Places to eat on Bonarie 2023

[Jake 10]

Haven't been to Sebastian's or Chef's yet. I grew up in New Orleans, so high food standards. But regardless of standards most stuff was meh both trips. Capricio was actually excellent last trip. This trip felt like a waste of $100+

Try Ocean Oasis and let us know

 

[Jake 10]

OK .. as a local, here are our “goto” places for those interested, everyone has their favorites.

For Pizza, Rumba and PasaBon are both good. Rum Runners if you like thin crust. On Sundays Sebastian’s has Pizza and Pasta only night,, both made fresh on site. Pizza is funny as everyone has their own style and favorites.

In you are wanting Chinese, our goto is always Lings with a large selections of dishes and ingredients.

In Playa (Kralendij): Divers Diner (inexpensive), Karel’s (best views), Patagonia (Argentinian Beef), and Capricios (Italian) are our regular haunts. And by no means forget Gios for the best gelato on island.

Between 2 Buns is still the #1 place for lunch with indoor and outdoor seating, an extensive menu and phenomenal local Bonairian Staff. The latter is important to us, while many places utilize young Dutch interns (short term students in hospitality) we prefer the places that use locals where possible.

Donner Station in Hato as mentioned - excellent middleeast wraps and breads.

South of town, we use to like The Beach (@ Windsock). A beautiful place on the water that is easily overlooked. You can even take your gear in, dive right there, come up and lay your gear by your table and enjoy lunch. Sadly their service has gotten very poor ( slow) and the main dish selections pricey and limited. I’m not sure what the owner is trying to prove at this point - how to screw up a once nice place, maybe?

People do like Ocean Oasis and while we didn’t like it at first, and at one point they started charging for tap water NOPE …. We should try it again with new ownership. Just avoid it on cruise ship days.

At Bachelors Beach is Kong Burger and on Te Amo Beach is Kite City. These are both excellent food trucks with great teams keeping the food fresh and tasty. Cash is generally needed at these venues.

At Sorobon, where the Windsurfers ”do their thing” are a couple beach bars for good food and drink. We absolutely love Sebastian’s Beach with a great team and good food. Just avoid it on cruise days as it is sadly beyond packed with guests from the ships.

One last recommendation for this evening, by all means try to stop in at Posada Para Mira located north in Rincon With beautiful views of the valley, the wilder east coast, and local life. While you can be tame and have beef, chicken, and fish - for those adventurous eaters have the goat (stew or soup) or iguana (stew or soup) - both are excellent.

UPDATE: one important note, remember this is a Dutch Caribbean island where the first language spoken is either Papiamento or Dutch depending on the individual, English will be a second language spoken by almost everyone you meet. In restaurants special orders may not be clearly understood, enjoying the meal as prepared is always best, you aren’t at your local burger joint, favorite pizza place, or neighbors bar. Once done your meal and ready to leave, you’ll need to ask for the check and the card reader (if paying by plastic) as most restaurants don’t automatically bring you the check and force you to leave to “move tables” quickly. Restaurant hours vary and some are only open for dinner, sone only breakfast/lunch, and some have varying days off. Use Facebook and their websites to see who’s open when. For those needing reservations that is a mix of Facebook, Websites, and WhatsApp depending on the business. Of the recommendations I made, only Between2Buna, Capricios, and Patagonia offer indoor seating with aircon.

I don’t speak Dutch, but was glad to be able to communicate in Papiamento, Spanish , and English everywhere we went. And locals appreciate your trying to speak their languages

 

[NDL_Diver]

Are there any vegan or vegetarian restaurants? If no, are there places that have some good vegan options?

At Joe's my wife had a vegetable pie, twice because she loved it and at Eddies she had some vegetarian curry dish (twice because she loved it) and at Donna & Giorgio she had some eggplant dish (menu varies). My wife is not a vegetarian but likes all vegetable dishes when available because island food is heavy meat based.

 

[hilljo88]

English spoken everywhere.

Joe's , Sebastian's for upscale food. Reservation needed.

Sunset, multicourse dinner sail on the Melissa: better than you would expect (cash only).

"Beer and Burgers" has salads, too. Ocean oasis is a great spot to chill after diving the Salt Pier.

Our favorite food truck: Cactus Blue/Lion Fish, near Windsock.

 

[Diver-6873]

English spoken everywhere.

Joe's , Sebastian's for upscale food. Reservation needed.

Sunset, multicourse dinner sail on the Melissa: better than you would expect (cash only).

"Beer and Burgers" has salads, too. Ocean oasis is a great spot to chill after diving the Salt Pier.

Our favorite food truck: Cactus Blue/Lion Fish, near Windsock.

While English is spoken everywhere, the point is that it is everyone’s second language (or third or forth) on island in hospitality and when going from a customer to a server to the kitchen to the cook, special requests are sometimes not clear so ordering as things are prepared is always best….

 

[hilljo88]

While English is spoken everywhere, the point is that it is everyone’s second language (or third or forth) on island in hospitality and when going from a customer to a server to the kitchen to the cook, special requests are sometimes not clear so ordering as things are prepared is always best….

I understand your point and agree, yet for advising a tourist, I personally have never experienced a problem using English in any of the ABC islands or in Amsterdam, for that matter.

 

[Lorenzoid]

In Bonaire, you may be best off just speaking English. On our first few visits we tried a few words of Papiamento, and on one occasion were quickly educated to the fact that the restaurant owners were from Colombia (or was it Venezuela?). We speak Spanish well enough, but what's the point, really? My wife speaks Dutch, too, but every Dutch person on Bonaire--and seemingly every Dutch person in Amsterdam--speaks English effortlessly. If you're a native English speaker, English is really your best bet in restaurants.

I second @FlaParrotHead 's remark regarding moderating your expectations of special requests in restaurants. Lost-in-translation issues aside, special requests aren't common in many places in the world--you take the food as the cook judges it should be prepared--so in my opinion, anything they manage to do based on my special request is already going above and beyond, and I appreciate the effort.

 

[wgw04024]

Found my old post.

Top goto's for Restaurants currently?

I did a quick search, but didn't see much for 'restaurants'. Saw the thread on chineese food that we will def check out. I had no idea there was chineese there honestly. What are some other great local spots, perhaps even under the radar? We always like Between 2 buns, the crepe place (that...

scubaboard.com

 

[ADSLubec]

After all that, we ended up eating 90% of our meals at home. We went to Between 2 Buns a few times. It was good as it always has been. We also went to Capricio, but compared to our last trip, it was underwhelming. After trying to go eat a few times and things being closed despite what google or their website said, we ended up giving up.
On a side note, shopping at Van den Tweel is much easier now that google will translate from a photo. You can take a photo of a label and it literally converts everything to english. Probably not important for most people, but with my wife's celiac disease we have to know what's in what we buy.
As a general rule in my past two visits to Bonaire, the food is exceptionally underwhelming. Good thing the diving's good.

Glad to hear that someone else found Capricio underwhelming. I've never been impressed by them. The pasta is , eh. Living in the northeastern United States we have plenty of excellent Italian restaurants. Capricio would not make it here.

 

[RonaldP]

Also check out: It rains fishes: Been there twice last couple of weeks. Absolutely a dilight and super friendly service.