Originally Posted by XFer2

Most guests rotate their dinner plans between the 3 restaurants onsite; Far Niente (Italian), Bamboo (Asian), and Lagoon (French). For lunch your only option is Te Pahu. It's almost like a cruise because you end up eating dinner with the same group of people every night. Te Pahu is open on certain nights for special events (Polynesian show/buffet on Wednesdays, Indian food some other night). Our butler actually took the liberty and made dinner reservations for us for the first 3 nights, before we even arrived. Our favorite is the Lagoon, followed by Bamboo. We thought the Italian was just okay, perhaps it was just too heavy of a cuisine for the hot and humid Bora Bora weather.

St. Regis charges a boat transfer fee if you want to go to the main island at night for dinner, and the boat ride needs to be arranged ahead of time. So if you have restaurants you must try at the main island, make a reservation there then inform the concierge of your dinner plan as soon as you arrive. Restaurants at St.R are never fully-booked, so you can make your plans around your other dinner reservations. To save money we used to load up on the breakfast buffet then skip lunch (or share something), but that's harder these days when you have a kid and can't ask the kid to skip lunch.