One of the most common pieces of advice I give travelers coming to Curacao is to try as many restaurants as possible. I’m always suggesting to leave the resort and hotel restaurants behind and try some of Curacao’s amazing restaurants. I’ve been dragging my husband around to dine at restaurants all over the island, and it’s about time I post an update on a few restaurants I’ve tried recently.

In this blog, I write about three restaurants I dined at in the last few months. I talk about the location, ambiance, menu, what I ordered, thoughts on the food, and the pricing. Stick around to the end for my thoughts on La Reina as they opened up a brand new beach club and restaurant with ocean views that are simply stunning.

Table of Contents

• 1. Caleo
• What I Ordered at Caleo
• 2. Lamunchi
• What I Ordered at Lamunchi
• 3. La Reina
• What I Ordered at La Reina
• Kat’s Final Thoughts

1. Caleo

Caleo has been on my list for a couple of years now. Friends have recommended this restaurant to us many times, but every time we go to Kura Hulanda Village we end up at Brgr Haus. We can’t help it! We love our burgers! All silliness aside, once we heard Caleo has the same owners as Mosa/Caña, a restaurant we love, we had to make reservations here.

We made a reservation in advance on their website and showed up on a warm Friday evening in December. You know you’re near Caleo when you can smell the distinct notes of wood over a fire. The restaurant has a rack outside with different types of wood that they burn on a rotating schedule. Caleo’s speciality is crudos (raw) and parrilla (grill) so they operate within both ends of those spectrums offering punchy raw dishes and complex wood-fired courses.

Our table was located on the outside patio facing the main pathway going through Kura Hulanda Village. We dined here in December, so the village was hosting a busy Christmas Market, complete with a marching band providing entertainment. Menus were promptly provided to us, and our server introduced himself and the Caleo dining concept. Since the restaurant offers small plates, it was recommended to us to order 2 to 3 crudos and 1 to 2 mains to share. We cracked open the menu and got to ordering.

What I Ordered at Caleo

To start, we ordered the sourdough bread, king trumpet mushrooms, and atún nikkei. The sourdough bread came out quickly and was accompanied by an umami mushroom butter. That butter was so packed with flavor that we devoured the entire thing. The king trumpet mushrooms had a tangy yuzu ponzu sauce with shallots and black garlic. This was incredible and the thinly sliced mushroom felt like eating raw fish. Lastly, the atún nikkei was a raw tuna with notes of orange, avocado cream, and peanuts. The dish was tasty with playful textures. Actually, the mushrooms and tuna were so good that I forgot to take a picture of them.

We ordered a couple of mains from the grill with sides, and these portions were a bit larger. My husband got the scallops which came with a delicious carrot beurre blanc and pea creme. The scallops had a lovely smoky flavor from the grill and the texture was perfect. I ordered the curry chicken which came as a half bird roasted over the fire and served with naan bread and a tomato sambal. For sides, we ordered some roasted baby potatoes and fire roasted broccoli. Everything was delicious and perfectly cooked. Literally no complaints!

Even though we were full, we had to order dessert. The sticky toffee pudding was calling our names, and it came out in no time. It wasn’t a traditional sticky toffee pudding, but their own interpretation of it. The sponge was light and fluffy while the toffee sauce was complemented by roasted pecans. All in all, a fantastic dinner. Every dish that we ordered was a hit, and even though they were small plates we left the restaurant full. Caleo is a bit on the pricier side with dishes ranging from 18 XCG ($10 USD) to 74 XCG ($41 USD) but trust me when I say it’s well worth it. We’ll definitely be going back!

2. Lamunchi

I wrote briefly about Lamunchi when my husband and I dined at the new Lemon Tree fine dining restaurant located at the Art Hotel in Pietermaai. Back then, Lamunchi was open on the front side of the hotel building. Now, Lamunchi has moved to the back side of the Art Hotel next to the Lemon Tree, and I love this move because it means ocean views! This is a contemporary gastrobar serving small plates ranging from burgers and hot dogs to lobster pasta and tuna tacos. The restaurant has merged with the Lemon Beach so anyone at the beach club can order a full lunch now.

They have indoor and outdoor dining options, and we chose to dine outside during our dinner date. This made for beautiful sunset views overlooking the Lemon Tree Beach Club and ocean, but it also meant I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Make sure to bring your bug spray if you dine outside! We were seated right before the entrance of the beach club, and the decor is much the same as Lemon Tree, although it has a more casual vibe.

The menu here is a little more playful compared to the Lemon Tree, which is great if you want the Lemon Tree experience without sitting for for 4 hours for a multi-course fine dining experience. Around us were other couples and families having lively conversations and enjoying the ambiance. A specially curated Lemon Tree playlist with upbeat tunes played in the background. I couldn’t wait to try their food!

What I Ordered at Lamunchi

My husband and I decided to get drinks and cocktail snacks to start while we watched the sunset slowly lower into the horizon. I ordered an Elderflower Lemon Spritz while my husband ordered a Negroni. To snack on, we ordered olives and parmesan french fries. The olives didn’t taste like anything special (unlike the anchovy stuffed olives at Cafe George which were amazing) but they were generous with the portions. The french fries weren’t bad and I liked that they were topped with parmesan, and it hit the spot for something salty and crispy.

For our actual dinner, my husband and I first shared the truffle spinach salad. I actually really enjoyed the salad. It was just enough truffle oil to give off a nutty flavor paired with the umami from the parmesan. I ordered the ravioli with sage butter for my main, while my husband went with the lobster pasta. My ravioli was filled with an almond-pistachio pesto and the pasta was lovely and delicate. The flavors were fine. It was well seasoned and a nice pesto but I wasn’t blown away by the flavors. My husband said the lobster pasta was very good, the lobster was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was delicious. No complaints!

We opted not to do dessert here as we were so full, but we’ll definitely try it next time. The service here was not the best. On the night we went, they seemed to be short staffed with just a handful of servers running around. I had to ask to check if they had bug spray 4 times before they eventually remembered and said they didn’t have any. Don’t get me wrong, the food came out fast, but we had trouble getting the attention of our waiter for more drinks, dessert menu, bug spray, and the bill. We still had a great time here though, and you can’t beat those ocean views.

3. La Reina

La Reina has always been a place I would go for a quick coffee and pastry in Pietermaai. I always thought it was a shame to be so close to the ocean but have no views – not even a window. A few months ago, my friend and I decided to get lunch and catch up at La Reina and little did I know they bashed open the back wall to expand the restaurant to the sea. They let me know that they would be expanding La Reina into a full service restaurant and beach club, in addition to their cafe and boutique shop. Exciting!

I’ve been to La Reina at least three times since their expansion finished, and I love the new Italian Riviera vibe they’re going for. I’ve been there for lunch, for coffee, and for sunset drinks. I’ve even brought my laptop to do some work while gazing out at the ocean. La Reina has now become a favorite of mine for how versatile it is. The cafe on the front side of the building is unchanged and still offers a cute indoor space to work by the pastry case. Further inside is more indoor dining space and a boutique shop offering cute houseware items and knick knacks.

I had lunch in the new outdoor section past the boutique shop. The new beach area opens up to a large bar on the right side, bistro tables under shade and fans on the left, and straight ahead are stairs leading to plush chairs and loungers for their beach club. The beach area isn’t huge, and there’s no pool like at Lemon Beach next door, but it’s a lovely place to enjoy some sun or shade by the ocean. There are stairs leading into the ocean nearby.

What I Ordered at La Reina

When I visited for lunch, I took a look at their new menu for the first time. The cuisine offered is similar to what you would find in a beach club restaurant in the French or Italian Rivieras. Classics like beef carpaccio, oysters, and niçoise salad can be found along with more substantial dishes such as pasta puttanesca and hearty sandwiches. The dinner menu adds classic gourmet staples like rock lobster tail, duck breast, and ribeye for a more elevated dining experience.

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For lunch, I ordered a niçoise salad with a side of french fries. I also ordered a decaf oat milk latte which came with sugar and a little cube of cake. The niçoise salad had perfectly seared tuna, hard boiled eggs, olives, fingerling potatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and fresh greens. It was delicious and refreshing on a hot Caribbean day. The french fries were thinly cut, well seasoned, and tasted like McDonalds fries. My latte was delicious and hit the spot. I’ve also had one of their smoothies a separate time. It was called Eden Garden and came packed with spirulina, mango, passionfruit, orange juice, and mint. Now that was seriously refreshing!

Food pricing at La Reina is pretty consistent with other oceanfront restaurants in the area. It’s pricey, but the quality is great and the views are unbeatable. I find La Reina to be a bit more casual than the neighboring Lamunchi/Lemon Tree. They tend to play smooth jazz instead of bumping house music at Lemon Beach. I like the vibes here a lot, and I keep finding myself wanting to go back.

Kat’s Final Thoughts

I feel really grateful to be living on an island with such a great food culture. Even though these are just three restaurants, there are many more I’ve tried that I haven’t written about yet. There are several on my list that I have yet to try, but I will make it a goal of mine this year to try more restaurants in Curacao. If you’d like to see more of this type of content or anything else about traveling, Curacao, being a travel agent, let me know!

Have you been to any of these restaurants yet? If so, share your thoughts down below!