we have a few days left on our trip and wanted an authentic Aruban meal. so far we've been to Papiamento's (loved the ambience, the keshi yena was a bit sweet for my taste) and Wacky Wahoo's. we liked both meals fine. is keshi yena normally sweet? I'm not a huge fan of mixing sweet and salty.

tonight we are going to nos cunucu which i am looking forward to. should we go to Old Cunucu House or Gasparito's?

FYI, we went to Bingo's today for lunch, hoping to try their salads and sandwiches, but it wasn't open yet (only for dinner on Sundays). our hotel owner told us on sundays all the Chinese restaurants do BBQ, and so we went next door (on the advice of Bingo's owner) to New Weii Tai (? can't remember name) and got 2 bbq plates of ribs and chicken for $7 and change each. it came with fried rice, corn and coleslaw salad and it was delicious! a great bargain too.

i think for our other remaining meals we will check out bingo's and salt and pepper. maybe we should skip old cunucu / gasparito's and go to cuba's cooking, jamaica me crazy or que pasa?

Aruba experts, please lend us your wisdom so we can finish our trip with fine meals on this one happy island

Not everyone loves it, but Gasparito has been one of long time favorites since way back in 1995. Their Keshi Yena has a sweetness from ketchup and whatever other ingredients which may have been used. The Old Cunucu House has been around seemingly forever, but is mentioned very little. Well kept secret or a dining horror? I do not know. Have you checked http://www.restaurantsaruba.com/ for up to date reviews of some of the places you have mentioned?

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We would recommend the Lighthouse and for local food The old Fisherman in town. In the back fo the Royal plaza mall. The owner use to be a fisherman so he knows seafood and local dishes. The lighthouse has amazing views, the food is perfectly Italian and the tourist menu is value for money. Leo and Ninna

for local
try PAM PAM
or
Old Fisherman

both delicious and very reasonably priced
andrea

From my trip report, our latest, and most likely last experience with Gasparito:

"For 13 years this had been our favorite restaurant. Before we began staying at the Tamarijn, we would eat here at least twice during our stay. Dh and I both agree, no need to go back.

They have a new menu with all of the most popular "old" items, BUT it seems that some of the recipes have changed? I had the Mussel soup and it was TOTALLY different, it tasted awful and I did not finish it. Jerry had the fish soup and said it tasted like dishwater. Believe me he is not THAT fussy. He ate a piece of swordfish at the Tamarijn our first night of vacation which he said was on the dry side and I did not hear about it until this night, almost at the end of our vacation.

For entrees they are pushing half of this and half of that. Jerry had half chicken keshi yena and half goat stew. Goat stew was not as good as he remembered. For dessert we have the apple and pear strudel, one of our FOREVER favorites. Again another dish totally changed.

The last straw for Jerry came when the bill arrived. He gave the waitress his American Express card and she very snottily told him that they did not accept it and just about threw the card back at him! For the money the dinner cost we could easily have gone back to Passions and had a much better meal. None of the old servers we knew were there either. Places change, people change and we will just move on."

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