Great bar very affordable food and pretty cool waiters and waitresses and hosts. There's a lot of history that goes into this place and it's very much alive and worth the trip. It can get dangerous after dark but that's how it is an original 🇦🇼 town... if you go during the day you're perfectly fine there's a lot of parking on the street and the bartender is very helpful and cool and he will tell you everything about the island.

Dec2023: 2 ⭐: This location was recommended to my family by word of mouth. I was disappointed after this visit. These restaurants are taking advantage of the tourists and the money we save all year to spend here in Aruba. This location was fairly easy to find but not that easy to locate parking. There was an available area adjacent to the building a couple hundred feet away to park free of charge. The building is an old structure with a lot of different memorabilia on the walls, the doors and the ceilings. This corner building restaurant has a very limited seating area. In the corner there is a local singer playing his tunes. This local singer, seemingly, only plays to one beat that he starts in the background before he starts on his instrument. We were greeted by a server that was clueless about the menu offered by the restaurant. We placed an order with rice for our entrees and were served fries instead of what we ordered. The server failed to even address the mistakes. We asked for frozen drinks and was told that it was not possible and outside the capabilities of the bar?!?! Wait a minute...this is a bar and restaurant? Soo, no bartenders over there? We ordered water and was brought water in a bottle. No cup and no ice, just expensive bottles of water. Our meals arrived at the table with incorrectly added items, but we were hungry, so we just ate. The server couldn't remember what we ordered when he was asked when the food arrived. There are six or seven tables in this place. What was the server doing? He most certainly wasn't at our table waiting on us. Each table seemed to have a person or family member assigned to the table. As we sat there, more people came to this location and were questioned whether they were eating or drinking as we were. Eaters were allowed to sit inside immediately. Anyway, the food was not as expected and was even a disappointment. The beef sirloin was mostly fat and tasted like processed meat. The sauce served with it was just camouflage sauce to cover the taste and obvious fat not trimmed from the meat before cooking. The meat was seemingly the low quality type and potentially the previously frozen type. My family owns a restaurant where I cooked, served food, and worked the cash register. This meal would not have been served to my family or guests. One entree of was supposed to have shrimp. Couldn't find one of the shrimp in it. This whole restaurant experience left a bad taste in my mouth and a "fine dining hole" in my wallet for dinner. The server seemed upset that he didn't know how to work the credit card machine and that I realized at the last moment that he charged a service fee to the final bill. The server said he was "told" that the service fee wasn't a tip. I said it is a tip for my purposes so I am not tipping after a mandatory service fee of 15% of the bill. It was an insult after the injury. You now, want to demand a tip for really awful service. No thanks, I'll take my business and year long savings to spend elsewhere.

🇦🇼ℂℍ𝔸ℝ𝕃𝕀𝔼'𝕊 𝔹𝔸ℝ 🇦🇼 MAY 2023 •••𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙨,𝘼𝙧𝙪𝙗𝙖••• 》Charlie's Bar was founded in 1941, and it is one of the oldest bar on the island. It is probably the most unique one as well! The walls are covered by a never-ending eclectic collection of artifacts.From classic cameras, cell phones stuffed animals, license plates from all over the world and much more, this place is a must-see!!!! And let me tell you that what makes "charlie's" a stop that you don't want to miss, it is not only the originality but the hospitality. The people that work there are absolutely kind and  knowledgeable of the island, languages, and the Bar. Customer service and hospitality for sure won't lack here! Their menu is on the top of everything, and they even have vegan food!!!!

Suggested by one of the locals who grew up around the place. Awesome food! Most definitely worth the time. People leave items from all over the world and they have them hanging or on the wall, ceiling, the tables have pictures on them. Very interesting place to check out. The owner is a delight!!

Where local history and culture converge into one space. I consider Charlie's Bar an Aruban monument. Raul the bartender was friendly, attentive and very funny. Service was quick and the Balashi Chill beer I ordered came straight from the tap. Heavenly!

What a great place and feast for your eyes! We went for a late lunch, and also had the pleasure of listening to a sax player 🎷

Charlie’s was by far the coolest bar my wife & I hit on our trip to Aruba. We also had our best meal there too which was the barracuda. You can spend a ton of time just looking around. The staff were all great & made good conversation, if you go there you might leave with some wisdom to go with your buzz! Looking forward to our next visit. Salud from Philly!

Gave it 2 stars because the bar itself is cool. Unfortunately that’s all. Bartender took half my beer then argued with me saying it was empty after I had already let it go. Then they charged us $60 for 6 shrimp, a few pieces of lettuce, potato chips and 3 beers. Really feeling ripped off.

This bar is a generational bar and is a haunt for returning travelers to Aruba. It's worth seeing and experiencing for an hour or two for good conversation with the bartenders and fellow travelers. Drinks were cheap but the atmosphere was rich and inviting. A worthy stop for those on their way to the murals or further south.

Excellent service and thee best Margarita I've ever had. Raul was welcoming and a wealth of knowledge (and laughs). Our group enjoyed a wide variety of drinks and the lunch specials. Food was excellent. Would highly recommend!

As the owner says -“good food, cold beer and bad service” The bad service comment is part of the owners Schtick great place to have a beer and the atmosphere is awesome. Highly recommend this place.

I am SO glad that the restaurant that our UTV tour company recommended was CLOSED because then we found Charley's! DELICIOUS! The 'dive', the gem, the place where they put love on your plate! This place is NOT for you if you are going to nit pick on preparation. Order what they suggest and DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING! Shut up and EAT! The salsa for the calamar , the mustardy marinade that they put on their pasapalo , the ribs.... all delectable... you will want the recipe and they will NOT give it to you. Too bad 😂...... Beer absolutely goes with whatever you eat too.... You can thank me later.

Have been dealing with (RAOUL) the grosero bartender for the past ten years! Hopefully by December he has some new material for me! Charlie's Bar is my favorite place in the world to have a drink/ drinks. Also the great Chef Charlie helps fill us up! Can't wait to come back!

Good restaurant! Nice place to have a lunch and a good time with family and friends. Food is delicious, you have to go

We went to this amazing place for lunch and thank God as the food is amazing! We had Cazuela and it was so tasty. The owner kindly made one with no carbs for my boyfriend and he loved it. The staff is super friendly and decor is quite unique. If you come to San Nicolas you have to go there and I can assure you won’t regret it.

I was expecting this place to be a bit of a tourist trap but my brother really wanted to go so we stopped in for lunch/early dinner on our way back from Baby Beach. The atmosphere is very cool with a mishmash of all different junk and art plastering the walls and ceilings. There was live singer in the corner doing covers and playing guitar. It’s quite a small place but it wasn’t too busy (around 2-3pm) and we were seated immediately. The menu is pretty small and I felt the prices were a bit high (not terrible though), especially for the San Nicolas area. We got the ribs (which was a special of the day), the tenderloin, and a pulled pork sandwich. The sandwich was not on the menu and not mentioned as a special, our waiter just offered it when we asked about the hamburger joke on the menu. So I’m not sure if this is a regular dish or not. All the meals included a salad and a plate of “home fries”. They had two choices of salad dressings on the table (a creamy dressing that I was told is dutch and a house style oil and vinegar) and dish of homemade hot sauce. I did not have high hopes for the food but I was thankfully wrong. Everything was excellent. The pulled pork was tender and the bbq sauce was very tasty, the tenderloin had an incredible flavor and the ribs were fall off the bone (though I should note they were not your typical ribs, they had a sort of brown sauce and only came with two large ribs each). The side salad was basic but nice and the home fries were hot and crispy. They were not what I would call home fries in the US, they were more like potato wedges and were only seasoned with salt like fries. Still they were very good. The homemade hot sauce was nice and fresh as well. Overall, I really enjoyed the meal as well as the ambiance of the place. I don’t know if I would go all the way to San Nicolas from the high rise area just to eat there, but I would definitely stop in again after a relaxing day at Baby Beach or off roading.

Charlie's Bar and Restaurant Is top notch spot great atmosphere and delicious food especially seafood licking fingertips 5 stars 🌟 out of this world type !!!🦅🇦🇱

This Place was a nice place, in an odd location. When its busy its hard to get service but its understandable. also the place is super hot if you have no fan on you. Over all its a chill spot. I recommend

Strange little place to find. On a street without much else on it - most of the stores are closed down and abandoned. Quirky little place with a great history. Service was excellent and food was good. My husband wants to return again before we leave Aruba.

We've been there twice and both times we were mostly impressed by the amount of people liking the place rather than the food, which was average and a bit overpriced. The atmosphere was very pleasant though and so was the service with their jokes. :)

My husband and I loved it here!!! Bartender/son's owner was fantastic, can't think of his name right now, it begins with an R. Saxophone player was excellent!!! Food was delicious!!! Quaint, interesting, must see restaurant/bar !!!! My husband said he could spend all day just sitting and listening to the Saxophone 🎷 player all day!!! We highly recommend anyone who is in Aruba to go here!!! You definitely won't be sorry you did!!! Enjoy!!!

Amazing bar with amazing food. Steamed shrimp was very flavorful. Everyone in our group loved the food they got. My wife got the shrimp ceviche. So much history and character in this place. Definitely a favorite!

The hot sauce is 🔥 Tried the ceviche and the fish empanadas and do not regret. There was great live music, atmosphere was exactly what I was looking for, and the staff was top notch

One of the most authentic Aruban experiences ! Took the whole family for lunch and loved it 😎

This is the best rainy day excursion for adults EVER ! We didn’t know what to do today so headed hear and it was such a fun adult drinking day ! Met lots of fun ppl and had a lot of laughs ! It’s one of the most awesome bars ever

Great little spot -- not a place I would have come across on my own. Enjoyed the atmosphere and staff. Staff were friendly and fun to talk to. We had fried calamari and ribs. The potato fries were fantastic. Exceeded our expectations in terms of the overall visit.

Very friendly staff! It’s local bar with amazing decorations. They also have live music and offer all kinds of menu for lunch. The place must visit in Aruba!

If I could give Charlie's more stars I would! We visited 3 days in a row after not enjoying the crowds & hustle of the high rise district. Best food we had during our whole 7 day visit! The atmosphere is chill and the paintings, ART WORK, collectibles are amazing! The family history and the live music, Raul and crew behind the bar , Charlie and his culinary skills are TOP NOTCH!! If your up tight DONT even bother, this spot is for cool people ONLY!! A TRUE GEM!!!

My family of 4 stopped in for lunch and a cold drink. We bellied up to the bar, and had some great conversation with the bartender (owner?). He was very entertaining, and provided great recommendations. We had the fish of the day, barracuda, which tasted great. Their homemade hot sauce was a great touch. If you’re looking for “fine dining”, this isn’t that. If you’re looking for a place for a unique experience, this is a great place. Would definitely go again.

Was not impressed. We had Charlie as a waiter /server. Was not that friendly. My wife asked what was on the pulled pork sandwich? any bbq sauce and he said no. She asked what’s on it? He said he don’t know he don’t eat it!!!! He then said if you don’t think you will like it. Don’t get it!!!! Then sent a kid over to take care of us. Also not a good part of town. Not much parking. Also the kid waiter dropped off the check to us with no pen. He went to another table waited for them to fill in their check and then brought the pen to us. We said we need a pen he said. I know. Was not in a hurry, it was just wrong. He waits for you to fill it in. Would not go here again.