Don Carlos. Italian Cuisine

This place never get's reviewed, but it is wonderful...My husband has to eat there at least twice when we visit! Great seafood, ambiance and the staff is very friendly.

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Aruba, no other place like it!

Totally agree with you, Suzie. It's one of my favorites!

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Elaine,

I think we did this before didn't we???

Yeah, we did ..

LOL!

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Aruba, no other place like it!

Aha! I knew it sounded familiar!! lol

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I/We totally agree about Don Carlos we eat there at least once per visit and LOVE it. Some of the BEST Italian Food I've ever had anywhere. I highly recommed making it a part of your trip itinerary!!!!!!

Love the atmosphere. The salads are delicious, and so is the food.

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Kevin...I totally agree...My husband makes fun of me cause I'm always saying they have such a refreshing salad...it is always so crisp, fresh and cold! We make an extra effort to get to eat there every trip. They make great homeade Sangria also...but they make it to order and the last time the bartender wasn't happy cause it takes a long time...they would only make one for us!

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

So Elisabeth, was it Mitch or Lloyd???? lol

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Great veal and chicken parm!

I read some of the comments before posting, hate to say it folks, Don Carlos' is the pits, especially on the waterfront. We ate there, and observed others, many seemed unhappy with their meals, from dried out to infant portions and not reasonable. You get a better bite to eat at Sbarro's near the Seaport Casino, and at a fair price. I have never been pleased by this place, and this visit was the worst of all places, I think it has to do with the ships that come in, since the boat tourists have limited choices, this type of resturant can skate by and serve ho-hum food. Many other places around, especially if you are a novice resturant person. A place that I had heard is rather good near the seaport casino is a place called Villa Germania, a stop on my next visit for sure.......

Sorry you had a bad experience... We've always had good food, great service and fun at Don Carlos. It's a "must do" place on our list every year. A group of us go at least 3 times while on island and enjoy being there on the night the singer is performing... As they say, different strokes for different folks!

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Yea, did try it one year with solo singer, not bad, was in eve. Daytime chow is in the pits. Service staff not as good as some places are, for the money they charge.

We had another incredible meal at Don Carlo's on Nov. 9. It was our daughters 18th b'day and I set up a little party with Carlo the day before. There were 11 of us and let me tell you the food and service was out of this world. Carlo got us a cake, wrote Happy Birthday Jessica on it and the entire staff came over and sang with their maracas(sp). It was a blast. Unfortunately because it was still low season Floyd, Lloyd or Mitch (whatever we are calling him these days) was limited to only 1 day a week which was Friday's. We have such a blast when he's there but we chose to go on her actual b'day instead of waiting 2 more days. Besides our friends were leaving on Friday and we wanted them to experience the fine dining....and that's exactly what it has been the umpteen times we have eaten there...my husband wants to go down for a weekend just so we can eat there!

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

Lloyd elisabeth, Lloyd!!! lol I hear tell that he's now at the Holiday Inn on Saturday nights. Glad you had another great meal.

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

I think Don Carlos has gone downhill from when we first started going there
four years ago. When we were there in December, we were disappointed.
The food is not as good, it is more expensive than ever, and they rush you through your meal.

I agree wholeheartedly. We always loved Don Carlos in years past, but this year we were very dissapointed. We weren't rushed thru our meal, but the food was not as good. We also noticed the owner was not visable as he was in years past.

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We ARUBA!!
January 12, 2011
CAN'T WAIT!!!!

We ate there in Nov and were very disappointed. Service was slow and food was lukewarm (barely) by the time we got it. My sister ordered linguine with garlic sauce and it was brought to her dry - no sauce at all. Took her another 20 minutes to get the waitress to come back to our table and then another 30 minutes to get it back. I went ahead and ate my dinner before it got completely cold and was almost finished by the time she got her plate back. We asked for refills of our tea and never received it. When we finally got her to come back by our table we told her to just bring the check. Restaurant is very expensive for the service and food received. Maybe we were too early, it was only 6:30 pm when we got there but I don't think that is a good excuse. If you can't supply good service and food that early, then you shouldn't be open at that time.

We usually eat at Don Carlo's once over the 15 days we are there. On a 1-10 scale we'll put it right in the middle at 5.

Don Carlos has earned a "5" again this year (Mar 2006) Very average cusine and priced a bit high.

Since this thread got resurrected I will add....we ate there on our last night this past November and the meal was excellent as always! We had a table of 12 and everyone raved about their choice of entrees. My only complaint is that we were seated (by choice) right at the dock and the dinner/party boat was loading and unloading and we had a parade of people going by the entire time. Then we got the boats fumes when it left the dock...but that's not an everyday occurance and I will forgive them for it. Oh and Carlo was on vacation so we didn't get to see him...that was a bummer!

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

After all the years we've been "lured" by the sidewalk hostess into Don Carlos, we were very disappointed when we finally went in for an early dinner at Don Carlos on our last trip to Aruba. Thought we might stop in for drinks at the bar before-hand, but changed our minds about dinner due to the less than attentive service. We were the only patrons in the place & were all but ignored by the bar staff. The mixed drinks were average but expensive & we thought the beer was a little over-priced as well.

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Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain

The place is a pig sty. On one trip there was litter on the floor upstairs and still there on the next trip. They also serve to under age kids. Drugs are for sale all around the place. Why patronize such a dump? They love the cruise-ship kids...rip em off and go!

What upstairs? I've been going there for many years, and never knew there was an upstairs at Don Carlos!!

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you are right elaine. there is no upstairs. i was looking at some report photos (haven't a clue how to copy or link to them, lol) and it is a single story building.

juicer, are you mistaking the place for another?

Thanks sherry... It is a single story building, and whether the food be good or bad, depending on one's taste, one thing it's not is dirty or a dump. lol

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MY SINCERE APOLOGY TO ALL, ESP. DON CARLOS
This is a fine place
I was talking about Carlos and Charlies, sorry, sorry, sorry
Thanks for letting me know
oops!
juicergene

lol juicer... i had the feeling you meant there.

am i the only person who has never been inside carlos and charlies?

No, my sistah, I've never been inside either!! lol

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make that 3...hubby and I walked by one afternoon during our very first visit to the island....that's it!

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

oh, gene, that is funny! I had never heard anyone call Don Carlos a dump before!

I have been to C&C's, once because it used to be the last stop on the KuKu Bus (not much memory of this, hubby passed out on a table )

The second time I had 2 eager teens who were begging to go. I took them and hubby and I hung around. It was digusting, with the waiters constantly pinching them! I pulled them out by 10pm.

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I have heard a few people mention from time to time, that certin restaurants have "gone downhill" and I just want to add my coment on that. Its very hard with many of us going down once a year and some going down much more often to be a good gauge on the trajectory of the restaurant (did I just write trajectory ) Many restaurants just have bad nights. Probally my favorite place to eat on the island is MJ but I will say the last time I went there our service was very slow, and we were seated at a table that a few kids were at before us. There were crumbs on the chairs etc. But that didnt mean they were "going downhill" just they were understaffed and missed certin things. When we head down in August MJ will still be a stop for us once or twice during our stay. I guess its just hard to be a guage on the entire restaruant without heading there for an extended period of time. But we for sure can tell our experience the night we were there. Just a thought... (not sure why I put that lamb or goat or whatever it is, but I thought it looked pretty cool ) (this too)

Oh dear, Kevin is very attached to that sheep icon! I'm not sure how willing he is to share it. You may need to keep the cool dude as yours!

I agree with you about how you can have a different experience every time you visit a restaurant, but I have a feeling behind-pinching of teen girls is a constant thing!

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We've never been inside C & C's either.

I'm sad that we didn't get to make it back this year. We at there last year in 06 before we headed to the airport to go home. The owner was right - they did have the best calimari I've ever had!!!

We loved Don Carlo's-- for dinner and for drinks! I loved the salad and bread so much, I couldn't eat all my shrimp fettucine (with tomatoes, white sauce etc.). There was a good solo artist--Lloyd there-- made it fun! Girls were sweet that waited on us. (They were from Columbia and Peru)

Will go back to this place. Andre (bartender)made us his version of sangria with real fruit-- sister loved it and he made me his version of baileys and coffee. Yummy. He also showed us pictures of his beautiful wife and daughters-- ask him--he will share!

Lloyd and Andre'.... can't go wrong with that combination!!

If I knew how to post pictures here, I'd show everyone both of them!

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I have pictures too! Does anyone know how to post pictures? Elaine and I want to share!

I LOVE their salads also! I look forward to it all the time! Its so cold and fresh!!! And their SANGRIA!!! They always make those special pitchers for us when we are there! They look forward to it also because its expensive and we are a large table and order 2 pitchers at a time!!! Its one of the places I don't mind splurging!!!

So glad you enjoyed it. Its one of those places that just doesn't get the recognition it deserves!! My kids LOVE Lloyd, he always entertains the whole crowd!

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"These are a few of my favorite things"
...Elisa

Hate to rain on the parade but I truly disliked everything about this place. The food was mediocre at best and ridiculously overpriced. The service was rude and annoying. This creepy old waiter kept harassing us and kept touching my girlfriend, pretending to give her a massage. He kept trying to take pictures of us using my girlfriend's camera and he even dared to go far as to reach in her purse to grab it and try to take pictures of us. His dry humor accompanied by the dull routine act he was trying to spin on us made our evening awkward and rushed. Later on, I got food poisening from my meal and had a horrible long night. Next day at the pool we met another couple from Holland who shared our disgust for the place and who also got sick from the food. I'm not arguing or denying what this place might have been at one time but from our experience it's current state and qaulity level is about on par with the nearest Taco Bell. In short, Don Carlo's is a tourist trap, one I deeply regret falling into, robbing drunk cruise kids and casino goers of their money and doing it with a grin. Terrible food. Worse service. Food poisoning!

dwest, are you still in aruba? where else have you eaten?

I was kind of surprised to read this review. While Don Carlos is certainly far from a gourmet restaurant, in the last 13 years, I've gone there many times for either dinner or met friends there for drinks and some socializing. I've never gotten food poisoning, and never had a problem with any of the wait staff. In fact, I've gotten to know them all quite well over the years, and can't think of one "creepy old waiter," or even a rude waiter or waitress.

Carlos is always on the premises... I'm surprised you didn't lodge a complaint with him before you left. Had that happened to me, I sure would have.

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Definitely lodged a complaint and it was met with the same awkwardness that came from the whole night. They apologized but ultimatley brushed it aside. There's so much amazing food on the island to settle for anything less. Several of the resorts have family run staffs with authentic cuisine that are worth the money. Even the tourist selections by the high rise district offer higher qaulity service and food, specifically Gianni's if your looking for Italian Seafood. Don Carlos was my only bad and regrettable event on my trip and it is a shame because they have a great location. Found a link with similar reviews...

Don Carlos Restaurant - DON'T GO! - Aruba Forum - TripAdvisor

Very interesting that you should mention Gianni's, and not any other Italian restaurant that's been on island for a much longer period of time such as Sole Mare that gets rave reviews.

So, you are no longer on Aruba since you said that was the only regrettable event on your trip?

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