El Quenepo

Be sure to stop into this excellent place for dinner and drinks. We sat at the bar 2 nights and Kate was wonderful. She recommended several places for us to visit and have dinner. Highly recommend for dinner and an elegant meal out in Vieques.

very authentic Puerto Rican food. This whole island doesn’t have many nice restaurants. This one is among the top 3?
We ordered the lobster special (I still remember that we asked them to bring us the biggest lobster lol and the restaurant did really bring the heaviest! Lol it cost a lot the lobster was humongous. Anyway, it was tenderly cooked/​juicy/​and chewy). All the other food were much better prepared when compared to other restaurants in the neighborhood.
Yes, most of the waiters/​waitresses are from mainland. This restaurant doesn’t open every night/​day, check before you go.

Read the great reviews and found myself walking by so I asked, «may I see your menu?» To which they replied, «we’re closed for a private party.» To which I replied, «may I see a menu?» To which he replied, «we’re actually closed for two weeks after that.»
Message received. YOU DON’T WANT MY BUSINESS!

Came here for my birthday dinner and was not disappointed. The staff was attentive and knowledgeable, the ambiance was romantic, and the food was excellent. We got a mofongo special and the sous vide salmon. Both were absolutely delicious.
To top it off we shared the Belgian chocolate sphere. Fan-f***ing-tastic. Seriously. They brought over a meted pot of dark chocolate and poured it over the sphere. Ot was awesome, even had little rasberries buried inside. If you want a fancier dinner /​night out on Vieques, make this one of your stops.

This was the worst restaurant I have ever been to. I would give it negative stars if possible. The appetizers, which weren’t cheap (around $ 14) were tiny and mediocre at best, followed by a main course that was literally inedible and had to be returned. They then proceeded to make me feel badly about it, and then told me the assistant chef was still learning. I was supposed to pay $ 30 to eat something improperly cooked by a chef in training. The main chef came over and was incredibly rude and arrogant. In the end they made no accommodation other then agreeing to not charge me for the one dish of inedible food. This place should either not consider itself a restaurant, or hire a chef who has actually eaten food before. Don’t waste your time or money.

Meh food at a princely price. Service was barely ok. Prawns had way too much breading so it was half raw. Chicken was ok but had three different sauces, each of which was fine but just seemed fancy for the sake of fancy. Poke was decent if lightly seasoned but had iceberg lettuce for some reason on it. Tuna steak didn’t seem super fresh. Bill was exorbitant. All in all we left feeling worse than we entered.
I added one star just for being on the island.

I wanted to love this place. Service was excellent. Ambiance was nice. However, there was so much pepper in my appetizer I had a choking/​coughing fit and had to finally excuse myself to go to the bathroom. It was virtually inedible.
More pepper followed in my entrée. I ate cautiously but still got some surprise (not in a good way) bites.
Worse still, the next day I had food poisoning and was in bed the whole day. Was it El Quenepo? I can’t be sure, but the circumstantial evidence is high. I did eat elsewhere for lunch.
So was the tab. $ 200 — for 3 people. (1 child) Each adult had 2 drinks — the tab wasn’t all alcohol.
I would not return.

This spot has the best ambiance on the island (tied with Noche).
We stopped in twice — once for dinner and once for desert. For dinner, we had the crab soup, seafood ceviche and a few other dishes that I can’t recall. For desert, we had goat cheese, lemon cheesecake. The food was solid (the desert was fabulous!) but for the price I Next Course is still my favorite.
I recommend this spot as a place to have an upscale meal in Esperanza or as quiet place to share desert.

their specialty plate is Lobster. With that said, im more of a fresh fillet fish «catch of the day» gal. They do overdue their pepper in the seasoning, but i happen to like pepper. Service is great. Portions are small. Drinks are expensive, low in the alcohol high on the mix. Its not a gourmet experience but its only barely descent place in el Malecon area.

Had a delicious meal and great service. Tuna presentation was wonderful and Nathan a informative and wonderful server.

We were looking for a place that would have more of a Puerto Rican flavour rather than burgers and bar food and decided on this one from the reviews on Unilocal.The menu here had a lot of variation PLUS they had daily specials as well. For appetizers, we got the octopus special of the day and the ceviche. The ceviche was such a large portion and both tasted awesome! The octopus was cooked perfectly and the ceviche had a good balance of acid and flavors. For the mains we got the pork carnita and the mofungo special of the day. Mofungo was stuffed with shrimp and lobster and was absolutely delicious! Pork carnitas were delicious as well, but the mofungo stole the show. We also got the drink special of the day, can’t remember the name of it but it was a fruity vodka drink that was strong but did not taste too boozy, which is the way I like them. The waiter was super nice and made the experience even better! The dessert selection looked wonderful but we were way too full to try them out :(

This was next door to our rental house in Esperanza, so we tried it one night and it was good so we went back the next.
The place looks nice, service was always great, and they have tasty mixed drinks.
Food ranged from superb to just good. Their ceviche appetizer was great, as was the crab and corn chowder special they had one while we were there, as well as their mofongo entrée special. The regular scallops entrée was good, as was their shrimp entrée. The lamb entrée was good, but nothing special.
Well worth a visit or two,

It’s been four years since my last visit to Vieques and I’m sorry it took that long. Especially with a few new restaurants turning out high quality food options. (Even the old standbys are upgrading their options.)
On a Wednesday night with a pretty good crowd, (peak week, right before Christmas), we were seated immediately. Better to get there on the early side but also avoid the pre bio bay tour groups that want to eat before the 6:30 tours.
On this visit we ordered two specials, red snapper and mofongo, (aka mo-​fo). Their Puerto Rican specialty was made a bit differently than typical to make it a bit «lighter». (If that’s possible.) My red snapper came out head and all, with the meat white, flaky and delicious. Not sure how long these dishes will be available, but I’m sure for a while longer. Lots of other options from fish, to pasta, meats etc.
Prices run a bit high, and our server was at times not available, but the hostess and owner were very nice and were available to get things moving when the waiter temporarily vanished.
Recommend a visit.

Layers upon layers of flavors in each dish. High end dinners with amazing presentations. Servers seemed like they may have been overwhelmed but the restaurant was pretty full-don’t let that keep you away-​just make sure you patiently ask again.

We definitely enjoyed the atmosphere, people, location but I guess I was expecting this was the best place to experience Shrimp Mofongo for the first time. While it looked beautiful I thought the flavor and the textures were lacking. My fiancé wasn’t bowled over either. Will definitely go back to try something else because I really wanted to love this place.

We went with the ahi poke and calamari and were pleased but not blown away. For entrees we had the specials — seafood risotto and triggerfish — and were quite impressed. Dessert — the smores, coffee martini, and port — were a tossup. A tie for the best restaurant on the island, and the only place worth dressing up for.

My husband and I had a wonderful dinner here our first night in Vieques, and enjoyed it so much that we came back later in the week with friends.
I am a huge fan of their Cucumber Collins, a drink so unique and delicious I took a photo of the menu item so I can try to create it at home. It’s delightfully refreshing, and the thinly-​sliced cucumbers lining the inside of the glass are pure art. My husband is equally enamored of the not-​too-​sweet sangria, which is exactly what it sounds like — it’s rich, complex, and serves up the perfect amount of buzz.
Since we went there twice, and once with a group, we got to try many dishes. The tuna poke stood out as an appetizer — while not strictly traditional Hawaiian poke, the fish melted in our mouths and the combination of flavors was stunning. I also tried the ceviche and stone crab claw (a special), both of which were excellent, and the dum dums, which I thought were only okay.
On my first night there I had the scallops, which I was really excited about. Unfortunately, although most of the dish was outstanding, the scallops themselves were a little tough and fishy. This was my only complaint about the place, and shouldn’t deter you from going there, but if you’re considering the scallops you may want to ask your server if they’re good that evening.
(The servers, incidentally, are extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the food, as well as being quite personable. It was great to see them get excited about our orders — I love it when waitstaff are genuinely excited about food.)
On my second night I had the mofongo, which was reallllly tasty. I also tried the special cocktail, a mango martini with just-​picked mango. Yummmmm.
For desert we had the chocolate sphere. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and it is not to be missed.
Will definitely be back if I find myself in Vieques again. Highly recommended!

Dinner was excellent. We ordered the specials of the night. Soup and pork belly appetizers and for dinner I had the lobster and my friend the Mofongo. We even had the «Joey» special dessert which was a chocolate lave cake. The staff was super friendly and down to earth. Had a great dinner and dining experience

Beautiful restaurant, white linen topped tables, and beautifully presented, fresh food.
It’s expensive though about $ 30-​$ 35/​entrée so it’s definitely a pricey meal, and the portions smaller.
We started off with their arugula salad with papaya, avocado, almond and black cardamom dressing. It was nice to eat some fresh salad and fresh vegetables after days of BBQ meat and fried foods ;) It was small though, a fistful of greens.
For the main dishes, I got their yellowfin tuna which was seared and served with a black sesame purée which was really delicious. It was served with seaweed salad, cucumber and radish, all fresh ingredients balancing out the dense fish.
My husband got the mofongo which was pretty good I thought, served with lobster and shrimp. It’s their own special mofongo made with a special yam and some breading. They fry it which makes it really good on the outside but didn’t think the overall dish was particularly special.
We ended the meal with waffle and butter pecan ice cream. The waffle was OK and they were so skimpy on the ice cream so I would perhaps try another dessert next time. The macerated peaches were delicious on this dish, super sweet.
It’s a nice, expensive restaurant with smaller dishes, but really good, fresh good with inventive ingredients.

Great place, a bit pricey but in the upper echelon of dining experiences on Vieques and the best in Esperanza for sure.
Run by some very friendly ex-​pats, this place serves excellent seafood as well as steak (had a filet first time I was there which was incredible). Save room for dessert!