FLAMANDS — There are beach restaurants and there are beach restaurants.

This is the latter.

It’s a cool, breezy summer night on the Flamands sand in St Barth, home to one of the island’s greatest eateries: La Case de l’Isle.

This is the signature restaurant at perhaps the signature hotel in St Barth: the Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France, LVMH’s only Caribbean hotel, which opened under the new branding at the end of 2014.

Here, executive Chef Yann Vinsot has put together a superb menu that marries French gastronomic excellence which has become the standard on the island with a light, French Caribbean touch.

Crispy soft egg with passionfruit foam.

That brings spectacular dishes like steamed toothfish with yuzu; a crispy soft egg with sweet potato foam and passionfruit sauce; and local lobster medallions with grapefruit and grilled avocado.

It’s joined by a broad list of more than 150 French wines (and a nice selection of rums, too).

It’s a meal without which any trip to St Barth is simply incomplete.

— CJ