Charlie's Bar in San Nicolas

Has anyone been there? Thinking of stopping there for lunch after our stop at baby beach. Anyone know how is the food?

We ate there several years ago.....the food was wonderful. I had shrimp scampi and the shrimp were from the ocean that day! Our timing has been off the past couple of times we have been to Aruba and we always manage to find the place closed. Two years ago, we ate at the Texas di Brasil. That was good too. (we have been to Aruba many times and I just don't remember all the places we have had dinner in....our timeshare has kitchen and outdoor bbq grill so we eat in many times.)

Thanks...looking forward to it. I read a couple of reviews on trip advisor that the upstairs is a brothel. Is that really true? Well as long as the food is good and the beer is cold I don't mind.

Maybe long ago...I don't remember that part! It is a little hole in the wall kind of place...

The place was filled with things that tourists have left there - tee shirts, lisence plates, drivers lisences....that sort of stuff. At the time we went, it was considered a 4 star restaurant but it only looked like some little bar.

There was some kind of story about the original owner....I don't remember it now. From World War 2...the family also owned a scruba dive company. Not sure now. Last time we were in Aruba in 2004, it was closed the day we went down there and we just didn't get back there.

Hope you have a wonderful time. Aruba is my favorite place in the world.

Just another perspective.

We made the drive (quite far from the pier) to Charlie's bar as we were interested to see the place and to pick up some souvenirs.

Well, it's in a very seedy part of town, the souvenirs store was filthy with only a very few items to choose from and Charlie's bar looked exactly like we had read, seen, and expected. It was worth the stop to see it but we were uncomfortable in the neighbourhood and so we didn't stay or even have a drink.

Here is a link...this picture shows exactly what it looks like. I'm glad we stopped to see it, so I think it's worth the drive.

http://www.charliesbararuba.com/menu/menu.htm

The first time we went to Charlies was in 1994 - the neighborhood is better now than it was then. We had a squeegie man clean the windshield of the car for a dollar. San Nicolas has had considerable renovation since then.

My group was in Aruba two weeks ago for a week's vacation. We were going to drive to Charlie's Bar one evening for dinner, but were discouraged by our Hotel's concierge. We were told the area is not too safe, even though the food was suppose to be good. It is also on the opposite side of the island from where the cruise ships dock, so the commute would have been a distance.

we did this trek 2 years ago. not really worth the effort! the place looks just like the pictures, so it was interesting. however as a restaurant, it was not good. the food was only ok, and priced about the same as some of aruba's finest restaurants, not that of a diner.

steve

In my earlier post here, I forgot to mention that it was just last year that we went to Charlie's bar.

I definitely would not want to go there in the evening. It was scarey enough in the daylight.