Grand Café 'Gouverneur De Rouville' — Restaurant in Curaçao

My wife and I were excited about this place from the review we read. Through my hotel (Renaissance )we booked a reservation on the Terrace of the restaurant to catch the sunset 3 days ahead. We had confirmation from our hotel and we called the restaurant to confirm it was on the Terrace of the restaurant. On the day of we arrived 15 min early lol because we know the place was busy and we wanted to make sure we have our seat. Upon coming in we ran in toKate ,the manager, of the shift , we told her we have reservation, she took us directly to the garden side. We had explained to her we made a reservation on the Terrace of the restaurant and she quickly pushback by saying “oh they are all reserved” (without checking anything). Then we told her we made reservation through the hotel for the Terrace and again she pushed back with “there is communication issue between hotel and restaurant “ again without looking to verify. And then we told we called the restaurant to verify and then she takes us to the table by the balcony facing the Terrace. We didn’t want to make any issue out of it, so we continued with our dinning. As we are ordering our food we noticed table empty on the terrace lol (what are the odds that was the table we reserved) so we asked our waiter if we can move to that table unattended. The waiter asked Kate for permission, and she denied the request, her reasoning it was reserved . The entire time we sat there dined watching that table on the Terrace empty. What did it for me was , Kate was walking around other folks who were dinning if they want to eat on the Terrace. The food was mostly fantastic but customer service like what Kate displayed gave a negative experience for my wife and I. It’s not about the Terrace but its the principle. Kate was definitely “gate keeping” who gets to sit on Terrace of the restaurant or not and it looked like certain demographics mattered to her. That being said, the food was delicious and our waiter who was excellent and knowledgeable of the food on the menu took care of us very well. But this one star is solely the treatment we experienced from Kate. I think training on diversity and cultural inclusion is needed; every paying customer is equal plain and simple....

And then hereby the official review of the beloved gouverneur. We went in unbiased as we really didn’t want to get our hopes up. What follows is an objective review of the establishment.

All the loving reviews are from people who simply enjoy their holiday and food from a nice location. The food itself is not spectacular in anyway, even a bit old fashioned. We had the geen egg steak, which was ok (requested med rare, which was not the case though). The local fish of the day was boring and not cooked properly. (The skin was soggy and not crispy) and the home made apple pie was misspelled. Should have said, home made 4 days ago.

Portion size was good, additional fries were lukewarm. And the mayonaise cheap factory made.

The service was really quick, but lacked personal touch and knowledge on the food. I asked how many grams the steak would come in, they responded with; “it’s just a lapje vlees”

The wine was expensive and really like any other you can find in your local pub, not good.

The atmosphere on the restaurant was good en vibrant. And of course stunning views over the waterfront.

All in all it is just another big tourist restaurant with a mediocre food(although better than real tourist traps) on a good location.

Would I recommend anyone to go there? Yes, if you do not care about good food or service it is a nice but expensive place to visit.

Never ever will I send someone there for the amazing food experience that some reviews...

Skip it, I wish I had! There are so many truly exceptional restaurants on the island, and this wasn’t one of them. It was an extremely disappointing dining experience on my last night on the island after having countless unforgettable meals during my time in Curaçao.

Pros: +Great Service-our waitress was very sweet +Cool Motown bar-I love Motown ❤️ +Beautiful building with a lot of history +Goat cheese salad was delicious

Cons: -Unpleasant ambience listening to the Cupid shuffle, and other obnoxious songs, being blasted across the water from an outdoor bar dj -Aside from the salad, the food was all just okay. Nothing I would ever order again or miss when thinking back on my travels here. -Rice on the combination dish was extremely dry -Stoba on the combination dish was salty -Risotto was very heavy and didn’t have great flavor

From food trucks to high end restaurants, all across the island, I have left every food experience grinning from ear to ear with satisfaction and I’ve been genuinely impressed by the quality of food and service, except for here. I left genuinely disappointed that we spent our last night eating here, and also perplexed as to why this restaurant has as high of a rating as it does. I almost never write reviews, but I was so sad about being misled here that I had to share for...