Sole Mare Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Aruba

My wife (who is Italian and loves all kinds of Italian cuisine) and I had high hopes for this place, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to expectations.

The service started out shaky our waiter seemed nervous and had trouble taking our order. We later found out he hadn’t written our entrees down at all, so another server had to come back and ask us again. That meant a delay in getting our main courses, though the portion sizes here are so big that it wasn’t a huge issue timing-wise.

For appetizers, my wife had a salad with balsamic dressing, and I had pasta fagioli. The pasta fagioli was decent not amazing, but good and the portion was huge. My wife’s salad was another story: the balsamic dressing didn’t taste like balsamic at all. She said it was almost chocolate-like, and I agree after tasting it myself. She only took a couple of bites.

My entrée was lobster risotto, priced around $40–$50. It was a large serving but tasted like a mid-grade dish not bad, but not worth the price. I’d rate it a 4/10 at best. My wife’s entrée wasn’t much better, though I can’t even recall what she ordered because it left so little impression.

Throughout the night, much of the waitstaff seemed more interested in chatting among themselves than checking on tables. After finishing our entrees and getting our to-go boxes, we sat for about 20 minutes before I finally had to flag someone down for the check.

Overall: Large portions, but the quality of both food and service just doesn’t justify the prices. The ambiance was okay, nothing special. We won’t...

We met a lady on the beach who raved about this place, so ; we made reservations but not needed; nobody else was there. We ordered drinks and fried calamari appetizer It was absolutely the worst we'd ever had. They were like rubber bands coated with a thin paste and fried. They were sent back and not replaced. A Caesar salad was just ordinary. My wife had Pollo al Limone (Chicken breast with light lemon sauce) which was edible but most was left on the plate. I had Scampi alla Fra’ diavolo-(Jumbo shrimps sautéed in slightly spiced tomato sauce over a bed of spaghetti). The shrimp were like rubber erasers; the sauce probably from a jar and pasta overcooked. I don't know why, but I didn't send it back. So I carried it back and little late threw it out. All this for about $133 (service charge thoughtfully added to the bill.) Never again! We should have walked out at the calamari and gone down the street to Wacky Wahoo's! Sole Mare gets one star because I can't post this with zero stars. Note that almost all of the great reviews are from "local guides". I wish I...

Blech. Don’t waste your time or money. So many other places to eat on the island, even within a short distance, that have tastier food that isn’t accompanied by exorbitant prices! The pasta here isn’t fresh but we were charged like nonna was making it herself in the back. Apps - grilled octopus (came with hummus - oddest flavor combo but was the best thing we had, although that isn’t saying much) and sautéed calamari with garlic butter sauce (like eating rubber bands dipped in unsalted butter). Mains - cacio e Pepe with sausage and mushroom (sauce tasted like cream of mushroom soup) and spaghetti formaggio (not done at table side, sauce tasted canned, everything was salty). Skipped dessert cause there was a gelato place down the road that looked (and was) delicious, and who wants to take a chance on dessert at a place where everything else was subpar and tasteless? Server was tired and short when asked questions. Entire bill for two apps, two mains, and one glass of wine was $165. Wish I could have thrown it up and gotten...