Chalet Suisse — Restaurant in Oranjestad (city)

If I could leave zero stars I would. A disgrace for an Arubian restaurant that many tourists give “hype” to. Been coming to Aruba since 2001 and have dined at the best restaurants on the island. Save yourself the time and disappointment and go somewhere else. As an individual who has spent most of their life in the restaurant and hospitality business, I have high expectations, especially when I’m paying NYC prices in Aruba. From the moment we seated at 7pm, we were rushed. A party of six we were; within 3 minutes of sitting our server asked us if we were ready to put our entrees in. Umm what about drinks? Can I look over the wine menu so I can spend $125+ on a bottle of wine and see how trained your staff is on serving wine? Order a bottle of Jordan, server spills while pouring my moms glass, doesn’t clean nor offer to clean up the mess made. Appetizers get ordered, jumbo shrimp cocktails. Jumbo? These things were medium at best. Served warm, NOT ice chilled. And sitting on a glass filled with lettuce and cocktail sauce I felt like I was eating a salad with cocktail sauce dressing. And the duck for an entree; dry as anything. The service was one of the worst trained services I’ve ever encountered. Reaching over my guests without saying excuse me or pardon me. Expecting me and my guests to help clear the table for them, pass me this pass me that. What a joke. The service at Smokey Joe’s is 100 times better than this unprofessional brigade of nonsense. I’m on vacation to be served, not help you serve myself. An hour and 17 minutes total was this dinner. Now you see how rushed out we were. An hour and 17 minutes of pain. Couldn’t wait to walk out the door and never go back. Again, highly advise not to waste your time. There are so many places on the island where your money goes well spent, Chalet Suisse is not...

This restaurant manages to both be stuck in the past and try too hard. The interior does have a nice swiss charm but it all looks like it's from the 50s. The entire meal felt like it was a cheap production with a giant wait staff of which most of them seemed to be doing menial tasks (although props to the water guy Kelvin for being on top of things). At one point during the meal we were asked if we wanted a family photo taken for $7 which made the whole thing feel cheap (which it definitely wasn't). Almost as soon as we sat down we were being pressured into ordering drinks and the entire meal felt rush with our appetizers and entrees being all served within about 30 mins (we were a party of 11). The wait staff mostly felt disinterested in us as most of them brought whatever it is they were in charge of and immediately left. The food was ok for the most part but certainly nothing worthy of the high price tag. Most of it also felt like it was stuck in the 80s with a lot of heavy cream sauces that left you feeling lethargic and gross. For some reason after our entrees were served the service crawled to a snail's pace as the deserts took about an hour for us to order and receive. They were also very underwhelming as the strudel seemed like a pillsbury product and the gelato was freezer burnt. The list of complaints continues but includes such highlights as the wait staff constantly bumping into one of our parties chairs every 5 mins, a dish claiming it had scallops yet only containing a single scallop that was roughly the size of a fingertip, and a waitress giving each person at our table numbers and using that as the system to take our drink orders (of course when #2 wanted something different to drink it through off the entire system). Overall the meal was wildly overpriced for an experience that was sub...

Experience - Nov 19, 2021

Food selection related to specialty: This restaurant doesn’t have a specialty but their menu has Swiss and Dutch dishes. However, their chefs specials seem to be Seafood/European inspired.

Quality of the food: We had the Pea Soup, Stuffed Grouper and Rack of Lambs. Would we get those same dishes ever again? Absolutely.

Drink selection: they have an extensive wine and cocktail menu.

Main course selection: They have a variety of steaks and seafood to choose from. You’ll find something.

Provides free appetizers (Amuse-bouches): Yes. Garlic and dinner rolls, served warmed with butter.

Service: very good. Mind you the restaurant was busy and we still felt like we had a waiter all to ourselves.

Interior design: boring. Curtains and lamps. Big bottles of wine in corners and a table light/flower.

Exterior design: nothing social media worthy.

Ambiance: kind of crowded with tables and waiters everywhere. It’s pretty loud in there. Would not recommend for a date.

Cleanliness: clean.

Value for money: 3/5 only because I’ve been to fancier and cheaper restaurants.

Reservations recommended: the restaurant was very busy yet we were able to walk in without waiting or reservation.

Cool factor: they serve wine from a 1200s (year) winemaker. Read it in...