Ernestina’s Restaurant

I absolutely love this place. Sea food isn’t my favorite but Ernestinas always gets me. The Dorado al ajillo is my favorite. It has more of a local vibe to it but don’t hesitate to go in but, I will say that the restaurant is a little hard to locate if you have not been there before. Also, cash only! The restaurant is really worth it.

Cash only and large portions! Bacon wrapped shrimp were great. I wish I knew the portion size, I could have split the bacon wrapped lobster tail with my friend, but it was all good. Sangria was tasty and the waitress was super nice.

You know how every time you go on vacation you prepare yourself for that one or two meals where everyone raves about that just turned into a disaster for you? Well, Ernestina’s was the one so far on our Puerto Rican vacation this April.
In my 5-​some years of Unilocaling, I haven’t given many places a 1-​star because I realize that most places are at least trying to be good and there are always people that enjoy different things. What led me to give Ernestina’s this horrible rating was not only that the food suffered from what I was expecting after reading all the reviews on Unilocal and Tripadvisor, it was mostly because of the service and the dishonesty that took place during our dining experience.
The boy and I stopped in for dinner one night after having tried all the other local places in town (couldn’t leave town that night because of massive festival traffic). The boy ordered rounds of grouper in creole sauce. I ordered octopus in vinegar and oil after learning that fish «in stew» meant it was the tomato-​based creole sauce, which I had at another place the night before. The boy wanted a beer but Ernestina’s doesn’t serve alcohol, so we asked for two glasses of tap water. For the sides, we each got the mofongo. Puerto Ricans sure love their mofongos!
After we made our order and was waiting for the drinks and food, the boy noticed a very small sign on the wall that said «cash only.» Hmm, okay, it would’ve been helpful had they put that on the front door or at least on the menu. Fortunately we had enough cash, but I noticed another table in the back room awkwardly counting all the cash they had. Yeah, talk about awkward. Strike 1.
5 minutes later, the server brought two bottles of water. Uh… I said two tap waters. Maybe he didn’t hear us? Fine, whatever, water can’t be that expensive. However, that’s strike 2.
15 minutes after that, we got our food. The grouper was doused with what was like Campbell’s tomato soup with some onions and green peppers thrown in. Instead of mofongo, the boy got plantain fritters. My octopus salad was over-​salted and the octopus over-​cooked.
We ate our food, disappointed that our last meal in Luquillo was so un-​delicious. Trying to cheer up, we decided that we were going to stop by Cutie’s for some ice cream to make us feel better.
When the bill came, we were shocked to find that not only did they blatantly overcharge us for the dishes we ordered, as in just making up prices that were different from what they were on the menu, AND they charged us extra for the mofongo that was presented to us at the time of ordering included with the entrees! Who does that?! We were outraged! We couldn’t be bothered to argue with such low people so we left what charged without a tip.
We’ll be going back to Luquillo, but we’ll never return to Ernestina’s and will tell all of our friends not to go to get ripped off.

Like homecooked food. Cash only.