We are two Swiss and stay on the island for two weeks in May. We both eat vegetarian. Can anyone recommend one or two restaurants?
ThanX and greetings from still very cold Switzerland,
Sarah (and Heinz)

Welcome to Bonaire Talk Sarah (and Heinz).

You will not have a problem on Bonaire finding a vegetarian meal. Most restaurants now have it as part of there menu.

(Message edited by bonaire9 on March 25, 2009)

hallo Sarah und Heinz,

die meisten Restaurants auf Bonaire sind sehr zuvorkommend den wuenschen ihrer Gaeste gegenueber, sogar in einem Steakhouse, laesst sich der Koch dort sicher was fuer euch einfallen, ein rein vegetarisches Restaurant kenn ich nicht, viel Grill und viel Fisch. Bistro de Paris hat eine vegetarische Liste auf ihrer Menuekarte, sowie City Cafe, Cappriccio, Bambu wechselt oefters ihr Menue, aber auch da gibt es vegetarische Besonderheiten. Meine persoenliche Empfehlung waere Bistro de Paris, das Ratatouille schmeckt vorzueglich, jegliche Gemuesekost ist exzellent zubereitet. Kann ich sehr empfehlen.
viel Spass auf Bonaire und Bon Appetit!

Hi Jerry and Silvia

Cool, thanX for the answers! That was quick. Perfect, we love all kind of vegetables. I also read something about polenta and funghi? Love that too. We have a studio at Caribbean Club and want to cook by ourselves from time to time. I guess there are big supermarkets also?
We certainly will enjoy Bonaire because we love shore diving. We did a lot of it on the island of Gozo (near to Malta) in the Mediterranean Sea.
ThanX again and greetings from
Sarah

Hallo nochmals,

ja es gibt mehrere grosse supermaerkte, bloss bei der Auswahl hapert es etwas, und frisch ist es auch nicht unbedingt, ich kaufe mein Gemuese immer beim More For Less Supermarkt, auf der Kaya Nikiboko Noord, dort ist die Auswahl und Frische der Ware am besten. Beim Obst und Gemuesestand direkt gegenueber von City Cafe - entlang des Boulevards, direkt an der See, gibt es auch jeden Tag eine Auswahl an Fruechten und Gemuese zu guenstigen Preisen.

You are going to the right place

I don't know what Silvia is saying, but Cultimara has a very good selection (large) of fruits and vegetables. Warehouse and More for Less have them, but not as big as selection as Cultimara.

Where's CB, she's a vegetarian and Bonaire lover....CB???

Well, others may differ with me, but I claim you can be a vegetarian on Bonaire if you have a sense of humor. It's a lot better than it used to be, but I still get a lot of pasta primavera that is actually spaghetti with grated carrots and cabbage.

Cultimara does have fruits and vegetables, but what you get and the quality of what you get varies day to day.

Remember that some restaurants interpretation of vegetarian may differ from yours. I had a mushroom sauce I later found out was made with a veal stock reduction. Somebody recently mentioned that they found bones in a vegetarian stew. And when I found meat in a vegetarian dish, it was explained to me that it had simply been added "for flavor".

That said, I've never starved, and the stores groceries are great fun to navigate, especially if you don't read the languages the products are printed in.

I grieve the passing of the Garden Cafe, which had the best salad on the island. Bistro de Paris had great salads and vegetables last time I was there, and Pasa Bon Pizza does, too. I'm sure others will chime in with places I've over looked.

Since I've been to Bonaire a dozen times or so, it doesn't look like the food quality is keeping me away, and, really, I don't go there to eat...I go there to DIVE!

My Wife is a veggie and managed pretty well for three years on island.

Try Joe's veggie pasta at Pasa Bon Pizza, it'll last for two meals!

Capriccio do a great pumpkin ravioli and Mona Lisa will always prepare a vegetarian alternative if you give them a little notice.As Barbara says, most restaurants will make an effort.

We only had one disappointment and surprisingly that was at Richards. My wife was served some plain pasta shells with over cooked carrots and broccoli and a fish sauce. She doesn't eat fish either. She ate bread that evening followed by a stop at Spanhoek for a veggie takeaway.

Enjoy!

Wow, cool. ThanX for the good advice! Sounds great. We neather eat fish, so pasta it will be. In Switzerland - if you are not in a big city - it's the same with the sauces, you always have to ask if it is meat or vegetable sauce. So we are used to it.
And YES of course the diving is also the most important thing to us. We already got the guide from Susan.
Lots of greetings from
Sarah

Silvia...I know you also speak Japanese as well, but it would be nice if we could all know what you said! Miss you...

Oh no the Garden Cafe is closed. We loved it there... I hope he opened his tequila farm. He gave me a sample and it was GREAT... nice man and an interesting person for a long conversation... Please let me know where he is.... Saturday wheels up....yes!!!!!!!!!!1

I will call him and see if we can get him to cook something special for you.

Wil, the chef/owner of Wil's Tropical Grill, will make you an absolutely amazing vegetarian dinner if you let him know beforehand what you do/do not eat. Do you eat dairy? Last week, he made me a fabulous couscous dish. It had roasted vegetables (included mushrooms, asparagus, zucchini, onions, tomatoes) with goat cheese on top. Yummy!

Michael.... see you Sunday...

yes michael and other dear members on this thread,

mea maxima culpa, that was very rude of me, I just got carried away, reading that Sarah and Heinz are from Zurich and that I can speak/write once in a while german again, Im so sorry.
I agree with CB, Tink and Anthony and all I mentioned in german is what CB mentioned in her post. I mostly spend on Bonaire more money to hunt down fresh veggies and fruits than on everything else, my favorite spot is More For Less, to get a larger assortiment and can choose what I cook when I stand in front of the shelves.
My favorite restaurant to eat vegetarian is Patrice's Bistro de Paris, I explained in german that I love the Ratatouille and that the vegetarian dishes are done with care and love for their profession. I also promoted the fruit stand opposite of City Cafe. On another note, there is a very tiny supermarket at Kaya Kitaron, the mom of the owner always prepares fresh yoghurt for me, they dont have a big variety of veggies but its cheap to shop there.
I promise not to write in any other language than english again, sorry BT.

It is never necessary to apologize for speaking another language. We Americans are spoiled. I envy the Europeans and Bonairians ... you grow up multi lingual and are so much the better off for it.... We can get by when you communicate in a more efficient way to help someone out...
b

Hi Carol

Thank you for the tip. And yes, we do eat dairy. That couscous dish sounds delicious. Yep, now you made me hungry.
@Silvia, I was quite surprised and happy to read some words in german.
Mit lieben Grüssen (nach Bonaire?), d Sarah

Silvia, the Bistro's Ratatoulle is THE BEST, isn't it? Although I can't say it's a traditional one, it's good!

Barbara, yes it is, I cannot agree more with you, well, I dont know about traditional, every restaurant I order a ratatouille it tastes different and when I cook it at home it tastes different too.....;-)

Although we've not eaten there for dinner, Bistro de Paris has MANY tasty vegetarian items at lunch. We also enjoyed our dinner at Warung Louise (Indonesian) where you can get a vegetarian rijsttafel. As for groceries for preparing your own meals, Cultimara has great breads, but we prefer Warehouse for most other items. It seems most of the items at Cultimara come from the US, while Warehouse carries many more items from Europe.
Don't forget to visit the Venezuelan brothers at their stand opposite City Cafe for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Hi.
I went a couple of times to Amir Shoarma where he serves a great vegetarian shoarma and a vegetarian falafel. They,re only 15 naf and sooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Amir Shoarma is above the Chippie Office or across from RentoFun. During the week he,s open till 11.30 it evening and in the weekend even later.

He also makes good lamb or chicken shoarma as well.

I don't know where this place is, but I'm gonna find out on my next trip.....

upstairs over the Harley dealer

Thank you, Michael!

Hello again

Just wanted to let you know that yesterday I came back from my two week diving holiday on Bonaire.
Thanks for the vegi-tips I got. I had the Ratatouille and it was indeed very good. And we often went to Capriccio, the pasta (above all the pumpkin ravioli) is fantastic! We twice had the Pizza with artichokes and that was also very good. Actually that was the best Pizza outside of Italy and Switzerland I had so far.
For a snack in between dives we went several times to Buddy Dive Resort. We liked the Greek Salad and the vegetable Qesasilla (sorry, I don't remember the exact spelling...).
For the things to take along to the dive site we used Cultimara a lot.

A big THANX again.
Greetings from Zurich from
Sarah

PS: I will open another topic concerning the diving, but just a few words. We did 25 dives, used the book from Susan Porter a lot, made two dives with Cijs at the East Coast (and saw nine Spotted Eagle Rays during one dive!) and two dives in the National Park. We had a good time and liked the diving a lot! We prefered the southern sites to the ones in the north.

Hey Sarah,

glad you made it safe and sound back home, dont you miss Bonaire already? I am glad you loved the Ratatouille, indeed the home made noodles at Capriccios are delish - no fusion experimental kitchen stuff going on but plain simple honest real italian kitchen, and dont get me started on the wine list! Buddy Dive is okay for in between, never tried the Quesadilla, will do so next time!
Am glad you used Susans book, I hardly meet her out of the water, this lady is a mermaid. Gijs is a great guy, glad you had the time to dive with him and 9 Spotted Eagle Rays is just absolutely fantastic!
Already fancying another dive? thanks for sharing Sarah!