St. Maarten / St. Martin has been home to significant Asian communities since long before the island became a tourism paradise. Chinese and Indian diasporas found their way to the island as early as the second half of the 20th century, while former colonial ties brought additional Indochinese and Indonesian influences.
Evidence of these Asian influences can be seen, for example, at popular Kim Sha Beach, which was named after a Chinese restaurant that once stood there and helped facilitate the founding of the Chinese Merchants Association in the 1980s. (At that time, the Indian Merchants Association had already existed since 1975.) The island’s oldest hotel, the Pasanggrahan, takes its name from the Indonesian word for “guesthouse.” Today, throughout the island, you can still find numerous retail stores owned by shopkeepers of Indian and Chinese descent. On the French side, Vietnamese migrants have also found a home.
All of these influences have contributed to the rich diversity of flavors found in the “Culinary Capital of the Caribbean,” St. Maarten / St. Martin. In recent years, Japanese, Mongolian, and Korean flavors have further expanded the island’s Asian culinary landscape.
Several of St. Maarten’s top chefs come from Asian backgrounds, bringing together culinary education gained abroad with new international influences and the traditional family cuisines they grew up with.
Whether through generations-old family recipes or creative cosmopolitan interpretations from younger generations, many of the island’s Asian-inspired cuisines have earned a reputation as some of the finest of their kind in the Caribbean basin.
Although Asian restaurants and food establishments can be found throughout the island, the majority are located on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, particularly in the Philipsburg, Simpson Bay, and Maho areas.
Many restaurants are small-scale, traditional, family-run eateries focused on preserving authentic flavors from their countries of origin. At the same time, a younger generation of restaurateurs has expanded the culinary scene with modern, full-service restaurants offering distinctive concepts that go beyond traditional dishes.
