Le Carre Restaurant, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Located on the water, on the West side of Tahiti Nui at Le Meridien Hotel, this French Polynesian restaurant is a wonderful spot for lunch or dinner.  The food is great.  We ate there several times during our 6 days and each meal was excellent.  The service was inconsistent but the location and food more than made up for it. 

You can choose to sit inside or out and they have retractable windows for those occasions when the wind is just too strong off the water.  The lunch http://assets.lemeridientahiti.com/lps/assets/u/LE-CARRE---Menu-d--jeuner.pdf menu and the dinner menu http://assets.lemeridientahiti.com/lps/assets/u/LE-CARRE-Menu-d--ner-2015-2016.pdf do not vary that much in selection or portion size, only in price.  The one disappointment was the wine selections, they were very limited and not very good.  The menu does change often so the links above are only a sample. 

There were 6 of us who proudly call ourselves foodies.  The foie gras was probably ordered more than anything else on the menu, second was the most amazing tuna which they did several ways – as a local ceviche with coconut milk, tuna tartar and sashimi. The scallops were excellent, cooked to perfection. There were also several pasta dishes that we enjoyed, one with a pesto and the other with sundried tomatoes.  The one shocker on the menu is their hamburger – it comes with two patties and pork belly and some incredibly delicious fries. 

And of course we couldn’t go on vacation without indulging in deserts.  They have something for every pallet.  My personal favorite was the coffee that came with 3 small deserts – a flan, a macaroon and a truffle.

Mike Pontius