Yucca Caribbean Seafood and Grill is a newer restaurant on Havenstraat in Oranjestad, a few minutes on foot from the cruise terminal, doing Caribbean home cooking rather than resort food. It has a 4.9-star Google rating across 51 reviews (checked September 2026); the menu publishes no prices, but Google’s diner estimates put a meal at AWG 20 to 100 a person.
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About Yucca
It is open from noon to 9pm Monday to Saturday and closed on Sunday, which makes it a natural lunch for cruise passengers and an early dinner for everyone else. Dishes that reviewers name include oxtail, curry chicken roti, a taco salad and a plate they call the Caribbean Express; several came in for the barracuda advertised out front. Families report that everyone at the table found something, and the two servers most often named in reviews get credit for the welcome. The bar does cocktails.
What reviewers mention
Local flavour that cruise visitors say they were hoping to find on a port day, generous, well-seasoned plates, and kind service. It is small and new, so it is worth arriving early on days when a ship is in.
The menu — checked September 2026
Yucca publishes its menu on its own website — dishes, but no prices, and there is no ordering platform or OpenTable listing where prices would show. What the September 2026 menu lists:
- Starters: conch fritters — golden fried conch with lime aioli
- Mains: keshi yena (stuffed cheese shell with spiced chicken), oxtail stew slow-braised with fufu and plantain, curry shrimp roti, and a whole fried red snapper with creole sauce
- Desserts: bolo pretu, the Aruban rum-soaked black cake, and a coconut tart with fresh coconut cream
With no printed prices, the honest guide to cost is Google’s diner estimate: AWG 20–100 a person (roughly $11–56), reported by 29 diners. The spread fits the menu — a roti at lunch sits near the bottom of it, a whole snapper with drinks near the top.
Getting there
Yucca is on Havenstraat in central Oranjestad, walkable from the cruise port and the downtown hotels. If you are staying on the hotel strip, a rental car is the easiest way to reach it and everything else on this side of the island; taxis add up fast at night.
Hours and practical details
- Address: Havenstraat 36, Oranjestad
- Hours: 12pm to 9pm Monday to Saturday, last reservation 8pm; closed Sunday
- Typical spend: AWG 20–100 a person (about $11–56), per Google diner estimates — the restaurant publishes no prices
- Good for: lunch, dinner, children, groups; cocktails
- Phone: +297 280 0441 · yuccarestaurantaruba.com
Rating, review count and opening hours are from Google Maps and change over time; check the live Google listing before you go. We have not reviewed this restaurant in person yet; the impressions above are drawn from what Google reviewers report.
Our verdict
Yucca is the port-day lunch to plan around rather than stumble into. It is a few minutes on foot from the cruise terminal, the hours are built for daytime eating — noon to 9pm with the last reservation at 8pm, so it is not a late-dinner room — and it is closed on Sunday, so a ship that calls then needs a different plan. The cooking is the reason to come: keshi yena, oxtail and roti in a part of town where most menus play it safe, and a 4.9 rating that has held steady on Google as the review count has grown. The room is small; arrive early on days a ship is in.
More restaurants nearby
The rest of downtown is covered in our Oranjestad guide, and if you are in off a ship, one day in Aruba plans the rest of the port day around it. For the full list with filters by area, cuisine and rating, see the Aruba restaurants directory, or our hand-picked best restaurants in Aruba.
Inside Yucca Caribbean Seafood and Grill
Photos via Google Maps: jimmy caban, EB Centre st, EB Centre st, sarmie bangil, Erika Florencio · see the listing on Google Maps
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