Matthew's Beachside Restaurant

We spent two weeks at CDM and were able to sample everthing that Matthew's Beachside has to offer. Let me being by saying that Stefan has done an excellent job of hiring a wonderful team to this new restaurant. From Ricardo to all the waiters and bartenders, we were very impressed with the high level of friendly and professional service we and our guests received. The bar is a huge improvement. Besides the specials, the biggest improvement over past years is a great bunch of friendly bartenders who actually make great drinks. There are three happy hours. In September there were a couple of all day beer specials during the afternoon. They serve up some delicious fruity concoctions and I had really good margaritas! As for full service, we enjoyed the breakfasts, lunches and dinners we had. The menu has lots of choices. Dan and I had a beautiful dinner in July; the night couldn't have been more perfect, complimented by the beautiful sunset and cool breeze. Glad to report that even though it was low season, the restaurant appears to be doing well. Tuesday night there is an all you can eat Ribs special which was very good.

We enjoy Rumba, so we tried Stephan's new place for brunch on Sunday morning. Basically good. Even though there were very few customers at 10 a.m., the staff was still having problems. (start up issues?) Kim's pancakes were like shoe leather. It is a solid breakfast brunch at a good price, but takes a taxi to get there unless you are staying at the Casa or nearby.

My wife and I had breakfast there twice during our visit to Aruba in July. It's a very nice setting right off the beach. Our server was a very pleasant woman from Peru. I ordered bacon and eggs over light. The eggs were cooked to death. Next time, I figured it was just one of those days.
They won't do it again. They did. I might go back for lunch some day, but definitely not for breakfast.

We love their other restaurant (Rumba located downtown) so we were anxious to try Matthew's which just opened this past summer. Had a nice Caprese salad which we shared, then I had the grouper (catch of the day) and my husband ordered the tuna. The tuna was great (and huge!) but I had a little bit of a hard time conveying to my server how I wanted my fish prepared. I don't like heavy sauces, butter or salt and just prefer to have it grilled or broiled with lemon. We somehow agreed on a lemon wine sauce which sounded good but ended up being prepared with alot of butter which made it taste salty and just wasn't my style. It wasn't a bad meal, it just wasn't something I would normally order/eat so I was a little disappointed. But....we'll be back again next year to give it another try.

My friend and I went to the new Matthew's Beachside Restaurant last week on July 5th, a few days after their grand opening. Located at Casa del Mar, Matthew's has a lovely open-air beach-side atmosphere. They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sunday Brunch is served from 10 am.

Matthew's is owned by Stefan and Milka Legger. The restaurant was named after their son Nathan second name Matthew as they didn't want customers visioning Nathan's hot dogs. They also own Rumba's which is located downtown behind the Renaissance Resort.

We both had the the 14oz. sirloin steak topped with a garlic and green herb butter served with a red wine jus. My friend isn't into herb butter and didn't see it on the menu, so she just scraped it off. The steak was delicious. One steak was ordered medium rare and the other medium. Both were cooked to perfection. The entree came with one side - we chose baked potato with butter & sour cream. The only negative was the baked potato was not hot. We are both dessert lovers but we were full from the large-size steak so we decided to skip dessert tonight.

Matthew's has a "long" inviting bar - which can be seen in the slideshow link below. A good place to have a drink (or more) before or after dinner. Or anytime of day since they are open early. They do have T.V.'s at the bar but my suggestion is that Stefan should put in large wide-screen TV's for sports enthusiastics.

My bill: Entree $28.95, soda $2.50, 15% service charge $4.72, $2 additional tip. Total $38.17