Xixon Spanish Restaurant — Restaurant in Aruba

My family and I had dinner here one night during our vacation and this is the best place to have tapas and paella in Aruba. The hostess was very welcoming, and our waiter Frankie was super attentive and has a wonderful sense of humor! He described the menu to us and recommended which tapas we should get. We ordered the Rabo de Toro and the Callos a La Madrileña. The Rabo de Toro is an oxtail tapa served over crispy potatoes, and it was delicious! And the juices from the oxtail gave even more flavor to the crispy potatoes. My sister and I shared the Callos a La Madrileña tapa, which is like a stew with chorizo and beef tripe. We’ve had tripe in Europe and wanted to try it again, and this tapa is a must try because the flavors were amazing! Order this tapa if you wanna try tripe for the first time or if you like tripe and want have it again! Since we were a table of 4, we ordered 2 orders of Paella Mixta. My parents shared one and my sister and I shared the other one. The paella was great! The rice had a great texture and the seafood tasted sooo fresh! Next time around I’ll probably get a paella with only seafood because I like my paella with a seafood-y flavor. The Paella Mixta has a combination of calamari, mussels, clams, shrimp, chicken, and pork. For those who like seafood, I’d recommend a seafood Paella. This place totally satisfied our craving for authentic Spanish Paella, and we’ll definitely make a stop here again during our next...

Sorry to say but we had a horrible experience here. Looked so forward to eating here but even though the staff was friendly they had no idea what they were doing. 5 of the 6 of us ordered cod to be told 10 minutes later that they did not have any cod. We opted for ordering Tapas dishes instead. They were fairly tasty but I still didn’t get the croquettes that I ordered, they gave me the wrong ones. The food came out one at a time with 10 minutes in between. The one person who ordered pork tenderloin medium at the very beginning still had not received his dinner over 1 hour and 1/2 hours later. When he finally did get his meal it appeared to us to be a small piece of maybe beef brisket that was well done and impossible to eat. The side dish was also not what he ordered. I read so many good reviews but something went extremely wrong for us and for the table of 6 next to us. Will not ever be recommending this place...

Decided to walk along the "strip" and make an impromptu decision about dinner. We didn't have to go too far. In the plaza (where Iguana Cantina is located) there is a new Spanish restaurant called Xixon. We are fans of Spanish Tapas (this is Spanish from Spain, not Latin America), so we said what the heck, let's give it a try. We've been coming to Aruba annually for 15 years and have our favorite restaurants but love to try to something new. We were not disappointed. My wife had the gazpacho, but it was really authentic Salmorejo from Spain, a cold soup of tomatoes and garlic. We shared a number of other Tapas plates complimented with a really nice bottle of Rioja! I am a huge fan of Gambas al Ajillo (Shrimp in garlic sauce), but this was among the best (if not the best) I ever had. The addition on a red chili pepper wad awesome. The tortilla with chorizo was also amazing. Definitely...