Urataka 12-A, Oranjestad, Aruba
CuisinePizzaSanta Cruz
Price per personAWG 20 to 40About US$ 11 to 22
Opening hours7 days a week · from 10 AM
ReservationsBy phoneCall ahead for groups
There are restaurants that feel like they were built for tourists, and then there is Urataka Center. Open since 1946, family-owned for most of its life, on the road toward Arikok National Park - Urataka is the kind of place locals have been going to after a long day for close to 80 years. Tourists who find it tend to become instant regulars.
It was recently sold to new owners, but they made a deliberate choice to keep the original vibe intact. The open-air setup, the laid-back local energy, the cold Balashi - none of that changed. Urataka still feels like Urataka.
Sit at the edge of the patio for the breeze, away from the pizza oven. Perfect after Arikok: one pizza per two people, wings and a cold Balashi!
AddressUrataka 12-A, Oranjestad, Aruba
Good wings, drinks and nice patio. Great specials and happy hour.
Took a trip from De Palm tours bus and we stopped by here for lunch. I got a cheeseburger lunch with fries and coleslaw. I cut it open to see the inside of the burger, cooked well, pickles and onions and lettuce, no tomato (which I like). This burger is a good quality burger and well worth ordering. Very tasty and does satisfy your hunger, can’t go wrong with a cheeseburger. Fries are oven cooked, not as fresh and hot but still warm and have some crisp. I love the coleslaw that I would like extra, it’s too good for a small cup. The waitresses took our order, a little slow but there was a lot of people in the bus so I did expect delays, but it took forever for her to bring hot sauce and napkins that a different waitress had to bring it to us. I tried the chicken wings, don’t get them, they are very dry unless you pour a lot of hot sauce on them. Overall the food quality is good for a lunch stop from the bus. The service was good but could be better for future reference. But it was good for the tour bus stop.
Service was really great. Pizza a little under cooked for me and wife's liking. But very tasty. Next time we will ask for well done.
Don’t bother ordering lasagna or ribs — they’re trash. Pizzas are… fine, I guess. Honestly, just go there for drinks and leave it at that. Service was mediocre at best. Ever since the new owner took over, the place has gone downhill hard. Save your money and eat somewhere else. Seriously, don’t be stubborn thinking “I’ll give it a try” — you’ll just be wasting your hard-earned cash.
During a De Palm tour, we stopped at this restaurant in the middle of the island. I ordered a BBQ dish, while my girlfriend had a hamburger. They are quite simple dishes, but good enough for a tour stop.
Anyone who wants to eat like an Aruban local. Families with kids who have been exploring Arikok National Park all day and need food fast. Groups of friends who want to share a few pizzas and many beers. Visitors who are tired of resort menus and want something real. The local crowd that fills this place every day is the best argument for going.
If you are looking for a romantic dinner, Urataka can get noisy and lively - that is the point of the place, and most guests love it, but it is worth knowing in advance. There are no vegan or gluten-free options. Dietary restrictions beyond a basic vegetarian pizza are not well-catered for here.
Think of it as a classic Aruban cunucu bar. Covered patio, open-air breezes, a bar with some indoor seating and air conditioning, and a crowd that is almost entirely local. The menu is unapologetically casual: pizza, burgers, wings - the kind of food you want after a hot day of off-roading through the national park or a long afternoon at the beach. You are not coming here for fine dining. You are coming here for a cold beer, a great pizza, and a table full of people who are genuinely happy to be there.
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If you have a car and any interest in seeing how Aruba actually eats - not on the resort strip, not at a fancy restaurant, but at a local spot that has been doing the same thing reliably well since 1946 - then yes. Urataka Center is one of those places that makes you feel like you found something real. Because you did.
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