The Pen Restaurant & Terrace — Restaurant in Curaçao

The Pen restaurant located within the Avila Beach Hotel unfortunately misses the mark on pretty much every single aspect of hospitality. From painstakingly slow service, a general disinterest and complacency of staff, to sub-par food, and management that is nowhere to be seen, it manages to propose one of the most wildly disillusioned value propositions that I have ever encountered. This applies to both lunch, dinner and bar service.

The problems start at the very beginning when entering the restaurant. There is no hostess stand, no indication where to wait and no one welcoming the guests. This is not by definition a problem if staff are attentive in welcoming the guests to the restaurant. However, this mostly does not happen. So what ends up happening is that guests are uncomfortably standing by the entrance, not being welcomed whilst simultaneously not knowing if they should sit down or wait. And this experience repeats itself for every single lunch or dinner visit. It makes one feel unwanted and uncared for.

When one is eventually seated, it often takes a very long time before a waiter comes with a menu. Subsequently, it takes equally as long to order, get a drink, get the food…etc At times, it took twenty minutes for us just to get the menu for lunch. And that, while there were approximately 6 waiters serving 6 tables…there were hardly any guests. I would look around, and see waitstaff just daydreaming whilst I am attempting to make it apparent that we would like to have lunch. And that is exactly what is another major issue at the restaurant…there seems to be no apparent structure. Waiters do not seem to have sections. Instead, everybody just sort of runs around and serves whomever just happens to ask for service.

The waitstaff themselves appear to not have been properly trained whatsoever. They are not welcoming. They do not make eye contact, there is no greeting, no smile — no welcome to the restaurant at all. It constantly felt like they were dragging their feet as slowly as possible. Once our drinks were empty, not once was an attempt made to ask us whether we would like another glass of wine, or more water, or anything for that matter.

The food itself unfortunately also does not do much to mend the service issues. The quality is subpar, the food is not seasoned and is also presented very differently from day to day. Even the actual ingredients changed from one day to the next on some of the dishes…like the wraps for example. It were as if the dishes were different because someone else was working that day. We sampled approximately half the menu and we cannot say we enjoyed the food much.

Lastly it must be noted that management is nowhere to be seen. It appeared the only times any managers were by the restaurant and pool bar was to have their espresso, inspect the occasional champagne glass or two, and look at shift rosters.

To conclude, The Pen requires a complete overhaul — in management, staff training, service etiquette as well as cuisine.

I would recommend dining off-premises. There are several good restaurants in the vicinity of the Hotel. Tip: Try...

We are giving this restaurant a 2/5. We eagerly made reservations for a sunset dinner, but were quickly disappointed with nearly every aspect of the experience. Below we have listed a breakdown of the different aspects of the experience.

Reservations/parking: This was the best part of the night. There is ample parking at and near the Avila Beach Hotel. Additionally, it was quite easy to make reservations with their online module.

Hostess: We awkwardly waited near the hostess stand while the staff seemed to be in some sort of meeting. We were uncertain if were supposed to seat ourselves or if someone would come over to seat us. An employee (I assume one of the managers) from inside the Avila Beach Hotel came over to us to tell us that he was grabbing someone to seat us.

Service: It took our waitress nearly 10 minutes to bring us drinks and then another 45 minutes to bring us our meal. A different waitress came by and removed my husband's water glass before our meal even came, but did not offer him another glass. It took us several minutes to signal to our waitress to come over to get a refill on any of the beverages. I am not sure if the kitchen staff are slow or if the waitstaff lack good communication with the kitchen, but there is clearly some disconnect. Additionally, at the beginning the waitress failed to let us know that the dish that I wished to order, despite being printed on the menu, was actually unavailable.

Food: We got the Calypso Tuna for an appetizer. The fish itself was quite nice, however, it was drenched in a few different sauces that did not pair nicely together. The tuna would've been better off plain to just showcase the high-quality fish. For an entrée, my husband ordered the Beef Tenderloin medium rare. He received the Beef Tenderloin medium/medium-well. The piece of meat was quite small and very tough, and the mashed potatoes had absolutely no flavor. However, the two asparagus were good and the mushroom sauce was flavorful. I ordered the Mahi Mahi and it was terrible. It was so horribly overcooked that neither my husband nor I could eat it. Neither the pineapple salsa nor the pickled cabbage were crisp or refreshing. The couscous was, again, just another confusing blend of non-complimentary flavors.

Overall, unless if something were to seriously change here we do not recommend using your precious time on this amazing island at this restaurant. Go somewhere else to enjoy the view...

They only open for dinner at 6, but the day we arrived, we missed lunch and were very hungry at 5. We walked by and saw some staff standing at the entrance and asked if there was anyway we could get something to eat, and they let us sit down, warned us that some items may not be available yet but he would ask. We ordered, and everything came without much wait. It was so nice for them to be so accommodating to us. We ate there on another evening, and both times, it took a while to get the check or flag someone down for refills. But the open air space was lovely with views of the beach. The breakfast buffet we did every morning and it was great. They had a nice variety of fresh tropical fruits that changed each day, most other options were the same. It would have been nice to have made-to-order smoothie station, and larger glasses for...