Zen's Bar & Cafe — Restaurant in Bonaire

First, it is a given that every restaurant worth visiting in Bonaire means expensive prices and slow service. Yet Zen's Bar & Café is really special when it comes to slow service – they add unique rudeness that is bar none. We were the restaurant’s first dinner guests for our visit – which was postponed two days because the restaurant was inexplicably closed. The restaurant was quite hot, and the staff overheard our complaints to one another so turned on two AC units . . . one of which they turned off only a few minutes later although the place was still quite warm. The two sushi items we ordered were good, but it took quite a long time to get them . . . two glasses of water long, in fact. For the first refill, we had to take our glasses to bar to fill them. Keep in mind that at this point, we were the ONLY guests at the restaurant. I watched as two servers stood behind the bar, chatting with one another and munching on something from under the bar. By the time we needed yet another water refill, we had to flag down a server who had just poured water for the second restaurant guest . . . who had to flag her down himself. When we finally got our check, the server ran my card three times unsuccessfully so I gave her another card. Then the second server came over and said, “We don’t take American Express. That’s why your card didn’t go through.” Admittedly, I was hot, thirsty and impatient so perhaps I shouldn’t have said, “Well that would have been good to know before you ran my card three times.” Her response was, “Well, you should have seen the sign on the door.” For the record, I suppose the “absence” of a sign about credit cards was supposed to be a sign. So here’s my recommendation – if you just have to have sushi, are willing to pay a lot, and have no problem with attitude, then go for it. As for me, I hope you don’t reward this kind of service with...

So we arrive at 7.30 with a party of 7 and take a seat and order our sushi platters. At this point we've been there for like 10 to 15 mins and got our drink orders. Other people start coming and take there seets. We ordered our food after like 20 mins and the waiting game started.

The other people also seemed to have ordered sushi. We noticed that they got their food earlier. We thought it was maybe because we are bigger party the food would take longer. Little did we know it took over an hour and a half before we got the first 2 dishes. The other people ate, paid and left by the time we got the 3rd dish on the table.

We finally received all the food but spent over 2 hours in a restaurant where each dish was like 10 to 15 mins apart so by the time the first person was done eating the second could start....

Really disappointed in the service because the waitres only came by once to take our orders...

That one star is dedicated to the taste of the food. Because everything else...

Our group had dinner at Zen's one night while in town. I was a bit confused with several things:

1. There is a large bar, ~1/2 the total area of the restaurant, and it's not separated from the dining area. Music a touch too high, and a massive tv distracting.
2. The menu was 7, 8 pages? Sushi, nigiri, sashimi. Then pho, steaks, rice bowls, fish, lasagna, etc.
3. Sushi was made in the back room - I particularly consider sushi making part of the ambience/price of the rolls.
4. Our bill was in Euros, though they then asked for USD when we paid.

Our drinks took a while, then never were refilled. Zero visits after drinks and dinners were dropped on the table. My dinner was tasty, quality and sizing was good. Trying to catch the eye of one of the servers for the check was...