Aruba's dining scene is small enough to walk end to end in a week and varied enough to reward the effort. The island runs on a handful of registers: fish shacks on the leeward coast where the boats tie up in the afternoon, French and Swiss dining rooms in the colonial townhouses of Oranjestad, Italian and international kitchens strung along the Palm Beach hotel strip, and a handful of chef-driven rooms in the interior where the cooking is more interesting than the address suggests. The twelve below are chosen to spread across those registers and across the island: Savaneta in the south, Oranjestad in the middle, Palm Beach and Noord in the north, and the quieter inland villages of Santa Cruz and Paradera in between. The list favours places that argue for themselves in the food and the room, and skips the interchangeable resort buffets. Prices are not given because the bundle does not carry them; hours and phone numbers are the ones on the record and will get you in the door.
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1 Studio Murano Art
22 Ayo, Santa CruzPizza from an art-studio kitchen in the Ayo interior
From 09:00 the kitchen at 22 Ayo in Santa Cruz is already open, which tells you what kind of address this is; inland, early, and unbothered by the beach schedule. Studio Murano Art puts a pizza list inside a working glass studio, and the combination is the case for driving out here rather than eating another Palm Beach margherita. The locals head inland for lunch here; the coast can wait. Mondays close at 15:00, the rest of the week runs to 16:00, so this is a daytime stop, not a dinner one; plan it around a morning at the Ayo rock formations and call +297 584 8148 before you drive, because the room is small and the oven is not fast. The website at studiomuranoart.com will tell you what is on the wall that week.
- pizza
Hours: Mo 09:00-15:00; Tu-Su 09:00-16:00
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2 Restaurant Anno 1877
27 Wilhelminastraat, Oranjestad, AWFrench cooking inside a nineteenth-century Oranjestad townhouse
The door at 27 Wilhelminastraat in Oranjestad opens at 17:00 and the kitchen runs to 22:00, Monday through Saturday. Restaurant Anno 1877 is French, and the name is the point: the building carries the date, the cooking carries the tradition, and the room has the confidence not to reinvent either. Skip the identikit resort dining rooms on the hotel strip; the case for eating in town is that the townhouse itself is part of the meal, and this address is the cleanest expression of it. Sundays are dark, so plan around it: reserve on +297 583 0020 or through restaurantanno1877.com. Come hungry and come on time; a 17:00 opening in the Caribbean is an editorial statement, and this kitchen means it.
- french
Hours: Mo-Sa 17:00-22:00
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3 Zeerover
270 Savaneta, SavanetaFish landed by the boats out front, fried by weight, eaten at picnic tables
Down at 270 Savaneta, the pier does the ordering: the boats come in through the afternoon and what they land is what you eat. Zeerover is fish and chips and seafood the way the fishing village has always done it: you queue, you point, it is weighed, it is fried, you carry it to a table on the water. The locals eat here on their day off; the tour buses do not, and that is the recommendation. Doors are 11:00 to 21:00, Tuesday through Sunday, with Monday off; call +297 584 8401 if you want to know what came in, or check the write-up at aruba.com/us/explore/zeerover. It is not fancy and it is not trying to be; that is the whole point of driving to Savaneta.
- fish and chips
- seafood
Hours: Tu-Su 11:00-21:00
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4 La Parcera
5 Caya HarmoniaA Mexican-leaning international kitchen off the tourist grid
By 11:30 the doors are open at 5 Caya Harmonia and the kitchen at La Parcera stays on until 22:00, Tuesday through Sunday. The menu spans international, local, Mexican and regional, which on a smaller island would read as indecision and here reads as a working neighbourhood restaurant covering the day from a long lunch to a late dinner. The locals eat here because it is not on the resort loop; go for the same reason. Mondays are closed: plan around it. Reservations on +297 699 44 66 are worth the call on a weekend, and laparceraaruba.com has the current menu. The address rewards the visitor willing to leave the beach for an evening, which is most of the case for this list.
- international
- local
- mexican
- regional
Hours: Tu-Su 11:30-22:00
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5 Double Down Sports Bar & Grill
248 J.E. Irausquin BoulevardBurgers and American cooking on Eagle Beach from breakfast to late
At 248 J.E. Irausquin Boulevard the kitchen is on from 07:00 to 23:30, every day of the week, and that opening hour is the reason Double Down Sports Bar & Grill earns its slot on a list that otherwise skips the boulevard. American cooking with a burger focus is not scarce on Eagle Beach; a room that will feed you at 07:00 and again at 23:00 without changing gear is. Skip the identical hotel sports bars two blocks north; this one has the advantage of the address and the hours. Call +297 587 9000 for the game schedule or check eaglearuba.com/dining/double-down-sports-bar-grill. Come for an early breakfast before a snorkelling trip, or for a late plate after a long beach day; the case is the utility, not the menu.
- american
- burger
Hours: Mo-Su 07:00-23:30
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6 Hooters
55 Palm BeachThe Palm Beach branch of the American burger chain, on the strip
The door at 55 Palm Beach opens at 11:00 and stays open to 23:00 every day of the week. Hooters on the strip serves burgers; the address is what buys it a slot on this list, because Palm Beach 55 puts it inside walking distance of the high-rise hotels and the beach access, and a familiar sign at a known hour is a real category of usefulness on a first day in a new country. Skip it if you came to Aruba for Aruba; keep it in mind if you came with children who want a menu they can read without translation. The phone is +297 582 0040 and the branch page is hooters.com/locations/40110-aruba. Included here as the honest utility choice, not the discovery, but the fallback.
- burger
Hours: Mo-Su 11:00-23:00
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7 Challet Suisse
246 J.E. Irausquin Boulevard, AWA Swiss-run international dining room on the Palm Beach strip
Doors at 246 J.E. Irausquin Boulevard open at 17:30 and the kitchen runs to 22:00, Monday through Saturday. Challet Suisse is an international room with the specific European seriousness the name promises: long menus done properly, a wine list handled by someone who reads it, and service that does not race the check. The locals swear by the older dining rooms on the boulevard for special occasions; this is one of them. Skip the newer copycats and use the fact that Sundays are dark to plan the rest of the week around a Saturday booking. Reservations on +297 587 5054 or through chaletsuisse-aruba.com. Two doors up from the boulevard's newer noise, an address that has stayed in one place long enough to earn its regulars is a real slot on Palm Beach.
- international
Hours: Mo-Sa 17:30-22:00
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8 Casa Tua - Palm Beach
Palm BeachItalian cooking and pizza, evenings only, on Palm Beach
From 17:00 to 23:00 every day of the week, the room at Casa Tua on Palm Beach runs a straight Italian menu built on pizza. Skip the hotel Italians that treat the cuisine as a buffet stop; the case here is a kitchen that runs one register properly and stays open late enough to catch a post-beach dinner without a reservation panic. The locals eat here in numbers on the weekend, which is the useful signal on a strip where the room-to-tourist ratio can tip either way. Book on +297 586 8470 or through casatuaaruba.com. The address is the vaguest on this list because that is what the bundle records; the room is easy enough to find on the boulevard and worth the walk from any of the high-rise blocks.
- italian
- pizza
Hours: Mo-Su 17:00-23:00
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9 LionFish Snack Aruba
100 Paradera, Paradera, AWA Saturday-only seafood counter in the inland village of Paradera
By 12:00 on a Saturday the counter at 100 Paradera is the whole point of the day: LionFish Snack Aruba is a seafood room that opens only on Saturdays, 12:00 to 19:30. That is not a hedge; that is the schedule. The locals know a once-a-week address is worth planning a weekend around, and inland Paradera is the right kind of drive: twenty minutes from the coast and immediately somewhere else. Skip the every-day beach shacks and time this one properly; call +297 566 2237 on the Friday to check what is coming out of the kitchen. There is no website in the record, which is honest for a Saturday-only counter: the address is the destination, and the schedule is the discipline.
- seafood
Hours: Sa 12:00-19:30
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10 Hadicurari
Berea Di PiscadoA seafood-and-steakhouse pier restaurant, open from breakfast to late
Over on Berea Di Piscado, the kitchen at Hadicurari is on from 08:00 to 23:00 every day, and that is a long shift for a room that runs both seafood and a steakhouse menu. The case is the address and the hours together: a working fisherman's beach that turns into a dinner room by evening, with a menu that will feed both halves of a table that cannot agree between fish and beef. Skip the identical resort steakhouses; this one has the water. Book on +297 586 2288 or through hadicurari.com: sunset seatings go first, and the 08:00 opening means you can also come back for breakfast the next morning without changing venue. Two registers in one room done properly is a rarer thing than the strip suggests.
- seafood
- steak house
Hours: Mo-Su 08:00-23:00
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11 Amuse Sunset Grill
50 Bucutiweg, Oranjestad, AWA regional-cuisine grill on the water, tuned to the 17:00 sunset service
Doors at 50 Bucutiweg in Oranjestad open at 17:00 and the kitchen runs to 22:30. Amuse Sunset Grill is a regional room with the schedule stamped on the name: the first hour is the point, and the address is chosen for it. The locals head here for anniversaries and the kind of dinner that begins with a drink outside; the daylight and the water do the work the menu would otherwise have to. Skip the hotel-lobby sunset bars; the case here is a grill that means the word, timed to the hour that the boulevard cannot compete with. Call +297 586 9949 for the earliest seating on the terrace, and arrive at 17:00 rather than 19:00; the room is designed for the transition, and the second hour is not the same meal.
- regional
Hours: 17:00-22:30
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12 Cadushi Sunset Terrace Restaurant & Grill / Straddle It Saloon Aruba;Cadushi Sunset Terrace Rerstaurant & Grill
10 Moko, NoordA terrace-and-saloon combination in Noord, Wednesday through Sunday evenings
From 16:00, Wednesday through Sunday, the terrace at 10 Moko in Noord runs an international and local menu under two names (Cadushi Sunset Terrace on the terrace, Straddle It Saloon on the bar side) and the doors stay open to 23:00. The case for driving out to Noord is the pairing: a grill room that means to feed you and a saloon that means to keep you, on the same address, at hours that suit a long evening. The locals head to Noord on weekends for exactly this kind of double-register room; skip the strip's carbon-copy sports bars and book here instead. Reservations on +297 587 7006. Monday and Tuesday are dark, so time the trip; the Wednesday reopening is the quietest seat on the terrace.
- international
- local
Hours: We-Su 16:00-23:00
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