Scratch Kitchen Aruba (SKA) is a casual restaurant and craft cocktail bar in Palm Beach Plaza Mall in Noord — every dish made daily from scratch, on a menu the kitchen changes weekly. It took September 2026 off to renovate for the new season and reopened in October, and it carries a 4.1-star rating across 119 Google reviews (checked October 2026) — an honestly mixed scorecard we unpack below.
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About Scratch Kitchen Aruba
The dining room is bright and modern with indoor and outdoor seating, and the craft cocktail bar sits in the centre of the room with two 85-inch TVs showing live US sports — MLB, NBA, NCAA, NFL and NHL, per the restaurant’s own site. The kitchen, led by executive chef Alana Olaya, prints its promise on every menu: every dish, every day, from scratch, no shortcuts. It is a dinner-only operation — 5:00pm to 10:00pm, seven days a week — with happy hour at the bar from 5 to 6 and a special burger menu every Thursday night. The restaurant closed from late August through September 2026 to give the staff a break and renovate for the 2026/27 season (its own site’s notice), reopening in October; tables are booked through its own website.
The full menu with prices — checked October 2026
Scratch Kitchen publishes its menu on its own website; the version below is the April 2026 edition, the most recent it has posted. The kitchen changes dishes weekly and renovated in September 2026, so treat this as a guide to the style and the pricing rather than a promise of any single dish. Prices are in US dollars.
Small plates — $14 to $16
- Maple sriracha wings (oven roasted, blue cheese dip) — $14
- Blackened fish tacos (fresh mahi-mahi, avocado crema, pickled cabbage, mango salsa) — $16
- Sticky ribs (sesame and soy glazed baby back ribs, fresh mango salsa) — $16
- Guacamole and tostones (house guacamole, queso blanco, crispy fried green plantains) — $14
- Chili garlic shrimp (sweet chili garlic sauce, house sourdough) — $16
- Chicken asada tacos (grilled chicken ranchero, queso fresco, guacamole) — $15
- SKA nachos (melted Mexican cheeses, pico de gallo, black beans) — $14, add pulled chicken +$6
- Beef wanja (Korean-style meatballs in a ginger garlic soy dressing) — $15
Salads — $13 to $15
- Grilled Caesar — $13; Cobb with SKA bacon, soft-boiled egg and buttermilk bleu cheese — $14; roasted red beet with local burrata — $15. Add grilled chicken +$6 or fire-roasted shrimp +$8
SKA burgers — $17 to $19
All burgers are 8 oz Certified Angus Beef patties made fresh daily in house and served with fries; on Thursday burger nights every burger comes with a free Balashi draft.
- The Classic (sharp cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion) — $17
- The Swiss (sautéed mushrooms and onions, Swiss cheese) — $18
- The Mariachi (crispy onions, guacamole, fried jalapeños, cheddar) — $18
- The Beast (cheddar, bacon, crispy onion rings and a fried egg) — $19
Large plates — $20 to $28
- Fish and chips (polenta-breaded grouper, house tartar sauce) — $20
- Jerk chicken (half a chicken, 24-hour jerk marinade, flame grilled) — $22
- Chicken parm dinner (panko-crusted breast, fresh tagliatelle, house garlic bread) — $22
- Creole jambalaya (smoked sausage, fresh shrimp and chicken) — $23
- Hibachi steak rice bowl (6 oz wok-seared skirt steak, homemade teriyaki) — $24
- Keshi yena — the kitchen’s tribute to Aruba’s national dish, with Gouda, spiced chicken, olives, raisins and capers — $26
- Almond crusted grouper (pan-seared local grouper, pineapple relish) — $26
- Curried mahi-mahi (coconut curry sauce, white rice) — $28
- Sirloin steak (12 oz top sirloin, SKA dry rub, charcoal grill) — $28
Bar, happy hour and desserts
The bar card runs specialty cocktails at $14 to $16 (hibiscus margarita, rye tiki sour, spicy paloma, mai-tai and others), sangria at $14 and wines by the glass from $10 to $22. Happy hour is 5:00 to 6:00pm every day at the bar: Balashi 10 oz drafts $4, house wines $8, a short cocktail list at $10, plus two bar snacks — chicken sate lettuce wraps $12 and arepa bites $8. Desserts are prepared daily; the menu says to ask your server for the day’s selection.
Practical info
Address: J.E. Irausquin Blvd 382A, Noord, Aruba — in Palm Beach Plaza Mall
Hours: 5:00pm to 10:00pm daily; happy hour 5:00 to 6:00pm at the bar (restaurant’s own site and Google listing, October 2026)
Phone: none published — reservations go through the restaurant’s website
Rating: 4.1★ on Google (119 reviews, checked October 2026)
Typical spend: small plates $13 to $16, burgers $17 to $19, large plates $20 to $28 on the April 2026 menu
Website:scratchkitchenaruba.com
What guests are saying
The scorecard is genuinely mixed — 4.1 across 119 reviews (checked October 2026). Steak is the most-mentioned dish (20 reviews), ahead of the jerk chicken (14) and the mahi-mahi (6), and the hibiscus margarita has its own review tag. The praise centres on the cocktails, the indoor-outdoor space and — on good nights — the service; one recent reviewer calls it an “incredible hidden gem” just around the corner from the main drag, with no wait. The criticism is just as specific: slow service on quiet nights and unevenly seasoned plates from the kitchen. Order the crowd-tested dishes and treat the bar as the main event.
Our verdict
Treat Scratch Kitchen as a bar-first stop and it over-delivers: happy hour runs 5 to 6pm every single day with $4 Balashi drafts and $10 cocktails, and the room — craft bar in the middle, two 85-inch screens of live US sports, a terrace on the Palm Beach Plaza deck — is an easy place to spend it. From the kitchen, order what the crowd orders: steak and jerk chicken lead the review mentions, and the $26 keshi yena is one of the few from-scratch takes on Aruba’s national dish near the strip. Thursday burger night is the sharpest deal — a free Balashi draft with the $17 to $19 burgers (compare Drunken Burger if patties are the whole mission). The honest caveat: at 4.1 stars the reviews are split, with recent complaints about slow service and uneven seasoning — so come for the bar, the screens and the value windows, and watch what the new season’s weekly menus bring now the September renovation is done.
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