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LA VILLA MAHANA
What's nice about Bora Bora hotels and restaurants is that they make it easy for guests to get off property and experience local cuisine. Neither the hotels nor the restaurants charge for transportation. We scored one of the highly coveted reservations at La Villa Mahana. Getting there required a 30-minute boat ride in the Four Seasons boat to the Vaitape wharf. From there, taxis were waiting for us and five other couples from the Four Seasons to take us 10 minutes to Damien Rinaldi Dovio's acclaimed restaurant. The owner and chef is a young Corsican who married a Tahitian woman (she's the waitress) and their restaurant/home looks like it came straight out of Provence, France.



THE SOUTH OF FRANCE?
The website says that the restaurant has five tables, one chef and one waiter. But the night we were there, it had eight tables (six downstairs and two private ones upstairs). Natalie and I sat in the main restaurant and if someone had knocked me out and I'd woken up here, I would have sworn I was in the south of France. The only thing that gave the tropical location away were a few geckos on the wall and the Tahitian wallpaper. Even the menu prices were in euros. What's interesting was that the men get the menu with prices (the yellow menu). The women get the orange menu, sans prices.

DINNER
The moment the warm French and Tahitian bread makes it into your mouth, you know that all the hype about this place is going to hold true. The Tahitian bread is baked in leaves and tastes sort of like not-thoroughly-cooked corn bread but in a good way -- it's yummy. Next, everyone gets a salad with parmesan cheese on top and then come the appetizers and main dishes. We skipped the appetizers because we were already full but I had to make room for Damien's special roasted beef tenderloin with a red wine vanilla sauce and creamy gnocchi potatoes 49 € ($62 USD). For dessert, we tried the chocolate fondant with Tahitian vanilla ice cream 19€ ($24 USD). The restaurant only does one seating a night so everyone arrives and departs together. It's a two-hour meal, which goes by almost too fast. Six of the eight tables were occupied by guests of the Four Seasons and on the ride back in the boat, under the bright starry sky, everyone raved abut how they'd just had one of their best meals ever. Highly recommended and advanced reservations are a must! La Villa Mahana, b.p. 941 Amanahune, Bora Bora, Tel/fax: 00(689)675063 from United States dial 011 689 675063 or email damien@villamahana.com.

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