Nusa Restaurant

Our favorite dinner in Aruba was at this unsuspecting spot on the harbor with incredible Indonesian flavors. Their rice table dinner model is the perfect way to try a bit of everything (scaled for the size of your group!) and the owner is charmingly proud of his wife, the chef. We had 7 dishes for 2 people (delicious, but 5 would have been plenty) and loved the rendang, duck and pork ribs most. Would encourage anyone to make time for Nusa while in Aruba for a casual, friendly and warmly welcoming flavorful dinner.

Stumbled upon this gem in Aruba and had a fantastic meal. Flavours were so good! Beautiful patio to sit outside on and we absolutely loved the family style. Highly recommend the fish curry 🤤

Close to the end of our trip my family collectively decided we were sick of surf and turf and NEEDED some ethnic food. We realized our mistake was not coming to Nusa at least twice during our trip. The restaurant is a fully family run business that is not only putting out amazing food but also making it very clear that they’re pouring their hearts into this place. The service was very attentive despite a decently busy night and everything came out exactly as asked for. Here’s what we ordered: - Starting off with the Kroepoek with peanut sauce and the Mixed skewer platter. We were able to share these evenly between 5 people as a perfect appetizer size. - For the rice table we did 5 dishes which was almost more than enough after our starters. We did the pork in soy sauce, grilled duck, braised chicken, fried chicken dumplings, and the beef stew. - For dessert we did the layered cakes and fried banana with ice cream. Without going into depth about each dish, I will say that I would order everything we had again in a heartbeat, which respectfully I can’t say about a lot of the big name restaurants that we went to on the island. It was also nice to see the owner who carried a big smile getting involved in the operations throughout the night too. You’re the man Jost! Out of everywhere we went, this was the most affordable meal we had (~$30-40 pp with drinks) and WITHOUT a doubt the best dinner we shared. Do yourself a favor and hit this spot at the beginning of your visit so you can bring yourself back here before you leave.

Milou was absolutely amazing. Having a severe dairy allergy she made sure to check everything with great detail. Her recommendations were outstanding. I was even able to have the dessert, minus the ice cream.

Nusa was probably the highlight of our trip to Aruba in terms of food. Although it is not exactly local food, the Indonesian food made it something new. It was amazing, we loved every bit of it. The 5 dish option was more than enough for the two of us. Highly recommend the duck, ribs, and skewers. Beware though, that red sauce is SPICY.