Taste of Belgium Restaurant

We discovered today Jun 04, 2021 that Taste of Belgium is permanently closed. Very sad because we always enjoyed dining there...good food, good service, good people, good ambiance and good location.

We discovered today Jun 04, 2021 that Taste of Belgium is permanently closed. V

We now have been to Aruba 3 times in 18 months. Our first visit to Aruba was fantastic and part of what made that trip fantastic was Taste of Belgium. Our kids loved the place as well as I. The coffee was wonderful and the breakfast is delicious. We went there 8 times in 7 days. The food and service was wonderful.

Everyone was very nice and the waitstaff was very pleasant.

Flash forward 6 months later....

The second trip back to Aruba is when things started to go downhill. I decided to take a trip back with just the wife and I this time. My wife and I are a mixed couple. Myself being of African decent and my wife German Jew...with that said when we showed up for breakfast I was so excited... remembering the great time we had on our first trip, we wanted to try to experience the same feeling.

The first trip everyday we sat in the back of the restaurant facing the main road... lots of natural light which we like and of course wanted to experience that again.

When we walked to the back the manager (African Decent) stopped us and said the back was reserved for lunch and we couldn't sit back there...Which I thought was odd and felt uncomfortable because they way she went about it was very unwelcoming. My wife immediately said she was doing it on purpose because of our differences in skin color...which I never like to throw around.

Well... 15 minutes into our breakfast a non mixed family walks in and goes to the back where we wanted to sit without any provocation, which infuriated my wife.

We did not return to Taste of Belgium for the duration of our trip because of that incident.

Now a year later we are back in Aruba with our kids again...
All they can think of is Taste of Belgium because on our first trip as far as they are concern...everything was great.
We decided to give it another shot.

As we walked in and started to the back we ran into the manager again... A year later and the same Lie! She stated the back was closed and reserved for a large family coming in...which was soooo funny because there was a Caucasian man already sitting in the back drinking coffee and waiting for his food.

We told her she told us the same lie last time and no one showed up. She was very hostile toward us I felt very embarrassed for my kids and wife.

My wife asked the gentleman in the back if he was part of that reserved group she was talking about and he said rolled his eyes and said she was lying.

We refused to be seated anywhere else and told her we would gladly take a seat somewhere else when the party arrived.

Not a coincidence that no one ever showed up.

The waitstaff however was very nice and gave us great service and I tipped them very well.

Upon leaving I tried to talk to the manager and being unprofessional, un-human and a racist as she is... refused to speak to me.

I hope the owner can see this review and respond to the horrible experience that one of his managers have caused not only to my wife and I...but worse... to my kids.

Needless to say I will never patronize Taste of Belgium again and will advise against going there to anyone I run across here in Aruba when visiting.

We failed to try Taste of Belgium last year but so very happy we did this year! We did eat here the year before and had a wonderful experience. We had a great waitress and very good food. Tonite, we had their belgium mussels in beer which was very good. It came with a salad and belgium fries. I tried their early bird dining of soup, grouper and dessert. Amy had the fried grouper fillet which came with vegetables and belgium fries. My grouper fillet was on a bed of vegetables and cooked in a foil packet. It came with a side of mashed potatoes. Both grouper were fresh and excellent...it was one of the best groupers we had since on island! Our waitress, Anna, was excellent! She was very friendly, attentive and accommodating! Everything was very good and we look forward to coming back!

Okay -- hubby ordered fried grouper with the potatoes and vegetables / he didn't talk, he just smiled after every bite.

Me? I ordered shrimp with mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables / I left nothing on my plate and took before and after pictures ... The best food I've had on the island yet.

The ambiance was superb / restaurant very clean and the bar had great beer selection. Kasteel comes in the prettiest glass I've ever seen.

Service? Um. It was okay. I ordered "warm" apple pie with ice cream and it came out cold so waitress dumped ice cream and whipped cream on our little plates and it was melting so it was eaten by the time she finally brought pie back. She came back with not warm but overdone microwaved pie without ice and whipped cream to help get it down. So the experience was perfect til that point. Still would go back 100 times because the dinner was top notch. Dessert? Not impressed.

It was our first time back in two years & well worth the wait.
The entire staff is extremely courteous and explanation of the menu is fine. I apologize for not remembering our servers name but she was very professional about her job.

Just went for lunch. Party of six. Service is nice. They provide pencils and coloring picture for kids.
Soup and salad were fine. Carpaccio is good meat, but too many additions.
Mains: Garlic scampis looked a bit sad. A handful of shrimps in a tiny pot, and a tiny weenie salad on the side. Steak frites was a shame. Tenderloin untrimmed, still had silver skin and tendons in it. Cuisson okay. But both the mushroom and pepper 'sauce' were made from some obscure powder.
When we told the staff about this, two times, it was just ignored.
Belgium beers are way overpriced, even for Aruba.
Nice for breakfast or a simple sandwich, but below par for full meal.

It was our 1st time back to Aruba in 3 years & I spotted the new Taste of Belgium on the way to our time share> We stopped in 4 an early dinner & were absolutely delighted with everything,from the wait staff to the happy hour & early bird specials. I chose the grouper and my wife the beef. Both were wonderful. After dinner we sat in a comfortable area witha fireplace & were offered cappachino or expresso in place of our desserts.Great idea as we were both full & didnt need dessert. Everything was so nice that when our friends joined us 2 days later we went back for the same wonderful service!

What can I say, except best restaurant in Aruba! Perfectly executed Belgian food, great beer selection, and they even speak Dutch! Easily the best restaurant I've encountered on Aruba.

The food is excellent. The service is superb. The presentation and environment are perfect. We consider their food is one of the best that we tried in Aruba.