Papillon Restaurant

Had dinner at Papillon on our last night in Aruba. DELICIOUS food, elegant presentation and impecable service(thank you Mario). Very recommend almond brie and grouper.

Papillon continues to be very good restaurant in a bad location and with a bad theme. We are downgrading them a bit this year because the preparation of some of our usual choices was not quite as good as we have experienced in the past and was changed in nature too. We value consistency in the places we dine at and felt that the performance this year was a notable departure in the wrong direction of the meals that we had. Everything was still very good but it did not rise to the level of excellence that we have experienced before at this place. We expect to return next year and hope that things will improve. In the meantime, unless given reason to do otherwise, we still recommend patronage of this place.

I went to this restaurant with no expectations. The meal started off well enough...the environment was pleasant and my cocktail was good. We ordered French onion soup and a shrimps appetizer with fish as the main course. The soup took awhile to arrive, on the periphery of my tolerance, but it was hot and very good. However, after the soup, we waited...and waited...and waited for out main course. At no time did any of the staff stop by to ask for another drink order, inform us of how our food was doing or seem to care at all. Three people who showed up to the restaurant and ordered well after we ordered were served. When I inquired about our food, I was told it would arrive in 5 minutes. We eventually received the food, which was warm at best and not very good. I mentioned this to the waitress and manager who had the audacity to question if I actually was dissatisfied with the food (they eventually took off one dish after arguing with them). I recommend avoiding this restaurant. There are plenty of other decent retstaurants with better food and service in the area...the pizza place next door looked promising.

After reading all of the incredible reviews by so-called customers that give away 10's for topics like this place was the greatest on the island.

My first clue that this place has inflated scores was the "Enviroment" which was either a cramped and smokey inside seat on either side of the bar or the outside seats that looked over a flea market and located about 30 yards off the street. With half the restraunts of Aruba on the beach, how could ANYONE give this place any higher than a 5????

We found the service slow, food over salted and prices too high for the quality and/or quantity. Oh, expect to need a late night snack for you will leave this place hungry because presentation trumps portion.

If you are trusting the scores for this eatery on this web site - expect to be disappointed - for they have found a way to have insiders fill up the reviews with 9's and 10's when 4's and 5's are called for.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

The food was exquisite. Delicious and sophisticated.

Ate there, the evening of October 21, 2012. Was in a party of 8 and sat outside. Outside seating was right next to a flea market setting and it was not the best seating. The service was not good as the server's had little idea of the menu items and how good they were. Various menu items ordered were less than stellar, going to downright bad. The Lobster Bisque was unlike any other I had and was red (tomato based) and was at best so so. I had the Poisson Rouge (Tuna steak) which was done properly but the food with it was not so good and the entire meal was quite salty. Others in my party had the duck breast which was also quite salty to point of almost not being edibel. Another in my party had the Carre of lamp which was also not very good. Aji Shrimp and Fettucie Foret were also ordered with the Shrimp also being salty and not very good. The Fettuccine was more like egg noodles than fettuccine and not good. All in all, this was not a good meal for any in the party of 8. Furthermore the menu was in US currency, but the bill came in local currency. This made it impossible to double check that we charged the correct price for the correct items. At the bottom was a single conversion of the local currency total to the US total. This was deceptive. I would never recommend this restaurant.

We recently celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary this past week and everything was great .
The food, the service, the ambiance and the overall running of this great little restaurant that we wish more people knew about. they decorated the table with hearts and congratulations and it made it a very special evening for both of us.
Thank you and see you soon

We went two nights in a row it was so delicious. Been to Aruba 18 years in a row and been to all the nice restaurants. This is the BEST! Grouper Paillon is absolute heaven. I can't even decribe it!!!!!

Papillon is a great place to go for a casual walk in dinning, I don't think there is need for reservation. It has a great story too, which I'll leave for the restaurant staff to fill in.
The onion soup is delicious and I also loved the escargots and the Filet Mignon!

A flea market, a chintzy bar, a burger joint, a little ``7-eleven``, and other non-descript retailers surround this gem of a restaurant. We had been several times in this marketplace but never thought Papillon would deliver. Well we were wrong. From the escargots with a puff pastry crust, exquisite crab cakes to the corvina fish entree all begged us to the desert. The service was absolutely the best we have experienced to date even in comparison to Passions the night before. Papillon is a must for anyone to try and will be returning again.