Open Monday to Saturday for Dinner
Reservations suggested

This fabulous, romantic eatery earns raves for its fine service and high-quality cuisine. Didier Gonnon and Martyne Tardif are out front, while two time gold medal winning chef Mario Tardif is in the kitchen creating dishes such as baked salmon in a caramelized onion crust, and grilled fillet of tuna with melted blue cheese on a bed of gnocchi in a tomato sauce with herbs. The open-air country French-style restaurant is on the canal as you enter Marigot from Sandy Ground, and if you didn't know better you might think you were in Venice.

Mario's Bistro was created in the spring of 1995 by Mario Tardif, Martyne Audet, and Didier Gonnon. As soon as the doors opened, the restaurant became very popular with the local crowd and tourists from around the world. To this day, we are still unsure if it is the particular style of Mario's cooking, the informal yet elegant decor, or the attentive service that makes our patrons ask for more. We believe a good dosage of it all has made it work.

Mario trained in Québec City and became one of the youngest chefs to take a gourmet kitchen in his hands at Le Marie Clarisse. He then came to St Martin to be successively the chef at Chez Martine, Le Fish Pot and Rainbow, all of them located in Grand Case. The project of Mario's Bistro came right after. There, he adapted a concept of cuisine that suits the Caribbean and its cosmopolitan clientèle.

Martyne started working in the restaurant business at the age of thirteen and kept week-end and summer restaurant jobs thorough her studies in sciences and philosophy. When the time to enter the work force came, she concentrated on food and wine studies. She was an assistant maitre'd in Québec City where she met Mario. They then came to St Martin and worked together.

Didier is from the region of Valence, France. He studied in restaurant service and management and trained at the famous Restaurant Paul Bocuse. He left France to work at Disney World at Bocuse's establishments at the French Pavilion at Epcot Center. A few years later, he came to St Martin and worked with Mario at Rainbow.