BLT Steak — Restaurant in Aruba

My wife and I are well travelled both in the U.S. and internationally. We've experienced fine dining all over the world. As to Aruba, this is our 6th trip. This was our first trip to BLT.

Our rating is based on this being a high end steakhouse where you will easily spend $200 to $275 for 2 people to eat (this is WITHOUT any alcohol). We don't mind spending this much on dinner if the food and service are deserving. This was not the case with BLT.

First, let's talk about the good....

Atmosphere: Ambient, romantic and a beautiful setting. 4/5 stars.

Appetizer: Roasted Beat Salad with goat cheese substituted for the gorgonzola cheese it normally comes with. Beats came out diced with candied walnuts and a small serving of greens on top. It was good. 4/5 stars

Now...let's discuss the "not so good."

Mains: We both ordered the cowboy bone in Ribeye cooked medium rare. Side dishes are ala cart and we ordered truffle mack and cheese, creamed spinach and jalapeno mashed potatoes. Steaks and sides arrived promptly. My steak was cooked as ordered but my wife's steak was cooked to a medium well instead of medium rare. At $62 for one steak, the chef has to get it right. Both steaks appeared to be quality cuts but both lacked any meaningful flavor. We agree that meat should not have an "ingredients list" but it still should have some form of adequate seasoning, salt and/or smoke infusion. This steak was lacking the flavor we expected. At this price point, I should NEVER have to reach for the salt shaker in order to flavor up a steak. Also, there are 2 other steaks on their menu that are dry aged. Why not dry age the ribeyes? The steaks get 2/5 stars.

Sides: Jalapeno mashed potatoes and truffle mack and cheese were very bland. Creamed spinach was watery and had almost a fishy smell. (yes...fishy...)

Deserts: We ordered carrott cake with ginger ice cream and chocolate mousse with pistachio ice cream. Carrot cake was actually a muffin with the ice cream on top. It was decent but not great. I give it 3/5 stars. Chocolate desert was not good but the Pistachio ice cream that came with it was very good. 2/5 stars

Service: Started strong but ended weak. After our main meal was cleared from the table, we were never offered a desert menu and had to flag down a waiter to get one. After desert, we waited over 20 minutes for the check. 2/5 stars.

Value: we paid almost exactly $200.00 for 2 bone in ribeyes, 3 shared sides, 1 appetizer, 2 deserts and 2 bottled waters. Based off the above, we give the value a 1/5 stars.

Price Point: One of the most expensive steakhouses on the island but one of the most sub-par steaks, sides and deserts that we've had on the island. If you want to stay close to the Ritz and Marriott, we would recommend Ruth's Chris...hands down...over BLT. If you dont mind going into Oranjested, then El Gauchos has an excellent bone in ribeye and Barefoot has an excellent Tenderloin.

Overall, a very disappointing experience. There are numerous other options that you should try before spending...

My wife and I went to BLT steakhouse in Aruba our last night on the island, last Thursday 07/22/21. As we sat down on a high top table our waitress came over and ask if we wanted any cocktails. At this time our waitress seem pleasant. We then ordered our steaks, 2 filets and mash potatoes. As we waited for our steaks the waitress served us the best popovers we have ever had. Service was good up till this point. Our waitress was also the bartender this night. When our steaks arrived at the table they were only warm and very tough, fatty. The waitress never asked or told us about any steak sauce. So we tried to eat the steaks bare. The mash potatoes look like potato soup. The waitress never came back to the table to ask us anything or fill our empty glasses of water. I had to ask another waiter for water sometime later. Our waitress was too busy behind the bar instead of waiting on her customers. We then decided just to pay the bill which we had to wait a while for and was never offer any of the signature brownies. The service started off good but ended bad. The steaks weren’t good at all. We were really looking forward to this last night on the island dinner but was very disappointed. This restaurant was highly recommended by a close friend and a jeweler owner of the island. The price was high and the service low. We come to the island every year with our families, I would not recommend this restaurant. Maybe they had a bad night but the service was not up to par for a high...

We absolutely loved the Ritz Carlton Aruba. We were greeted with a warm welcome at BLT and seated at a table with the most beautiful view. Our waiter was most professional and caring. Also a great salesman. We started with some glasses of wine since our entrees we totally different. The Special Grouper came highly recommended. Also the aged Kansas Steak was suggested. After about a half hour our waiter returned apologetic that special Grouper wasn’t up to his standard and wouldn’t be served. My wife opted to order Crabcake as an entree. Our server offered to comp the Crabcake which I declined. Our Steak and Crabcake arrived with a cold, dry and tasteless sliced Steak with bone in. There were no sauces offered which may have given this “Dry Aged” very expensive steak something to redeem itself. The Crabcake seemed to be made of canned pasteurized backfin Crab. Since being in the Hotel and Restaurant industry most of my life I can only describe my experience here as visiting a “tourist trap”. We spent over $200. for 1 appetizer, 1 entree and 2 glasses of wine. Always learning from experience and...