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Aruba Days

Gastronomy

Eat like an Aruban

Keshi yena, pastechi, pan bati and fish straight off the boat: what Arubans eat, where the flavours come from and the places that have served them for decades.

Where to eat Dishes to try
Pastechi
Pan bati

Dishes to try

Your local food checklist

Main

Keshi yena

Often called Aruba's national dish: spiced chicken or beef with olives and raisins, baked inside a crust of Gouda or Edam cheese.

Pastechi
Snack

Pastechi

Aruba's favourite snack: a crescent of fried pastry filled with cheese, beef, chicken, tuna or Indonesian-style chop suey, eaten at breakfast or on the go.

Pan bati
Side

Pan bati

'Beaten bread': a slightly sweet, fluffy flatbread of cornmeal and wheat flour, somewhere between a pancake and a flatbread, served with stoba, soup or fish.

Funchi
Side

Funchi

Aruba's cornmeal staple, similar to polenta: served creamy, grilled or fried — as funchi fries it is the island's answer to French fries.

Stoba
Main

Stoba

The island's slow-cooked stew of goat (kabritu), beef or conch in a tomato-based gravy with cumin and peppers, served with rice, funchi or pan bati.

Soup

Sopi di pisca

Aruban fish soup, often spiced with Madame Jeanette pepper; one of the local sopis served with pan bati in Aruban restaurants and weekend food trucks.

Ayaca
Festive

Ayaca

A Christmas dish of Venezuelan origin: cornmeal dough filled with seasoned meats, olives, raisins and capers, wrapped in banana leaves; sold in December.

Bolo di cashupete (cashew cake)
Dessert

Bolo di cashupete (cashew cake)

A layered cashew cake of butter sponge and cashew filling, often with rum and brown sugar, decorated with cashews and candied cherries.

Drinks

Raise a glass

Balashi beer

Aruba's national beer, brewed at Balashi by Brouwerij Nacional Balashi using the island's desalinated water; Chill and fruit-flavoured Magic versions also exist.

Aruba Ariba

The island's signature cocktail, created in 1963: rum, vodka, crème de banane, fruit juices and grenadine, traditionally sweetened with local Coecoei.

Coecoei

A bright red Aruban liqueur made from the sap of the local agave (kukwisa) with rum and cane sugar; drunk neat or used in the Aruba Ariba cocktail.

Aruba's tap water is desalinated seawater, produced by the national water company WEB Aruba, and safe to drink.

Where to eat

Local food spots

All Local cuisine Seafood Beach dining Fine dining Cafés
CafésParadera & Santa Cruz

Huchada Bakery & Lunchroom

Local bakery in a cunucu house near Santa Cruz, known for pastechi, goat soup and cashew cake; opens at 6 a.m. Monday to Saturday.

Local know-how

Good to know

  • Check the bottom of the bill before tipping: some restaurants add a service charge of around 15%, which goes to a staff pool rather than your server.
  • Carry some cash for local spots — Zeerovers in Savaneta, for example, accepts cash only (US dollars or Aruban florins).
  • Pastechi is a breakfast snack as much as a bar snack, so bakeries such as Huchada open from 6 a.m.
  • Ayaca is seasonal: look for it in December from home-based vendors and on holiday menus.
  • On public holidays such as King's Day or Flag Day many shops close early, so plan meals and groceries the day before.

What is Aruban food?

Aruban cooking grew out of the island's history and its position off the coast of South America. The Aruba Tourism Authority describes a cuisine with Dutch, African and Indigenous roots, shaped by Spanish and Dutch colonial rule, by Latin American neighbours and by what the island itself provides: seafood, herbs, spices and plenty of corn. You can taste each layer on one menu: Dutch Gouda or Edam in keshi yena, Venezuelan-origin ayaca at Christmas, Indonesian-style chop suey inside a pastechi, Surinamese saoto soup, and Dutch snacks such as bitterballen and poffertjes. Corn runs through it all, from funchi (Aruba's polenta) to the cornmeal in pan bati, the "beaten bread" served with stews (stoba) and soups (sopi). Fish is usually the catch of the day — try it fried as pisca hasa at a fishermen's pier such as Zeerovers.

Is tipping expected?

Tipping in Aruba is not mandatory but is appreciated, according to the Aruba Tourism Authority. Some restaurants and bars add a service charge of around 15% to the bill — particularly for groups — and it is shown at the bottom of the receipt. That charge goes into a pool shared by the whole staff, kitchen included, so the tourism authority notes that it is not a tip for your server: if service was good, you can still leave something extra. Taxi fares are fixed, so tipping a driver is at your discretion.

Photo credits and sources for the dishes