Spending four days at the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino and planning to settle into a routine of beach, pool, eat, repeat—with little interest in venturing beyond the resort for your next meal? This list is for you.
Set along Palm Beach’s stretch of high-rise resorts, the Hyatt sits roughly in the middle of the action, with the beach out back and restaurants, shops and nightlife just beyond the property. There’s no shortage of places to eat nearby, but you don’t necessarily have to go looking for them.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t venture out and try Aruba’s local food. Eating where the locals eat is one of the best ways to get to know an island, its people and its culture. But that’s a story for another day. This one is for anyone who has checked into a resort, settled into vacation mode and decided they can’t be bothered to leave the property for dinner. Or anyone curious about whether the food is worth staying in for.
With several restaurants and bars across the resort, there’s plenty to choose from. Think smoky sushi unveiled tableside at ShinSen, short rib tacos at Piccolo and a freshly pressed margarita at Alfresco. Here’s what to order when your biggest decision of the day is whether to head back to the beach or the pool.
Palms Beachside Grill
Set just off Palm Beach, Palms serves the resort’s breakfast buffet in the morning before switching to lunch later in the day. It’s close to both the beach and pool, which comes in handy when you’re hungry but not quite ready to give up your lounge chair.
With check-in later in the afternoon, your first meal may well be a late lunch. The spicy tuna bowl is a good place to start. Marinated tuna poke comes with jasmine rice, edamame, cucumber, shredded carrots and wakame, finished with sriracha aioli and furikake. It’s colorful, filling and particularly welcome after a flight to the island. Order a mojito alongside it. It’s nearly 90 degrees outside, after all.
The shrimp bowl takes a slightly different approach, with roasted shrimp, jasmine rice, avocado, black beans, pineapple salsa and cilantro-lime vinaigrette. The shrimp could use more seasoning, but the pineapple salsa helps, adding sweetness and acidity.
Come back the next morning, and perhaps every morning after, for the breakfast buffet. A made-to-order omelet and fresh pineapple are a solid start, but there are plenty of reasons to stray from your usual breakfast. There’s smoked salmon, freshly made Nutella crepes and the makings of a particularly effective DIY creation: a warmed flour tortilla wrapped around a single strip of thick-cut bacon.
That should be enough fuel for the demanding activities ahead: lying under an umbrella, dipping into the ocean, lying by the pool and dipping into that water, too. Repeat until your stomach grumbles.
Trankilo Adult Pool
At Trankilo, the adults-only pool, lunch comes to you. Food and drinks from Palms Beachside Grill are delivered directly to loungers and cabanas, so there’s little reason to interrupt your afternoon.
Spend enough time alternating between the infinity-edge pool and your lounge chair, perhaps blissfully unaware of the sunburn developing, and eventually something colorful catches your eye. A server walks by carrying a cocktail with layers of orange and red. Suddenly, you want whatever is in that glass.
It’s a Tequila Sunrise, although the Long Island Iced Tea is another option if you’re after something stronger. Both go down easily while drying off from a swim beneath the palm trees. Add chicken wings, available with several sauces including sweet chili, and thin-cut fries—the kind fellow fry connoisseurs will appreciate. Everything arrives in takeout containers, which makes eating in a swimsuit considerably easier.
Piccolo
For a change of pace from poolside dining, head to Piccolo, the resort’s contemporary kosher-certified restaurant. The menu ranges from shareable starters and soups to premium cuts of beef, with plenty to explore beyond the grill. An open-concept kitchen adds to the atmosphere, while indoor seating and an open-air courtyard give you a choice of where to settle in for the evening. Portions are generous, so arrive hungry or bring someone willing to split a few things.
Start with a Coco Kiss if coconut and sweet tropical cocktails that sneak up on you are your thing.
Whatever else you order, don’t skip the short rib tacos. They’re tiny but easily among the best bites at the resort. Shredded short rib is tucked into crisp taco shells with barbecue sauce and garlic aioli. One bite sends the meat and sauce oozing out, requiring a quick lean over the table so none lands on your lap—or worse, the floor, where it would sadly go to waste. Two bites and they’re gone. Ordering another round is tempting.
The caesar salad is a good follow-up. It isn’t drowning in dressing, the lettuce still has a good crunch and the croutons have a buttery bite. Less obvious in tropical weather is the mushroom soup, but hear us out. Hot soup might sound like an odd vacation order, but so does pizza by the pool. Both work.
If those tacos leave you wanting more short rib, there’s an entrée for that. The short rib comes with mashed potatoes and carrots, and the meat pulls apart easily with a fork. Be warned, though: the tacos may have spoiled you. The barbecue-and-garlic-aioli combination edges out the sauce on the entrée, although that’s a matter of personal preference.
Finish with the chocolate layer cake and vanilla ice cream. After an already indulgent meal, the deeply chocolatey cake might be overkill, but when on vacation, what diet?
Staff also recommended the chicken flatbread, beef merguez, prime cowboy steak and vegan ice cream. You can’t eat everything in one sitting, so keep those in mind for a return visit.
ShinSen
Aruba isn’t the first place that comes to mind when thinking about sushi, but the island’s dining scene stretches well beyond local fare. At ShinSen, one staff member went as far as calling it “the best sushi on the island.”
Start with the popcorn shrimp, coated in a puffy, golden batter and a sticky glaze scattered with sesame seeds. There’s enough sauce to get your fingers messy, but not so much that the shrimp disappears underneath it. Staff also recommended the Tuna crispy rice and cucumber salad as starters.
As for the rolls, these are the ones you’ll want on your table. The Aruba roll starts with a familiar combination of spicy salmon and cucumber, then adds more salmon, mango, jalapeño, sweet soy and a generous topping of crispy potato. The mango adds sweetness, the jalapeño brings some heat, and the potato gives each piece a delicate crunch. It’s a lot to fit into one roll, but the ingredients don’t compete for attention.
The A5 wagyu roll is all about the beef. Rich and buttery, the Wagyu practically melts in your mouth. You might worry that the asparagus would overpower such a luxurious cut, but the two get along just fine. The asparagus adds a slightly earthy contrast, crispy onions bring crunch, and the creamy truffle sauce makes an already rich roll even more indulgent.
The fire roll comes with a little tableside theater. Wrapped in foil, it’s torched before being opened to release a cloud of steam and smoky aromas. Inside are akami (lean tuna), salmon, kani tampico and avocado, finished with yuzu mayo, sriracha, sweet soy and furikake. The smokiness carries through into each bite, while the creamy avocado and yuzu mayo soften the heat from the sriracha. The sweet soy rounds things out with a little sweetness.
For dessert, the black coconut ice cream arrives in jet-black scoops that look almost too dramatic to eat. Despite its unusual appearance, the flavor is unmistakably coconut. It’s a surprisingly simple finish to a meal that involved a little tableside fire.
As for whether ShinSen really serves the best sushi on the island? That would require eating a lot more sushi to determine. There are worse assignments.
Ruinas del Mar
For a birthday or another occasion that calls for a proper dinner out, book a table at Ruinas del Mar. On one evening alone, four birthdays were being celebrated, so clearly a few other people had the same idea.
Ask for a table near the koi pond, where the fish provide some entertainment between courses. The name translates to “Ruins by the Sea,” and the restaurant takes inspiration from Aruba’s historic Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins. Stonework, waterfalls and a koi-filled lagoon surround the open-air dining area. The menu draws on Caribbean and Mediterranean influences, with seafood, steaks and lamb among the options.
Start with the grilled octopus. The edges have a nice char, but the meat stays tender rather than turning chewy, which is always a risk with octopus. It comes with crispy potatoes, shiso greens, truffle mayonnaise and gremolata. The potatoes bring crunch, while the truffle mayonnaise adds richness and the gremolata provides a fresher contrast.
Remember when Dua Lipa put pickles and jalapeños in her Diet Coke and had everyone questioning her taste buds? The grilled salmon isn’t nearly that adventurous, but the combination might still make you pause. Salmon and sour cream mashed potatoes are familiar enough. Throw in clams and saffron, though, and things get interesting. The saffron brings an earthy aroma to the buttery sauce, while the clams add a briny contrast to the creamy potatoes. It’s a salmon dinner you might actually find yourself talking about the next day.
Dessert sticks to a more familiar pairing: pear and pistachio. But it’s how Ruinas del Mar serves its pear & pistachio that makes it memorable. Baked to order, it takes about 20 minutes and arrives with brown sugar-and-cinnamon roasted pears, buttery puff pastry, caramel, chopped pistachios and pistachio gelato. The warm pears and flaky pastry are particularly good with the cold, nutty gelato, which slowly melts into everything beneath it. Order it before you’ve finished your main course. Twenty minutes is a long wait when you’re already thinking about dessert.
Staff also suggested the miso sea bass, cured tuna, Ruinas risotto and lobster bisque. Consider those reasons to come back.
Pizzaiolo
Piping-hot pizza on an 87-degree day might sound questionable, but try telling that to a kid who’s spent the last three hours racing down the water slide, making new friends and refusing to get out of the Activity Pool. By now, they’re starving, and the last thing anyone needs is a poolside meltdown over lunch.
Luckily, Pizzaiolo is nearby, serving pizzas you can take back to your lounge chair. No need to change out of wet swimsuits or convince everyone to sit still at a restaurant. Open the box, hand out a few slices and enjoy a rare moment when everyone is too busy eating to complain. Have a slice yourself. You’ve earned it.
You can also take your pizza to the beach, though that comes with a different set of hungry customers. The pigeons and seagulls have apparently developed a taste for pizza, too. Leave the box unattended while you take another dip in the ocean, and you might return to find the birds have helped themselves.
Kadushi Juice Bar
After a few days of restaurant meals and cocktails, something cold and fruity, sans the booze, might sound appealing.
At Kadushi Juice Bar, the resort recommends the papaya in paradise smoothie, or an açaí dragon bowl if you’re after something you can eat with a spoon. It’s an easy stop between the beach and pool when you’re hot, thirsty and not ready for another full meal.
Alfresco Bar
Set just off the resort’s open-air lobby, Alfresco has cushioned lounge chairs, shaded seating and views of palm trees, gardens and cascading water features. In the evening, as the lighting softens, it’s an inviting place to settle in with a cocktail.
You’ll pass the bar repeatedly on your way to dinner, the pool or back to your room. By the second or third day, after seeing enough people enjoying drinks, you may start wondering why you haven’t stopped.
One reason to pull up a chair is the fresh-pressed cocktail experience. Choose from a selection of ingredients, and the bartender presses them fresh before mixing your drink.
You could experiment, but a classic margarita is a good test of the ingredients. The freshly pressed lime comes through bright and tart, without the sugary taste of a premade mixer getting in the way. It’s a familiar drink, but a particularly good version of it.
After passing Alfresco half a dozen times, you may find yourself wishing you’d stopped sooner.
Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino
J.E. Irausquin Blvd 85, Palm Beach, Aruba
