During our recent four-day stay at the St Regis Bahia Beach Resort, we ate a fantastic meal at Fern restaurant: a six course Tasting Menu with wine pairings for a Friday night dinner.
What is a Tasting Meal?
A Tasting Menu is a multiple course meal (in this case six courses) chosen by the Chef to showcase the wide range and creativity of the Chef. A Tasting Menu may include a variety of courses including, but not limited to, salad, soup, fish, pasta, red meat, and desert. Portion sizes are small and typically start with the lightest dish to the heaviest, with desert to finish. Many restaurants are able to accommodate food allergies and vegetarian options, always confirm when ordering (or call ahead to ask).
Fern’s seasonal tasting menu showcased seafood with salmon, grouper, and octopus courses. The menu will vary between seasons, and more often based on supply of fresh ingredients. I would expect to find different courses and preparation for the tasting menu on another night.
Wine pairing is usually available for an additional fee. Specific wines are served with each course. Occasionally, a beer or liquor may be paired with a certain dish to bring out a unique flavor combination. The serving sizes, like the food dishes, are smaller than normal. Each wine (or beverage) is selected for you, no need to look at the wine menu after selecting the wine pairing option!
What is an Amuse Bouche?
Literally it means, “mouth amuser.” The amuse bouche is a small, often single bite size, nibble of food served before the meal. The amuse bouche is a way for the chef to tease and show off his skills with this free off-the-menu morsel.
Six Courses for Dinner
Dinner started with a slow warmup. The Salmon tartar was pedestrian but well executed, presented on a bed of avocado and topped with radish slices.
I love a little theatrical flair in a tasting menu. Fern did not disappoint! The mushroom soup was presented first with a bowl of grated Parmesan cheese and sliced chilies. Then, the mushroom broth was poured at the table for the fragrant release of the mushrooms and chilies. The menu describes this as a mushroom tea to better name this lightweight broth, as “soup” understates the delicate dish.
Octopus was perfectly executed, tender, firm, not chewy. Eating an intelligent, alien, unsustainable octopus makes me sad, and the mixture of emotions makes the dish that much more delicious. I will not specifically order octopus, but it is a delicate treat that I have a hard time turning down.
Grouper with bean “relish” was my favorite. The beans were cooked firm, al dente but not undercooked. The flavor combinations were hard to describe, each bite unlocked another delight. Again, the grouper was perfectly executed and lightly crisped. The Spanish red wine enhanced the flavor of the beans, as the main focus of the dish.
The only choice throughout the entire meal was how we like our tenderloin prepared (medium rare for me). It was delicious, perfectly prepared, but unremarkable. It seemed like a mandatory manly course among other more subtle offerings. Served over savory, smoky tomato compote and paired with thick Cabernet Savignon.
The chocolate cake oozed with warm fudgy goodness. Both the cake and ice cream were not overly sweet and paired with a rich port wine. After five courses, I was not sure if I would be able to finish desert, yet somehow I looked down at a very empty plate only a few moments after taking this photo.
There is a slight, planned pause between courses to complete the accompanying wine and allow diners a moment before the next course is served. Our six course meal took 2.5 hours, so I recommend an early dinner reservation and allow plenty of time to enjoy.
More Information on Fern
Fern is located upstairs in the unfortunately-named Plantation House at the St Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Puerto Rico. Fern is open for breakfast and dinner. Dinner reservations are highly recommended, especially on Saturday night. Fern small plate appetizers are available in the St Regis bar downstairs for a light dinner, or to sample the Fern flavors without a dinner reservation.
The Fern patio overlooks the Plantation House lawn and beach leading to the Atlantic Ocean. The views alone are worth planning a meal at Fern, and the Tasting Menu is must-do splurge for any Foodie staying at the St Regis, or just visiting the Island!
Disclaimer:
My mouth is watering after reading this. I love set courses with wine pairings. The grouper looks simply amazing. This is just another amazing part of your anniversary. The video was a great addition to the post. I hope to eat here some day.
Oh I love a good tasting menu. It’s so much fun letting the chef choose what they feel like creating for you. And paired with wine? Perfect!
I plan a trip to Puerto Rico soon, so I must put this place on my must go list. It sounds elegant and delicious. Thank you for the review.
Glad you liked the review, you will LOVE Fern and Puerto Rico! Check out my other posts on Puerto Rico, and more are added every month since we live here.
This looks like it was an excellent meal!
This sounds absolutely divine!!!! And each course looks like a work of art! Adding this to my bucket list asap!!
Thanks for the heads up on Fern – I haven’t experienced a tasting menu before but it sounds like an amazing night out. Between the soup, octopus and grouper – can’t get a better menu than that! And the chocolate cake, OMG yum – it’s not done correctly unless it oozes 😀
This sounds amazing! I love octopus, I hadn’t really thought about it not being sustainable but I adore it when it is cooked well. The portions actually look pretty large considering it is a tasting menu, I’m pretty hungry after watching the video now!!
Love paired degustation meals. This one looks awesome. Love the theatre of anything made or poured at the table too. How cool that you start off with some parmesan and then a mushroom broth comes in over the top. Super cool. Loved the addition of the video.
Tasting menus are my fave! The food looks so delicious and has made me so hungry!
What a fantastic event! We’re actually looking for something like this in Seoul for a friend’s birthday. All the dishes are presented in such a lovely manner. I’m sure you had an amazing time!
I’ve always been nervous about tasting menus since I am vegetarian, so I am glad to hear you say that most places will accommodate you. Never hurts to ask, right? What a fun way to taste new things. And that cake looks so good!
I love tasting menus. There’s something decadent about a multi-course tasting menu paired with matching wines. This looks scrumptious.
Oh this sounds so luxurious and decadent. The view looks lovely too! I’d definitely die over that dessert, it looks so good!
Loved your video! Everything looked so delicious that I don’t think I can even pick a favourite! I definitely need to go!
I’ve never had a tasting menu but I can see the appeal. You get to taste the best of the best. I don’t eat meat but I would be quite happy with that oozing chocolate cake!
I LOVE tasting menus – it is such a great way to taste a variety of dishes from talented chefs. I am the same – after the 5-6th dish, I always wonder how I would be able to finish the rest of the menu. But there is always room for dessert!
I’m headed to Puerto Rico this summer for a work related training. I’ll be there two weeks and just starting to research my food options. So happy I stumbled across this post. It was very informative, I didn’t know about the Amuse Bouche! I am excited to try some of the local seafood there. I love octopus, maybe my favorite food.
Awesome! Let me know when you are in going to be in PR, I would love to meet up with you in person.
The food looks lovely. Tasting menus are great for trying all sorts on the menu. I especially love it as you do not have to think about the wine pairing 🙂
It all looks really nicely done by the video. Especially pouring in the mushroom broth.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I love this! I once had dinner with wine pairing and it made the whole experience so much better! Excellent tip
I’m always the first one to book a meal for a tasting menu. I do love having everything prepared for me. :p
Great video, all the food looks incredible! That salmon tartare looked heavenly! I have always wanted to do a wine paring with a set course meal! It looks like this is the perfect place to do it!
Brilliant! I love tasting menus. I’m not sure about you, but what everyone else orders always looks more appetising – and with tasting menus you don’t get any FOMO and get to sample a bit of everything! That chocolate cake sounds divine…
The chocolate cake was delicious. I want more.
Yes, the best part of tasting menus is to sample the best of the chef’s creations.
Oh my gosh I love tasting everything when I’m away. Within reason obviously lol! This looks really good though, awesome views
Loved that video – the mushroom soup was basically food porn! I do love tasting menus, anything that lets me try a breadth of the menu is great to me!
I wish I could capture the smell, it was amazing!