Passions vs Old Man & The Sea

[pdxwindjammer]

I am in Aruba now and have dined at both of these places. Old Man & The Sea is by far a better culinary experience than Passions. We were disappointed with the food at Passions but we liked the setting better. The wine list at TOMATS is impressive with many more choices than Passions.

If you are considering one over the other, I would highly recommend going to Old Man & The Sea.

What we had at Old Man & The Sea:

Shrimp cocktail for 2 - The biggest shrimp I have ever seen! Very tasty and presentation was perfect.

Scallops Duet - Very good!
Escargot stuffed mushrooms - We loved these.
We each ordered the lobster tails and they were cooked to perfection.

What we had at Passions:

Caesar salad - This is probably the worst Caesar I have ever had. It tasted like iceberg coated in mayo. It had boxed croutons that tasted stale, no lemon or anchovies and no parmesan cheese. It tasted a bit better when the server brought over limes (didn't have lemons) and parm.

Garlic soup with carmelized bacon - tasted like canned cream of mushroom soup with bits of bacon in it.

Prosciutto with honey melon - Okay, this was just plain weird. There was no melon. The prosciutto was served on a skewer with golf ball sized rounds of goat cheese on a plate covered with honey. Maybe the honey was a substitute for the honey melon?

Grilled shrimp with a mango passion fruit chutney - this dish was decent but didn't knock our socks off.

Grouper with creamy spicy shrimp - this was actually a great dish!

Both of the mains were served with a small dish of a potato casserole that tasted very processed, almost like the poatatoes were coated in a powdered cheese product. Neither of us ate this.

I am glad we tried out both of these places but if I had a choice between the two I would easily choose TOMATS!

[Arubalisa]

Thanks for the report. I wish OMTS, were not such an expensive taxi ride.

[Icandy]

^^^ I was thinking the same, I plan on going there when I'm in Aruba next mth but the cab ride is going to suck!

[Arubalisa]

Taxi to OMTS is $48 roundtrip from the low rise hotels and $52 roundtrip from the high rise hotels.
http://taxiaruba.com/new/farelist.html

[Randi]

perhaps consider renting a car for 24 hours and do some sight seeing etc. as well as a trip to Old man?

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by Randi

perhaps consider renting a car for 24 hours and do some sight seeing etc. as well as a trip to Old man?

Dh and I enjoy sharing a bottle of wine at dinner. Also, and unfortunate he has no desire driving around Savaneta in the dark. My eyes are much worse than his, so even if I didn't drink that would leave me out as well.

[pdxwindjammer]

Perhaps you can take the bus into Savaneta? I hear the buses are nice.

[Aruba4Life]

Thanks for your review, and please keep the restaurant reviews coming. I'm the one making the dinner reservations for our party of six & we leave for Aruba in a few weeks. I made reservations at Old Man a while ago, and I'm glad that I did. Fortunately, we have a rental car for the week.

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by pdxwindjammer

Perhaps you can take the bus into Savaneta? I hear the buses are nice.

LOL, you have to know my husband. Ask Andrea...He won't take the chance of a non- air conditioned bus, and then there is the walk in the humidity from the main road after having just taken a shower and gotten dressed back at the resort ...

[Icandy]

Originally Posted by Arubalisa

Taxi to OMTS is $48 roundtrip from the low rise hotels and $52 roundtrip from the high rise hotels.

yea I looked it up a few weeks ago! I'll be in the high rise area so........... Yup... it's gonna suck lol. I was thinking about renting a car but ehhh