Aruba, Eat, Drink be Happy

Eating in Aruba can be quite expensive. Everything on the Island must be brought in which up's the price. We had a one bedroom condo with a kitchen and cooked most of our meals; but did go out a few times while there. One day for lunch after being on a tour of The Island we stopped and got pizza. Not just any pizza...probably the best pizza we've ever had. You must put Tomato Charlies on your list of place to go.
Look how yummy it looks. The crust was nice and thin and crisp, love it that way. We got the veggie pizza, and as you can see it's loaded, not skimpy at all. Nice big pieces of fresh veggies. It was so good, we considered going back a 2nd time; but didn't as we wanted to try a few other places. We will though return here on our next trip to Aruba. I do recommend it, HIGHLY. This location is on the main drag across from the beach, so it's easy to throw a wrap on and walk up from the beach for lunch. Inside and outside eating is available.

Whether you dine in or out, drink Aruba's Beer, Balashi. Hubby says it's quite good. I'm allergic to beer, but did taste it and agree. Balashi, beer made right there in Aruba, not brought in like everything else is highly recommended.
We love Italian food, and so found Azzurro's right on the beach. We had reservations, and did dress for dinner; though I did see some folks in shorts, I had a summer skirt. Nice atmosphere. You eat outside, but under a Palopa . Service wasn't particularly good, in that it was slow; but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Food was good, not great. The best part is it's on the beach, carry your shoes and walk down the beach in the moonlight; stop at one of the many water stations to rinse the sand off your feet, slip your shoes back on........then go to dinner.
Here it is during the day where you can see The Palapa. It's great...you're outside but in shade during the day, covered at night with fans if it's too warm. Truly the best of both worlds and you're right on the beach. It's located at Playa Linda's Resort, right next to our favorite place for Happy Hour, Claudia's.
Carrots! Don't rub your eyes, you are seeing correctly. They are HUGE. One day shopping at a local groceries, I spotted them and felt the need to take a picture. These carrots, the largest I've ever seen were several inches in diameter.

For our special night out (we do that once a trip), we ate at Gianni's. Excellant food, better service than Azzurro's, though they owned by the same folks. Gianni's is known for being "real" Italian from everyone we came in contact with. What I didn't like though was it's very loud and large. Normally, good Italian Restaurants are small cozy and romantic. We had so so Martini's and would not recommend them. We probably will return here on the next trip as the food was excellent. We ate outside, but perhaps indoors would be less hectic. We were here on a Sat evening, and probably would have enjoyed it more had we gone through the week. The night we were there was day 1 of Spring Break for folks from Venezuela. We understand that week is crowded everywhere on The Island. I wasn't able to get any photo's there, sorry folks.

We at dinner our first night The Pelican Bar and Grill on the beach, but do not recommend it, and will not go back there on our next trip to The Island of Aruba. Service was slow, drinks lousy (we only had Vodka and Tonic and Gin and Tonic which are pretty hard to mess up), food wasn't good.

We recommend Link and Sons Grocery, but be sure you get good directions as it's not on the main drag and is behind 2 other grocery stores.