Twist of Flavors Restaurant — Restaurant in Oranjestad (city)

I don’t often write reviews, good or otherwise, but I am compelled to do so tonight. Warning, lengthy review. We just left Twist of Flavors after a late-night meal. Ambiance is lovely with seating both indoors and outside. The menu is decent, though for me I had a difficult time choosing something. Prices are mid-range for Aruba. I chose the kids’ meal, grilled shrimp with fries and a small salad and my husband ordered the grouper sandwich.

I should have asked to swap my fries for a vegetable or more of the side salad that came with it, but I thought I would indulge. Sadly, they were a bit too oily for my taste and stomach, so I let them be. They were served in what appeared to be a miniature fry basket, I’m not quite sure, so perhaps that should have been my clue. All said, I could not eat them. The shrimp was delicious, lightly seasoned grilled shrimp. No complaints there, but I only had one or two fries, and my stomach is still unsettled even as I type this just shy of an hour later. Unfortunately, my husband’s meal did not delight. It looked appetizing enough: a large piece of breaded fish on a roll. He too had a side order of fries. He found them oily as well, but he continued eating them as he was hungry, I guess. He ate almost half of the sandwich and then realized that it was not sitting well with his stomach. He asked the waitress if he could have it removed from the bill. She sent out her manager to discuss, who essentially denied the request for a refund. We truly understood the manager’s position, but all things considered, she could have handled it better. She was snarky and rude, where professionalism and grace would have been the preferred approach. She told him he should have said something sooner, which in principle, we accept, but as I said, she snapped and was quite rude. Further, she didn’t fully assess the situation. Firstly my husband isn’t a “small” guy. He didn’t eat half a sandwich and stop eating because he was full and wanted to get his meal for free. He was visibly dissatisfied, and anyone with common sense could see he was still hungry and frustrated. Also, some guys eat a little faster, and/or take larger bites, so that’s how he got through more of the sandwich before realizing it was not agreeing with him. Second clue, we were drinking water, and she offered to comp him a drink. Hubby is muscular, athletic in appearance, and was drinking water. Clearly a drink was not going to cut it.

Clue number three: my fries were sitting there basically untouched. I had removed the basket from my plate and set it aside. Obviously, something was wrong there, but she was too busy trying to be important and in charge to notice.

Thirdly, it was the end of the night. Would it really have broken the bank to offer him something else to eat to compensate? Perhaps a full refund was out of the question, and too much to expect, and we concede that. However, she had numerous options. She could have offered a reduction in price, half perhaps. A smart manager with good customer service skills would have apologized for the inconvenience and offered a voucher, and suggested we return so as to give them another chance to do better. But her best was a snarky, “you should have said something sooner”. Basically, your loss, if there is nothing else, be on your way. Some young folks should learn a thing or two about customer service before working these types of jobs with the public. Perhaps it was just the end of a long, rough day, who knows, but do better, be better. Nonetheless, my hope is this review will resonate so she can adjust accordingly in the future.

Despite it all, we left a tip, which we’re sure she ended up pocketing as the other two waitresses (both quite pleasant) who started with us had gone for the evening. Two wrongs never...

Ate at this restaurant Nov 30th and was let down by the entire service team. Our party of 4 experienced multiple issues and the service team failed to resolve any of them after being notified of the problems.

Upon getting to our table and ordering drinks, our server returned to the table 15 minutes later to inform us our drinks were on the way but she would take our food orders in the interim. After an additional 5 minutes our drinks arrived however mine was incorrect. The served returned 10 minutes later with bread and at which point I notified her of the error. She took the drink to the bar and I watched the servers and bartender sample the drink but couldn't confirm the drink was remade as she returned and dropped the drink then left before I had the chance to re taste (it was incorrect again).

Another 15 minutes passed (we started timing everything at this point because we knew something was up) and our server returns to inform us our order didn't get sent through to the kitchen so it'll be at least another 15-20 minutes. When the meals finally arrived our friends steak with peppercorn sauce arrived without the peppercorn sauce but rather a demi sauce (our served had to go back to he kitchen to inquire what the sauce waste). She said they were out of peppercorn sauce but the chef could make whatever sauce he wanted instead (just not a peppercorn sauce evidently).

I ordered a tuna salad and my tuna was tougher than a day old steak. When our server came back to the table to check on us she realized she forgot to get the drinks our friends ordered when she brought the mains so she had to hurry back to the bar before I could get her attention. Upon her return with the drinks she sprinted away faster than Usain Bolt, full ignoring my "excuse me".

If our server returned to our table I would have informed her of the issues but she sent another server to clear our table. I informed the new server the tuna was awful (I left 90% of it on the plate) and yet surprise, they did nothing about it.

The whole experience was a comedy of errors and I wouldn't recommend this place. Two members of our party had good meals so hopefully your experience is...

Originally I was very excited when I learned our group that was visiting Aruba would be dining at Twist of Flavors Restaurant. I had heard so many great things about it. Unfortunately the only wonderful things I can write about my experience is the ambience was great, the people I was with were fantastic, and the 360 photo we did was awesome! Our reservation was for a group dinner at 8:00 pm. We were seated in a timely manner and it was a 3-course meal planned for our group. Order was taken with no problem. I ordered a Coca Cola with very little ice. It arrived and was flat. A friend also ordered the same but with no ice. Hers also tasted flat. Next the ice water comes. The server spilled water on me twice and spilled an alcoholic beverage on the person sitting on my right. At this point it's 10:00 pm and my dinner has not arrived. I stopped the server and asked her the status of my dinner, especially since the restaurant closes as 10:30 pm. She finally brings it out and the cheese is burnt on it! The server had the gall to try to convince me that it looked fine and wasn't burnt. I know what burnt cheese looks and smells like, come on! I had told her I'm allergic to cole slaw. Would you believe that was on the same plate?!? I instructed her to take it back and have the chef fix it. She brings the same plate back with the cheese removed and the cole slaw still on the same plate! I refused to eat it. Ended up waiting for everyone else to finish eating so we could leave the restaurant. I had to make do with ordering room service when I returned to my hotel suite. What an awful experience at this restaurant! See final photo to view the burnt cheese. SMH I understand things happen and I'm usually the person looking for the positive in any situation. This dinner experience was a total bust! Especially...