El Jefe Burger Shack

Five different burgers. Five very satisfied customers. Friendly staff. Great atmosphere. Simple. Affordable. Fresh. Make sure to try their coconut mojito!

Located on far west end of kiosks. Really loved the fried chicken sandwich. Fries were a little too greasy but still good. I think the owner was there. He was super friendly. Definitely will return next time I’m in Luquillo. The beach behind the kiosks was my favorite the whole trip. Clean once you pass the Parking and since we were there in sept and during week it was pretty quiet. Great area to visit.

I used to love this place. Would go once/​week. Their burgers, nachos, fries and Mikita were spectacular. Something has happened there that I can’t decipher. The staff quit mostly and now the ambiance is dark Nd damp. Hardly any customers and the place feels dirty. On a recent night there were several roaches running around the bar. Not good. Sorry to see this.

Awesome burger, good cheese sauce, friendly staff… Most of all we liked the hot sauce bar since we are piqué fans! Nice evening meal on the beach.

We actually didn’t get to eat there but we wanted to. We got there at noon and they weren’t going to open until 1 today because they were trying to fix one of their fryers. This is all fine so we tried to kill some time by walking down to another store. Unfortunately my sister, who is pregnant, began feeling faint due to the heat. We walked back to ask if she could just sit down. The man inside waved us off and simply said to come back on the hour. Again we never ate their because we decided to take our business elsewhere but I figured I’d share.

I really wanted to like this place, a rustic, down-​to-​earth restaurant in one of the most quintessential Puerto Rican attractions. Located in the Luquillo Kiosks – a collection of restaurants across from the beach – this place invites guests to write on the walls with sharpies or decorate plastic plates to hang from the roof. It’s a great way to pass the time, which was a good thing because the food took that long…
Service was inattentive, sure. The fries were under-​salted and the burgers were too greasy.
I remember my face lighting up when I asked the waiter for hot sauce and he pointed to the restaurant’s hot sauce bar, with plenty of bottles including some local varieties. This immediately raised my expectations (even though some of those sauces said they should be refrigerated and were probably unfit for consumption).
My biggest peeve is that this place allows strangers to approach you as you’re eating. I had two different people come up to my table to sell us crap (one of those people actually came to our table twice). This is frankly uncomfortable, and is enough to knock down 2 stars from my review. Fortunately, none of the vendors were hostile when I politely told them we weren’t interested, but this is nonetheless inexcusable. When you’re a paying customer, you expect to eat your meal in peace. I don’t like being a captive audience for products I have no intention of buying.
I grew up in Puerto Rico, where I lived for 18 years, and have never had this happen at a restaurant in the Island.
The restaurant is small enough that the staff could easily notice walking vendors coming in and out of their establishment, but I take it they had other things on their mind.

El Jefe was the best restaurant we went to on our trip to Puerto Rico! Joy was an amazing server giving us good advice on what we should try and even would offer to put in half orders for us when she thought we had ordered too much food. The owner even gave us some excellent recommendations on where else we should eat in Luquillo. The food was awesome! The jalapeño stuffed burger is a must! Excellent food right on the beach: what else can you ask for? Don’t let the appearance of the surrounding stores fool you, it’s definitely worth a visit!

Sorry but today the food was not as shining as all the reviews. Establishment needs to be cleaned thoroughly. No excuse for a dirty place.
Food… OMG the fries were oooozing with oil. Burgers tasted over done. Not feeling it at all. Service was good and friendly so hence the extra star. Hope they can take this as a constructive criitisim and make themselves better.

It’s hard to imagine anyone so entranced by their experience at El Jefe that they rush to Unilocal to give it 4 and 5 stars. But people apparently do, and I can only assume that they take a perverse joy in waiting hours for Wendy’s-quality food in a dank and dark space with music that seems designed to drown their sorrows. Maybe it’s the drinks? Nah, those are bad too.
Run, don’t walk, away from El Jefe. Maybe it’s right for the under 25 crowd, but even then, it feels sad.

Slow service… but excellent food and drinks. Would be ⁵⁄₅ if the food came out quicker, had to wait about 45 minutes for food to come out for a party of 6 all getting burgers. Cool lively environment with walls to write on and music playing.

We ate here twice on vacation. The burgers are great but the grilled chicken sandwich is the best chicken sandwich I have ever had. Both times we went we were the only customers dining and it still took about 30 minutes for our food so don’t come if you are in a hurry. But if you have kids they will enjoy writing on the walls while you wait. They provide markers and let the kids draw all they want.

Let me first say that my dietary restrictions (vegetarian, eat fish occasionally) are really hard to follow in Puerto Rico. Sure, there’s a new local and organic foods movement, but restaurants are few and hard to come by once you leave San Juan.
So, when we rented a car and took a road trip during our two month stay, we were really happy to find this place on Unilocal.Just finding a place that offers options is always a joy. I ordered the fish burger. It was delicious, the fries were great. The food took a long time to come, even on PR time. We were hungry and we were the only customers.
The restaurant has that dingy bar feeling– they give you markers and you can write on the wall while you wait. So, if you aren’t looking for something «punk», and trendy, you might be a little disappointed. It’s a bar atmosphere and they sever mixed drinks and beers. The drinks were okay– a little on the sweet side.
My friend tried their veggie burger, which was misleading because it actually wasn’t a burger, but just a tomato and onion sandwich on a roll – this is one thing I’d change (it’s not hard to get frozen veggie burgers in PR and the bit of protein would have been appreciated). They even charged her extra for avocado.
Considering the nearby options, I’d go back again next time I’m in town, but I have to remind myself, we are not in NYC anymore ;)

The google address is wrong. It will take you to a residential area. Its actually located in a strip of restaurants right next to the beach on road 3. The suite is #12. You seat yourself. They do speak english. There is a bar and the service is very prompt (considering how busy you are)
They have bar food and you can walk on the beach before or after your meal. The price is reasonable. I ordered a coconut mojito and the bartender made it to order because I’m a light weight. We also got a mango daiquiri and a piña colada. They also have beer. This is a hole in the wall kind of place so don’t expect fine dining. They do have two bathrooms. There is also a connecting art/​home made jewelry store.
The burgers were delicious. One of the best burgers I’ve ever had. You can add premium toppings like bacon, blue cheese, and avacado for $ 1 each. They’re regular toppings are free. The fries are fresh and seasoned very well.

Absolutely a great find! There are many to choose from on this strip of food shacks, but this one was great! The bartender was absolutely awesome as we sat up there and he gave us a rundown of everything the island has to offer. The sliders were amazing, full of flavor and packed a spicy punch.
I really enjoyed the open air dining along this strip. You can get a great ocean view, good food, good music, and not break the bank.

Loved the jalapeño stuffed burger is an understatement. The margarita was also a plus. The shops are a little sketchy, and may seem unsafe at first but once you get out and about everyone is super friendly.
Would highly recommend if your a burger lover.

We did our research for a place to get a burger between San Juan and Fajardo, and decided on EL Jefe Burger Shack.
We arrived 30 minutes before they are supposed to open, at noon. It was a normal day, not a holiday, and the neighboring businesses were all arriving and opening. We decided to wait and walk around the area and look at the beach behind the restaurant (s). WOW! It looked like a garbage dump. Trash was literally everywhere. It was extremely sad and depressing, because it would otherwise be a very beautiful beach. Just after 12:00 we return to find the gates still down and locked. We look inside and saw no employees, but plenty of cats and kittens walking all over the counters and tables, and one using a spot on the floor as a litter box. We walked in to a neighboring shop and asked about El Jefe’s hours. They said they might not open until 1:00. We waited the rest of the hour till a bit after 1:00, and still nobody arrived to open the place. We finally gave up and left.
All this being said, I would have STILL ordered a burger and rated this place based primarily on the food and service, forgiving the apparent lack of concern to cleanliness of their establishment and the area around it… had they ever bothered to open.
BUT…I love not too many things more than a good burger, so I will likely try again and will update this review if that happens.

A place in the Luquillo «kiosks» that serves dive-​bar style burgers and brews. I have certainly had better burgers in my life, but the atmosphere was fun and the burgers did hit the spot.
Their beers come served in their own individual beer bucket (on ice), which was a nice touch. My kids also liked the stuffed burgers.

Very fun place… Owners for Arizona make you feel like family.
Burgers are great… Sliders were over cooked.
Stop by for fun. Also some nice beach jewelry.

This place squeaked in last week to claim it’s title of «Best Burger I ate in 2013.» Maybe in the preceding years too. Jalapeño stuffed burger was to die! Loved the lemon-​ginger mojito. Go early in the day! We got there late afternoon and they were out of El Jefe cheese sauce. Guess that’s one more reason to keep visiting PR!
Pro tip: the «salad» sub for fries is actually just lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. I recommend it anyway, as those things go very well on your burger.

El Jefe was one of our favorite places on our trip to Puerto Rico. We are vegetarian and finding places to eat was an initial worry but we found a lot of great food on our travels. The Kioskos at Laquilla have a lot of food that isnt super veg friendly and after walking past all the kiosks we stopped in here just to try some appetizers and have some drinks. We ended up coming back a few times, so its safe to say we liked El Jefe.
We had nachos (big portion, nice and cheesy), grilled asparagus (kinda pricey but delicious), hand cut french fries (not bad), beer battered onion wedges (good and greasy), fried queso (my favorite) and tried some salads too. and of course we really enjoyed the drinks. i had many bacardi limon ginger mojitos. and now i am trying to find a mojito as good as this up here and its hopeless!
I am pretty sure they are open every day which is nice too — a lot of places around here are closed monday/​tuesday so plan ahead!
EL Jefe is on our list of places to go if we ever get back to PR.