Your favorite bonaire restaurant

[rye_a]

Resurrecting this long dormant thread. Any additions?

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Resurrecting this long dormant thread. Any additions?

Joe’s Joe's Restaurant Bonaire – Enjoy the casual and friendly atmosphere at Joe’s!. Food was great, brown sugar mojitos were better, we all agreed it rivaled the best dining experience any of the 5 of us had had in the last few years.

Sunday Pizza Funday at Buddy Dive was a good call for the most part. Catch of the day was barracuda, which was not great according to the person who got it.

My wife wasn’t overly impressed, but I enjoyed the falafel at Döner Station. Order ahead or be prepared to wait.

We ate in a fair amount, so those are our hi lights. Have a great time!

Erik

 

[Lorenzoid]

Okay, we like Doner Station. Doner kebabs may be common street food in Europe, but they are rare in America. These guys are from the Netherlands (no surprise), specifically Rotterdam, and they have a Rotterdam concoction known as the Kapsalon ("hairdresser"). I prefer to eat at places in Bonaire that have cuisines I can't find so readily at home. So, while we most often cook our own meals, when we eat out it's at places like that, or local Bonairean food like the venerable Maiky Snack.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Oh, and definitely pick up some cumin Gouda at Van Den Tweel for snacking on. This, for me, is even more important than the restaurants, .

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Okay, we like Doner Station. Doner kebabs may be common street food in Europe, but they are rare in America. These guys are from the Netherlands (no surprise), specifically Rotterdam, and they have a Rotterdam concoction known as the Kapsalon ("hairdresser"). I prefer to eat at places in Bonaire that have cuisines I can't find so readily at home. So, while we most often cook our own meals, when we eat out it's at places like that, or local Bonairean food like the venerable Maiky Snack.

I wanted to try Maiky Snack but decided against it. Unfortunately I don’t think Maiky Snack and my vegetarian wife would get along well.

@rye_a , I forgot to mention Between Two Buns. Great lunch!

 

[Lorenzoid]

I wanted to try Maiky Snack but decided against it. Unfortunately I don’t think Maiky Snack and my vegetarian wife would get along well.

We stop there every trip, like a ritual. Sure, there are other "snack" places, but Maiky is easy to deal with and has options. But perhaps not so much for vegetarians. We look forward to goat stew.

I can understand if your wife didn't care so much for the falafel at Doner Station. The doner kebabs are great, but falafel from a doner place?--I dunno, maybe they manage to pull it off, maybe not. I love a good falafel. I'm a voracious omnivore.

Would you believe I have never eaten at Between Two Buns? Everyone seems to love it. "Problem" is we tend to make our own sandwiches for lunch with supplies from Van den Tweel.

 

[drrich2]

Since this thread was resurrected from 2012, be mindful a lot has changed. The retail location called Cactus Blue shut down; that name now applies to a food truck at the Corporal Meiss dive site, adjacent to Windsock.

There are some other food trucks; when I was there in Feb. 2022, the one at Bachelor's Beach had fries! These seemed to mainly cover the southern dive sites (south of Kralendijk), and made grabbing lunch between dive excursions nice.

I don't recall the 'when' to all of it, but I don't think Wil's Grill is around any more. Pasa Bon Pizza and Between2Buns both changed locations.

 

[Doctorfish]

We were there in August
Between2buns is now a large, modern, busy eat in restaurant with take out available. Still excellent for lunch.
Mi Banana was very good and still good value.
The take out from Bobbejans was as good as ever.
Julian's and Roos were new to us and were very good ( long wait for food at Roos )
We went for pizza special at Buddy Dive, Blennie's and it was inedible. The crust was rock hard and tasted like cardboard. The sauce came straight from a can and the toppings were dried out. Yuck!

 

[scubadada]

I agree with my friend, @drrich2, everything before the post of @RIHappyDiver is completely out of date. My wife and I don't eat out much and make most of our own meals. Last August was somewhat of change as we had guests and ate out more. We stay at Den Laman and generally, did not wander very far. @Lorenzoid is absolutely correct, Doner Station (across the road) is a gem. We got take out for lunches and dinners a few times during out 2 week stay. Our special dinner at It Rains Fishes was fantastic, worth the expense.

This is from my review of our August trip:

Meals: We usually prepare nearly all our meals. We still made many of our meals and did much of our shopping at the convenient, Zhung Kong, but we also ate out with our daughter and her boyfriend. The food truck out on the circle, Pita Madre, was quite good, with a very friendly and talkative owner/cook. Dinners at Breeze & Bites at Den Laman and Eddy’s at Sand Dollar were excellent. Middle Eastern take out from Doner Station, across the street, was delicious, as was the ice cream from Luciano’s, a couple of doors down. Our daughter reported that lunch from Panino, in the old Between Two Buns site, was very good. We had a tasty lunch from Exito Express, a couple doors down from Panino. The only real disappointment was Rum Runners at Captain Don’s. The fish was overcooked, dry, and tough. It would have been better to stick with the pizza. The best dinner was at It Rains Fishes, absolutely perfect, as was the Luciano’ ice cream brownie desert. Groceries and eating out on Bonaire are very expensive.

 

[Bonaire11]

Our go-to places we always hit are Mi Banana on Nikiboko Noord - great for catch of the day at a very reasonable price (very clean with a local feel). We also like Blue Garden for the best meat on the island and lionfish - it's a nice night out and more upscale. Lasty, we make it to Bonaire Sno several times a trip for shaved ice - they're located downtown in Wilhelmina Park and post their schedule every week on their Facebook / Instagram pages.