Papiamento Restaurant

My fiancee and I had a very romantic dinner..poolside. We enjoyed a seafood dinner that was baked in a clay pot for 40 minutes that was then brought to the table to be cracked open by the lady...then served by our waiter. The owner was omnipresent and made sure everything was GREAT...Highly recommend...Bring $100-$125 depending on how much you drink

This is our favorite restaurant in Aruba. Papiamento is located in Noord, in the owner’s former home. The setting is wonderful, and when we make our reservation we always ask for a table by the pool. You can eat inside or outside, but we highly recommend outside by the pool as it is so pretty and pleasant. However, be sure to take a walk around the inside as it is beautifully decorated with antiques. Three of the children are award winning chefs, so you know the food is good. They offer “cooking on the stone”, and you might want to try it here. (Le Petit Café downtown, at Playa Linda, and at Paradise Beach Villas also offers this, but we think Papiamento does a better job.) “Cooking on the stone” is a stone that is heated to a high temperature in the oven. Food is then cooked on the grill, but not cooked all the way through, put on the stone, and served. So, if you like your steak or lamb chops rare, you eat them right away, but if you like them well done, you let them cook on the stone for a while. You can get various types of seafood (shrimp, fish, lobster) and meat (steak, lamb chops, chicken), or combinations on the stone. If you don’t want to do the “stone”, they also have a good variety of other outstanding entrees, including a specialty called seafood in the clay pot. On this last trip we started with one order of their seafood bisque and one order of their soup of the day, which was a mushroom soup, as our appetizers. For our entrées we had one order of curried shrimp, and one order of Washington 61, which is a mixed grill including a piece of beef tenderloin, a half a rack of lamb, and a chicken breast. For dessert we split an order of passion fruit sherbet. We always eat here our last night in Aruba to end our trip on a great note.

Everything you dreamed of.

Four of us, who all previously had excellent dining experiences here, felt that this time the restaurant was not as good as before. We felt the prices were too high, especially for the drinks which were very weak. Our dessert was overrated and again overpriced. It was not the dining experience we had anticipated and we won't repeat this experience.

Don't bother. The ambience is nice but the service very slow and the food OK. Small portions.

One of the worst restaurant experiences we have ever had anywhere! We had heard a lot of good things about this place but our experience was a disaster! We waited for over an hour to be seated, then we had to literally go chase a waiter after waiting another hour for service. Once the waiter came over to our table, he was very rude. Most restaurants would offer free drinks or something for the inconvenience, not this one!

We were in Aruba 7 days and tried 7 different top recommended resaurants. Papiamento's was terrible. We tried the clay pot specialty (recommended by travel magazines). IT was tasteless and overdone. The shrimp and lobster were rubbery. Could not cut it with your table knife. The pool was dirty. The service was way too slow. We were there for a leisurelyevening but they were way too slow. I also don't like sharing bathroom facilities with members of the opposite sex which is partially how their restroom is set up. From where my seat was (near the dirty pool), I had a horrible view of the restroom sinks. I will be writing the travel magazines to inform them how off base they were. The person I was with has allergies to cats. There was a cat constantly roaming around. Will not return to this on. I will be submitting a top notch review for LeDome.

We visited Papiament on our anniversery, Oct. 3rd, and could not be more pleased. This restaurant is by far the best we visited while in Aruba. Everything about the experience was total perfection. The meals, the service and the environment. When you visit, make sure to ask for a table by the pool. For the ultimate in a romantic evening, with the best of food and service, Papiamento is a must visit.

We are fortunate enough to travel a fair amount, and have visited many fine restaurants in out trevels. I would have trouble rating Papiamento other than number one or two out of all of the places we have visited around the world.

For a romantic setting, a delicious meal, and good service, don't miss this place! We sat outside near the pool but the inside dining room is also very nice. The twinkling lights, the tabletop candles and tikki torches all reflect off the pool and make for a truly memorable and romantic evening. 2 salads, 1 escargot, 1 nautilus (mahi mahi, shrimp, lobster served on a hot stone), 1 seafood casserole (shrimp, red snapper, scallops), 2 wines, 1 desert (choc. Cake), 2 cappuccinos. Bill was $99 w 15%.

My wife recommends skipping the seafood served on the hot stone as it continues to cook at the table. She mentioned the dish was overdone.

The Maitre D' was very accomodating for our anniversary, and brought over a complimentary piece of chocolate cake, with a sparkler on it and sang happy anniversary - nice touch!

Papiamento's is our favorite romantic spot to dine. We ate there on August 7, 2002 and during October 2001. The poolside setting is very attractive. The matre d' was very attentive and spent time with us taliing about the restaurant's history. We shared a shrimp cocktail, 4 shrimp - size medium+ with a very spicy cocktail sauce. For dinner, my wife had Diablo. chicken breast with red chilean peppers. The chicken breast was cooked perfectly, lightly moist. The peppers added zest to the chicken. I had Neptune, a "Romancing the Stone" dish consisting of mahi-mahi, shrimp, and medium-size piece of lobster. This is a wonderful dish. We shared a dessert consisting of a large sccoop of vanilla ice cream, on a bed on caramel and almond slices.

The service throughout the meal was at a leisurely pace until it was time to settle the bill. It took over 15 minutes from the time we requested the bill until it came. Other than this little slowness, we felt the experience is great. We look forward to returning next year.