The terrace

A restaurant with no roof, on purpose.

Tables on the boulevard in front of the Holiday Inn. The wind off the water, the light going gold at seven, the strip alive around you.

Service
Nightly, 5–11pmDinner only. Seven days.
Happy hour
Two for oneMixed drinks, at the bar.
Seating
Open terraceNo indoor room. Dress as you are.
Walk-ins
WelcomeAt the bar. WhatsApp is faster for a table.

01 — The room

There is no room.

Most of Palm Beach eats indoors under air conditioning, in a box with a view of another box. We put the tables outside, on the boulevard at Paseo Herencia, and let the island do the work that a dining room usually has to fake.

The trade wind comes off the water all evening and does not stop. It is the reason you can sit outside at eight o'clock in the Caribbean and be comfortable, and it is the reason the grill smells the way it does from three tables away.

The street is not something we put up with. It is the thing we sell.

Reviews mention the noise. They are right — there is traffic, there are people, and a boulevard on a Friday in Palm Beach sounds like a boulevard on a Friday in Palm Beach. If you want silence and a tablecloth, there are three hundred restaurants on this island that will sell you those. This is not one of them.

02 — The hour

Seven o'clock is the whole point.

The terrace faces west. Service starts at five, which means the first hour and a half of every evening is the sun going down over the water at the end of the street, and everything on the table turning the colour of the reduction.

This is not a metaphor and it is not a marketing line. Sunset in Aruba runs from about 18:17 in December to 19:06 in June, and the sky at the top of this site is computed from the real position of the sun over the restaurant right now. If it looks like golden hour on your screen, it is golden hour on the terrace.

03 — The rules

Come as you are. Bring the dog.

No dress code, because there is no room to dress for. Children are fine. Dogs are fine, and there is water for them. The bar takes walk-ins all evening and nobody will move you along.

Sit down at nine and stay until we close. The kitchen runs until eleven and the last table is not a problem — it is the point of having a terrace instead of a seating rotation.

The terrace, at service

Shot 01 — terrace, wide, 6:50pm. Tables lit, strip in soft focus behind.
Shot 12 — the grill at service, open flame, close.
Shot 14 — the bar, bottles lit, evening.
Shot 11 — the strip at blue hour, from a table, looking out.

What lands on the table

The five people come back for.

The whole menu

Surf & Turf

8oz black Angus steak, broccolini, sweet potato mash, red wine reduction.

$65

Lobster Thermidor

Lobster gratin with mustard and cheese, puttanesca pasta.

$75

16oz Ribeye

Crispy yuca, grilled vegetables, blue cheese sauce.

$58

Grilled Octopus

Tender grilled octopus with a smoky finish, red beet mash, crispy onions.

$18

Seafood Saffron Risotto

Local fish, calamari, shrimp and mussels.

$44