PUREBEACH — Restaurant in Aruba

My wife, daughter, and I stayed at the Divi Phoenix Beach Resort and we had the opportunity to eat here on multiple occasions and accordingly I feel comfortable in writing a review for the restaurant. More precisely, we had breakfast on two days and lunch on two days (that is, if you count nachos as lunch).

First, the positives: The location - It is excellent. It is right on the beach and in fact, it is possible to sit on some tables that are simply too windy that they will blow (almost) everything away. Another positive is the decent menu selection, especially for breakfast.

The negatives? The very-average taste for nearly everything we tried out and second, the higher-than-expected prices. Let me offer some examples: On the very first day that we arrived in Aruba, we had lunch at this restaurant. We ordered crispy chicken tenders for my daughter, calamari as appetizer for the table, and chicken wings for the two of us. The price of the chicken wings surprised me: 10 wings for $21! Also when it came to the taste of the food, the wings and chicken tenders were fine but the calamari left a lot to be desired. Calamari is by far the most common appetizer that my wife and I get at restaurants and here at Pure Beach, the calamari served were quite rubbery and tasted different than anything else I recall (and not in a good way).

Likewise, coming to the breakfasts, on both days that we ate here, I ordered the Divi's Complete Breakfast. If my memory serves me right, I paid $20 for juice, coffee, two slices of toast, two eggs, potatoes, and three small sausages. At the breakfast places that I frequent in the U.S. (suburbs of Philadelphia), a similar meal would cost me around $13-$14 and no more than $15. Therefore, to pay $20 for a "breakfast special" in a country where labor costs are significantly lower than the U.S. seems a bit much. If that were not enough, let me also note that a 15% service charge is automatically added to each bill, regardless of whether one finds the service up to expectations or not.

All in all, I don't see a reason why anyone who is not staying at Divi Phoenix Beach Resort would come out to eat at Pure Beach. But yes, if one is staying here at this hotel, it is hard to beat the convenience of eating at this restaurant, which is why we found ourselves as often as we did, even though we were unimpressed with the taste of the food and slightly taken aback by how...

The location and views were amazing (minus the swarm of pigeons that engulfed the table of leftover food and scraps next to our table as soon as the people left). Initially the service was good. She greeted us, nice small talk about the area and told us the “specials”. The “specials” were the burgers and the fish burgers (grouper) for $13, normally $19 which included a side of fries. We ordered 3 burgers and a fish burger. Not sure what the burger meat actually was and the grouper was absolutely non existent. I took 3 bites and never hit fish. Just the breaded stuff that was fried. No fish. The order of fries were bland, hard and no salt. The order of sweet potato fries were a soggy mess. The nice waitress was nowhere to be seen. She greeted us and took the order and we didn’t see her again until she brought the check (someone else brought out our food). Needed salt. Needed water refills. Needed to ask where the fish was in my non-fish fry burger. Then the check. The “specials” we got were just the same old burgers on the menu but they removed the fries from the meal (that was listed on the menu) so they could charge us separately for the fries and charge more for them. The old shell game with terrible food. Glad we are just visiting. Never going...

My wife and I went here tonight and both ordered the fish burger. The location, architecture, and grounds are gorgeous. The staff are kind and helpful. The menu description of the fish burger said that it was “crispy grouper.” When it arrived, it had a fillet inside that looked about the size of the chicken filet in a Chick-fil-A sandwich. The bun, lettuce, red onion, tomato, and fries were good. However, the “crispy grouper” burger was literally 90% breading and 10% fish in both my sandwich and my wife sandwich. My wife will confirm that this is no exaggeration. That was $19 per sandwich. In small type on the menu it says there is a 15% service fee. On the credit card signing page there was a “suggested gratuity“ starting at 18%. If the service fee does not go to the server, please do not call it a “service fee.“ If the service fee does go to the server, why is the suggested gratuity 18% when you’re already...