We just returned from our third trip and having received so much help from others via these message boards, wanted to post a few insights that will maybe help others.

We like to eat breakfast and lunch where we stay and then eat dinner out. In general, food is more expensive than in the USA but not unreasonable. You can plan to spend around $50 - $60 for 2 if you are careful and stick to basics. Extras mount up and bring your bill to $100 or more.

Maybe due to the numbers being down for travel after 9/11 the food was not quite as good as usual, but taking that into consideration, here are some reports:

Best overall was It Rains Fishes; the cream soups on different nights are outstanding. Fresh fish is excellent with sauces that definitely add to the whole.

The food at Zeezicht was good but watch your pennies as "mistakes" on the bill favor the house.
For example the sign outside said "$20 wahoo or
red snapper" We had the red snapper and were bill ed $25 each. When we questioned it, we were told the 20 only applied to the wahoo. We didn't want to make a scene so let it pass, but you should be wary there.

At Kon Tiki which usually has good reports, both meals were only fair. Egg noodles with a clump of frozen spinach on top with a small piece of fish and 1/2 teaspoon of "lobster sauce" which had no
flavor was not worth the money or descriptive "special."

Poorest meal was at DenLeman; we were the only ones in the restaurant during the meal which should have tipped us off. I won't go into details but could not recommend this restaurant.

One tip we got on this board was to find a place outside town called Carnacerio Latino which seemed to be a meat market. On Saturday around noon they are cooking ribs and chicken on an outdoor smoker and we tried both and can highly recommend them. Ribs are just as good as the "LoLo's" in St. Martin if you know about that. There is no restaurant, you just take them and drive away, but
I would definitely make that meal a priority.

Also very good was the Friday night buffet at the Buddy Dive Center. Nicely done, plenty of food, good service and reasonable price.

We checked out Richards but the menu was unusually boring and never changed a letter so we skipped it this trip.

Really the sept 11th hurt a lot in bonaire we all are really trying to keep it up for the comming season. First we had the Lenny now the sept 11th.
But we will make it.

Yes, you definitely will make it because you have
a wonderful island. But I don't think the locals realize how much of a difference they can make. For example, when tourists get ripped off, I have yet to read a complaint on these boards that has made much impact. "Oh those rich, complaining Americans........." But if people who live there
hold the feet of the their officials to the fire, it makes some difference; we saw that recently.