La Tapa

Excellent, best food in Cruz Bay. Trust me. Very sweet people and great drinks. It is where I go for a guaranteed excellent meal. Start to finish. I don’t come to St John for food but if I did it would be to La Tapa.

A fun tapas restaurant with outdoor seating right in the heart of Cruz Bay.
It seems like La Tapa is having fun experimenting with new foods since they change their menu nightly.
My wife and I ate here our first night in St. John. We split the bread with three sauces, their mango pico de gallo and green peppercorn sauces were the best. I don’t care for sun-​dried tomato so that one would never win me over. I think the bread could’ve been better, but then I’m coming from New York where most restaurants elevate bread to an art form.
We then shared the squid ink pasta, queso/​beet/​eggplant salad and bacalao cakes. The bacalao cakes were the best, a nice saltiness and they were served with a great sauce.
Service was great, very attentive.
Plus, when you add that you are dining in paradise and sipping on a cool refreshing glass of wine, how could anything be too bad?

We came to St. John for the day & we really enjoyed the hiking. We finished the day w/​a fantastic dinner everything was excellent! We had the bread w/​3 dipping sauces, green salad w/​cashew crusted goat cheese, key lime pie & the Mahi entrée. The best meal we’ve had since we’ve been here.

It seems impossible, but if you ever tire of the island cuisine that dominates the menus of most of St. John’s restaurants, La Tapa is an excellent change of pace.
Don’t get me wrong, the menu is still rife with fresh seafood, but it isn’t limited to mahi, tuna and conch fritters. At La Tapa, you can dig into langostinos a la plancha, tender duck confit, whole roasted snapper and perfectly cooked hanger steak. The plates are all bright and beautiful, with the salt cod rosti and the seared yellowfin tuna being particularly appealing to both the palate and the eyes.
It is substantially more expensive than many of the meals you can get around here, but they’ve got to fly in those mussels (perfect with the house-​baked bread for dipping) from PEI, and that costs plenty.
Two words to the wise:
1. Bring friends, so you can taste more of the menu.
2. Don’t attempt to faceswap with the painting on the wall next to the biggest table. It will steal your soul, Ghostbusters II style.

I can personally vouch for both the food and the staff of La Tapa.
We had a delicious meal that felt like special comfort food in a lovely, casual environment.
The staff of La Tapa is really what makes dining there a wonderful experience. Our wait staff and hostess gave us incredible tips that led us to have a memorable and rewarding hike the next day. And when I left our bag of presents and souvenirs at our table and didn’t realize it until 2 days later, I called the restaurant (from the airport) to see if they still had our bag. Not only did they have it, they offered to send it to me via priority mail. I was skeptical, but 4 days later my package arrived — with all of our items.
I think this experience says a lot about the restaurant and its management. Good, decent people work there to provide a warm, friendly dining experience — and their actions show that this isn’t just a superficial display. If you go there, you’ll be treated to delicious comfort food, a relaxing and fun atmosphere, and legitimately warm service from kind people. Highly recommended!

Really good restaurant with very friendly staff. The mussels are worth mentioning. They were absolutely delicious and we wanted to drink the broth! We ordered like 2 extra sides of bread just so we could soak up that broth! We also had a very delicious pasta dish.

Ehh pretty meh food, but the service is good. I guess it’s too bad that I’ve been to Spain and had authentic Spanish food because this food doesn’t even come close. Seriously don’t eat here, the ingredients are not fresh tasting, or if you do eat here get the bread and that is it.

The husband and I had been spending over $ 150+ on dinner so we wanted to go someplace chill and cheap. We walked into a place down the street for fish tacos but it was so HOT! We said screw it lets just go here, still paying about $ 100 for our dinner ha but we had a good time… It’s very chill and service was great. We had the paella. Definitely worth the price. Good stuff!

One of Cruz Bay’s nicest restaurants. This was our first visit and it won’t be our last.
Our table was small but elegant. Live Jazz played through the window that separated us from the true interior of the restaurant. Food is 5 stars! Tender octopus app. Perfectly done seared tuna entrée. Wonderful pumpkin and goat cheese ravioli. Service was exactly as you would expect … professional, polite and knowledgeable. A flawless experience! Nicely done — from staff to chef!

Seriously one of the best meals I’ve ever had. And definitely one of the 2 best restaurants (imho) on the island. The food (Mahi) was phenomenal. I ate mine and my daughter’s leftovers. The service was top notch and the cocktails were without equal. The «downside» — quite expensive. We had the 3 cheese board as an app and it had a couple of silvers of each cheese for $ 16. Quite unreasonable for the quantity. Our bill was close to $ 200 with 3 people with minimal beverages. The paella was $ 72 for 2 people. The Mahi was $ 34 (I think) Wish I had taken pics.

Very good food here. Portions are small and expensive, but it is to be expected. The appetizers were outstanding — I think we ended up trying every one and they were call outstanding. For my main course I got a pasta dish papardelle with shrimp lobster and crawdads and it was amazing. My wife got the gnocchi and was very pleased — it was very small but perfect for her. For the 6 of us dinner was about $ 500 including the added 20% gratuity. We also had 2 bottles of wine from the very nice wine list.

Went here on our first night in St. John. We had the roasted artichoke and wahoo ceviche as small plates, and the yellowfin tuna as a heavy plate. Everything was prepared perfectly, and the service from Andrew was amazing! The wine list was also very good and not overpriced. Highly recommend La Tapa!

This is one of those rare finds that seems to transport you to another time and place. This charming restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz sits on the edge of a busy street. There is outdoor dining, but with nearby bars and passing cars, seating is more comfortable indoors.
Our party of 3 shared Pork Belly, Octopus and the Mussels. All mouthwatering. We then shared a paella for 2. It was nothing less than extraordinary.
Service was great, ambiance is warm and welcoming. Worth the trip even from St. Thomas.

Loved everything about the experience the staff the food and everything was awesome!!!

We came in for dinner, sensational food, great sangria! Love the ambiance as well as the excellent service! As a table, we shared the Con Pan La Tapa Oil (delicious hot fresh bread), Mozzarella salad, Scallops with an amazing mushroom gravy-​like sauce, Braised Pork Belly and the Paella. Hands down the best Paella any of us four had ever had! Delicious food all around!

First, the service was awesome and we drank delicious wine by the glass including a rose from France and a Chardonnay from France as well. Then the food was great: if the gaspacho was just OK/​good, the gambas with garlic were amazing and the pork belly is a clear winner. The Mahi Mahi main course was as well good without achieving the same level as the pork belly. Now you will miss out if you don’t try out the desserts were great: try the Panna cotta or the sorbet selection.

I was SO EXCITED to go– after reading Unilocal reviews, we booked our reservation 30 days in advance!
The tapas were good– not phenomenal, but good.
We enjoyed all of them.
After dinner, we started playing the game «heads up» where you guess a celeb/​movie/​etc (Google it). After about 10 min, the hostess came over and told us people were insulted by all of our cussing– which blew our minds, because none of us could recal saying a single cuss word!
After that, we were very conscious of being watched. (By the way, we were playing 90’s Movies theme, so our words were things like Lion King and Jumanji).
5 – 10 minutes later, the hostess came back over saying the restaurant was complaining of the noise. (Again, we were very aware of being watched, so NO ONE was speaking in loud tones!)
In looking around… Not a single table was looking on our direction. The waitress stand? 100% watching us.
We had an amazing dinner at Lime Inn, Zozo’s, High Tide & Beach Bar: go to any of those instead.

Service was top notch! everyone was pleasant, well informed of the menu and more than pleasant with each visit — wine and sparkling waters were always topped off! Yellowfin tune slightly seared was outstanding — cheese plate was phenomenal as well! location is just up the road from ferry, just below the great Quiet Mon pub. highly recommend visiting during your stay — recommend reserving in advance. Cheers!

Highly recommended. We had the bread with three sauces, house made mozzarella, grilled langostines, steamed mussels, and duck — it was all phenomenal. Attentive service. Wine list was a bit lacking (they were out of the bottle we wanted and recommended another that was not that good), but I guess that’s what you get on an island. I would definitely return.

Very good food. However, they pack you in like sardines, which is annoying for me personally, but still worth going.