing. You may well enjoy these simply grilled, but there are also eight different sauces you can add. The Parker House rolls are addictively good. For dessert go with the Key lime tart and the crème brûlée. Breakfast is also served at Coba, but be aware it is not complimentary with the room charge but a whopping surcharge of $36 plus 15% service charge.
I didn’t stay at the newly refurbished Malliouhana, an Auberge Resort which opened in 1984, set above rocky beach crags and ultramarine waters. I did, however, enjoy Chef Marc Alvarez’s Caribbean menu at The Restaurant there (below), which impressed me most for the exquisite quality of the raw seafood, like conch and watermelon ceviche with spicy popcorn and cilantro ($14) and the mahi-mahi ceviche with lime and chile leche de tigre marinade and cassava chips ($14). Grilled octopus was excellent, too, served with yucca, heirloom chickpeas and a crumble of chorizo ($18).
Among my favorite entrees was a pan-roasted snapper (left) with crisp bok choy, shrimp and plantains, and curry coconut emulsion ($37). A good choice is sake-marinated and grilled ahi tuna with quinoa, braised greens and a spicy wasabi-soy vinaigrette ($37). Triggerfish and spiny lobster were on the printed menu but not available that evening, which points back to the availability problem of seafood on the island and how the chef here won’t serve what is not freshest. For dessert you’ll like the apple and strawberry shortcake. Service was dismayingly slow throughout an evening with very few tables taken. The Restaurant has a first-rate wine list.
Italian food of quality and authenticity is not that easy to come by on Anguilla, but Italia at the CuisinArt Golf & Spa Resort impressed me on both counts, although here, too, service was as slow as any I’ve experienced in the Caribbean. (We waited 40 minutes for three pasta dishes.) Fortunately, Chef Biaggia Lungo, from Sorrento, is very serious about his food, so bucatini alla carbonara (above), lasagna alla bolognese, and agnolottti stuffed with pumpkin in a butter and sage sauce were all delicious. The wine list is modest, and the Italian bottlings all too familiar. You need not bother with the hum-drum desserts. Note that CuisinArt’s website says that a new menu will be in place November 1, so take my comments in the context of my springtime meal.
Blanchard’s (above), which is unassociated with a resort, is on Meads Bay and has long been one of the upscale favorites of both transient visitors and local property owners, not least for its daunting array of shelves stocked with rums from all over the Caribbean, and tasting flights—a good idea with dessert—are certainly encouraged. The wine list has more than 500 selections; the average wine by the glass is $15, with a dozen half-bottles, and mark-ups are among the more reasonable I found on the island. Bob and Melinda (she’s the chef) Blanchard have run this colorful, cordial restaurant since 1994, and the ambiance on the dining patio, surrounded by a thicket of tropical greenery, has always been at its best at sunset. Our dinner’s highlights included corn chowder with vegetables ($16) and pappardelle pasta with the meat of pulled short ribs, olives, zucchini, peas and roast tomato ragôut (though at $38 a high price). Sesame-crusted mahi-mahi with curried rice, caramelized onion, Saigon stir fry and Dijon caper sauce ($46) was all right, if overwrought. There is also a three-course menu at $49 (plus 15% service charge). Prototypically Caribbean for its outdoor location—an afternoon shower broke out and soaked the patio tables while we were having lunch, which was not in the least disturbing in such a setting—is da’Vida’s outdoor restaurant, Bayside, which complements its more staid indoor restaurant open for dinner.
The first thing to know about is the basket of johnnycakes ($2), like cornmeal bagels and absolutely addictive. This is a family place, popular after a swim or sun-bake. So there’s pizza and burgers. The grilled fish with Creole sauce ($25; right) is dependable if a little pricey. Do share a warm brownie with ice cream ($8) or a very good carrot cake for dessert ($8). An ice cold beer goes best with this kind of food and sun.