OK .. as a local, here are our “goto” places for those interested, everyone has their favorites.
For Pizza, Rumba and PasaBon are both good. Rum Runners if you like thin crust. On Sundays Sebastian’s has Pizza and Pasta only night,, both made fresh on site. Pizza is funny as everyone has their own style and favorites.
In you are wanting Chinese, our goto is always Lings with a large selections of dishes and ingredients.
In Playa (Kralendij): Divers Diner (inexpensive), Karel’s (best views), Patagonia (Argentinian Beef), and Capricios (Italian) are our regular haunts. And by no means forget Gios for the best gelato on island.
Between 2 Buns is still the #1 place for lunch with indoor and outdoor seating, an extensive menu and phenomenal local Bonairian Staff. The latter is important to us, while many places utilize young Dutch interns (short term students in hospitality) we prefer the places that use locals where possible.
Donner Station in Hato as mentioned - excellent middleeast wraps and breads.
South of town, we use to like The Beach (@ Windsock). A beautiful place on the water that is easily overlooked. You can even take your gear in, dive right there, come up and lay your gear by your table and enjoy lunch. Sadly their service has gotten very poor ( slow) and the main dish selections pricey and limited. I’m not sure what the owner is trying to prove at this point - how to screw up a once nice place, maybe?
People do like Ocean Oasis and while we didn’t like it at first, and at one point they started charging for tap water NOPE …. We should try it again with new ownership. Just avoid it on cruise ship days.
At Bachelors Beach is Kong Burger and on Te Amo Beach is Kite City. These are both excellent food trucks with great teams keeping the food fresh and tasty. Cash is generally needed at these venues.
At Sorobon, where the Windsurfers ”do their thing” are a couple beach bars for good food and drink. We absolutely love Sebastian’s Beach with a great team and good food. Just avoid it on cruise days as it is sadly beyond packed with guests from the ships.
One last recommendation for this evening, by all means try to stop in at Posada Para Mira located north in Rincon With beautiful views of the valley, the wilder east coast, and local life. While you can be tame and have beef, chicken, and fish - for those adventurous eaters have the goat (stew or soup) or iguana (stew or soup) - both are excellent.
UPDATE: one important note, remember this is a Dutch Caribbean island where the first language spoken is either Papiamento or Dutch depending on the individual, English will be a second language spoken by almost everyone you meet. In restaurants special orders may not be clearly understood, enjoying the meal as prepared is always best, you aren’t at your local burger joint, favorite pizza place, or neighbors bar. Once done your meal and ready to leave, you’ll need to ask for the check and the card reader (if paying by plastic) as most restaurants don’t automatically bring you the check and force you to leave to “move tables” quickly. Restaurant hours vary and some are only open for dinner, sone only breakfast/lunch, and some have varying days off. Use Facebook and their websites to see who’s open when. For those needing reservations that is a mix of Facebook, Websites, and WhatsApp depending on the business. Of the recommendations I made, only Between2Buna, Capricios, and Patagonia offer indoor seating with aircon.