Restaurant Review: The Green House

Pam and I have gone to the Green House several times since we have come to live on Curacao. We took Mike there just after Christmas, too. It’s just a few minutes from us, on F.D. Rooseveltweg, in the district of Santa Maria, near the 24 hour gas station. There is plenty of parking just out front, with a guy who will help you park and get you back out into traffic after your meal. There is a location on Mambo Beach Boulevard as well which we’ve eaten at once.

The restaurant has limited outdoor seating, with lots of indoor seating, and a smallish sports bar area, mainly for watching soccer and baseball. It’s a fairly boisterous place, with lots of locals. Every time we’ve been there, there have been large family celebrations, and people obviously on dates. It has a more local vibe, than a tourist vibe, but the service staff all speak English very well.

The food is always good. The menu is varied, with lots of choices, from Mediterranean dishes, to local dishes, to standard fare like steaks and chicken. There are always a couple of specials, usually a fresh fish, and a chicken and ribs combo which is Pam’s favorite.  The portions are not small, so we always have a container of leftovers to take home for Bailey, our dog. At the Mambo Beach location, you can order sushi from the Origami Sushi house. It was very good sushi, worth the visit for sure.

The prices are reasonable, and the service is always good and friendly. They have lots of staff, and any one of them will grab you another drink. I like the unpretentious nature of the place, but the food is well presented, plentiful and very tasty.

Rank: 7.5 out of 10. The only deductions are for the deserts. They aren’t great, just ok.

Eagle ray at Playa Kenepa Grandi

Eagle ray in CuracaoWe spent the afternoon at Playa Kenepa Grandi having a nice long snorkel. Most of the time, we were chasing that elusive perfect shot of an eagle ray. We saw at least two different rays today. One was quite a bit smaller than the other. The smaller one was a bit more nervous and didn’t like us approaching too closely.

Eagle ray digging for dinnerThe slightly larger one didn’t mind too much. They are a really graceful looking creature in the ocean. They move their wings quite languidly until they are startled, or you come too close then they can just streak away from you.

Lots of fun. Here is a short movie of one of them.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas tree wormsGoing to just add a short note to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We’ve been busy here hitting the beaches everyday with Mike in town, and we might not get a break to post something on Christmas Day so I wanted to put one in today! Having an early Christmas wish is ok, it will help you as you rush to finish all your shopping. In Curacao, we do Christmas trees differently – the picture on the right is a stack of Christmas tree worms on a piece of coral.

Water swingWe  got to Kokomo Beach yesterday (it’s just a short 5 minute drive from where we live) and had a great snorkel. They’ve added a swing set – in the water. A great way to cool off after a session in the hot sun.

Seahorse at Kokomo BeachKokomo Beach has a lot of great coral to snorkel over, and there’s always some fun fish to see. Today was no exception as we got to see a little seahorse holding on to a little tiny sprout of coral.

Hope you all have a great Christmas and Sinter Klaus brings you everything you could hope for, including warm weather, sunny skies and beautiful blue oceans to swim in!

 

Quick little note

Some masksThe weather has been great lately. The heat of the summer has passed and it’s been in the low thirties most of the time. With the wind picking up, now that hurricane season is over, it is even more pleasant. Bailey and I have even managed to get some running in.

We have a collection of masks that we’ve purchased over the years in the different countries we’ve visited. When you have walls made of cement, displaying them becomes a problem. Drilling into cement blocks for each mask would have been a nightmare! We came up with a pretty neat solution, I think.