Azzurro Ristorante Italiano Aruba — Restaurant in Aruba

1.5 Stars. In all my experiences of restaurants in Aruba and the United States, this was a complete disappointment. For starters, upon arriving, we had a reservation for 8:30 p.m., arrived about 10–15 minutes early, and my table was not ready despite the restaurant having tables open clearly, so we had to wait 10 minutes upon arrival. After sitting down, we received a moderate welcome from our server, like any other restaurant, and they got us bread; however, what the server didn’t tell us was that bread was $0.50 a piece, and they charged us $4  for the bread for my dinner. The appetizer, Burrata, came cold without the server informing us that it was going to be served that way. In my opinion, there’s no real problem with it being served that way, only being from the Northeast US. In NY, I’m used to it being served warm, and they should offer an option for it to be served warm as well. As for my entree, the portion was much smaller than expected for me and my partner's dinner, and the food was subpar for the type of restaurant this is supposed to be—world-class. Dessert, we didn’t even bother to order considering the dinner portions and the prices being high. In Ruth Chris, we got an entire cheesecake for 12 dollars, but here the portions are ridiculously small and for $11 for most desserts or more. The service was slow, and we had to point out our drink needs, and the server didn’t communicate various details about how several of our dishes were going to be prepared before we ordered. Extremely disappointed, especially considering the top dollar price point that I’m paying for your food. The atmosphere, however, was decent, with the surrounding timeshare being somewhat nice. However, I will never be returning to this restaurant again if I return to Aruba again in the future, as there are far superior options to Azzuro. As a New Yorker, there are mixed reviews that I myself have used to pick Azzuro for my trip, plus considering the quality of Gianni’s, but if you are reading this and also are a north-east US resident staying in Aruba, I would recommend choosing another place as they prepare things very differently than we are used to. For some, it may be typical, but more than likely it’s not, and it will just be a disappointment. Please consider my review before choosing Azzurro Ristorante as your dining destination; if you have great, it’s of course your choice, but if you haven't, please do so before spending your hard-earned money, uninformed of what the place actually entails since the price point of this place is similar to that of NYC high-end restaurants, which are 100x better than this place. Please, please don’t come here; without knowing what you are expecting!!! Even Gianni’s...

We were excited to get a last minute reservation, even though it was a late seating as this place had been highly recommended to us. Upon arriving, first impressions of the atmosphere were positive. Like many places in Aruba it was open air outdoor seating. Sadly it was the worst dinner experience of our two week Aruba vacation. Staff was very inexperienced and inattentive. For example, requested oil for my bread (bread cost two dollars by the way) says I’ll be right back with that oil sir and oil never comes. Tried to order Caprese Salad from the menu. Was told “we don’t have Caprese”. Not “I’m so sorry, sir but we are out of xxxxxxx tonight”, just “we have no Caprese”. I’m not sure whether they were out of tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, or oil, but I have never been to an Italian restaurant that could not serve me a Caprese salad. Wife and i ordered their signature dinner, spaghetti Al Formaggio parmigiano. They brag that this is a “show stopping“ dinner experience. The intent is to have flaming cooking going on table side. The young woman that was described as the chef, pushed her cart behind my wife, so my wife had to turn around completely to see any of this. We were led to believe this was to be table side meal preparation. It was over in about 60 seconds. My wife ordered the shrimp add in, and I ordered the fruiti di mari add in. Shrimps were large and tasty, and the seafood was also nice. However, the add-ins arrived warm but not hot,within 60 seconds of us ordering them, and BEFORE the tableside cooking experience. I was left to wonder whether everything in the add ins had already been pre-cooked. We had a 10 PM reservation, but were seated 20 minutes early early which we initially thought was great. In hindsight, however, it became clear quickly that everyone just wanted to get the hell out of there. Management instructed the wait staff to begin removing table cloths and stacking chairs on tables, and turning out lights while we were halfway through our dinner (see attached pics). There were two other tables next to us also still eating at that time. By the time we left, we were only ones sitting at a table, had been there for a total of 60 minutes, and every chair in the place except ours was on a table top. I’ve never experienced such uncaring “ambience” at a restaurant. On the way out, we walked by the manager, wearing a pink shirt, who looked up without so much as a “thanks for coming. Have a nice night” $148 for dinner, 2 sangrias, and two decaf cappuccinos. Ive no idea how this restaurant earned 4.6 stars on Tripadvisor. We had been referred to this restaurant by a friend who hasn’t been to Aruba in a couple of years. Perhaps a lot has...

Horrible service at the bar, overpriced, mediocre food. My husband and I popped in around 8p.m., midweek, and felt fortunate to find seats at the bar, and plenty of tables available, despite being told upon inquiry that they were full with no reservations available until 10p.m. However, we soon realized why there were seats. While there were 3 people behind the bar, busily filling drinks, cleaning, or chatting with each other, not one bothered to greet us, As they made several passes near us to either drop a check or drinks off to couples beside us, they all avoided eye contact, not even bothering to acknowledge our presence with even a smile. After more than 5 minutes of watching with building annoyance, we were about to leave when the couple beside us engaged us in conversation. After at least 5 minutes of conversation, one of the bar tenders plopped down two menus in front of us without saying a word or even caring to ask if we would be dining or just having cocktails. Eventually we got his attention to give him an order, at which point he finally asked if we wanted a drinks and then brought us water. While waiting for our food we saw two other couples get up and leave after being ignored. When our food came, it was okay, but definitely overpriced. We ordered two escargots, a chicken parm and a salad. The escargot came quickly in a nice presentation and tasty sauce, but was barely warm. The chicken was two paper thin pieces covered with sauce and what looked like one slice of mozzarella cheese on each (no pasta included). The arugula salad was tasty but small portion. The only reason I gave this place one star was for the ambiance, and what I imagine would be amazing sunset dining. With so many other great places to dine in Aruba, I would avoid this place, at...