Panaderia La Viequense

Excellent Puerto Rican bakery. HUGE Mallorcas, quesitos to die for and great Cubano sandwiches. This place is a must-​visit in Isabel.

This is a small local bakery/​sandwich shop that has very good prices and the food is excellent! I know very little Spanish, but was able to order without an issue. The sugar donuts are amazing and go great with a café de leche (coffee with milk)!

My partner and I have been coming here whenever we visit Vieques, and started visiting in the early 80’s. Little has changed about this bakery and sandwich shop, which is, to us, part of its attractiveness and appeal.
To those patrons who are tourists from wherever, who complain that they are treated like second class patrons, and feel the service is slow and the locals are taken care of first, get a grip. I read all the reviews and I’d say you have an attitude and should not be visiting laid back Vieques at all. Stay home. Help the world avoid another attitudinal whiner.
I have never felt I was ignored, I know little Spanish, but I do know how to order what I want in Spanish, whether it’s coffee with milk or fried eggs with ham or any of the incredible pastries in the display case (I point and ask what’s inside of it!). If you don’t know any Spanish at all, have you thought of learning a little bit, or would you rather come here and complain it’s a dump and write snarky reviews on Unilocal?Did that bitchy review make your vacation or life better? Did it support fellow Unilocalers understanding what they can get here in the eating food or service? No, I doubt it.
Stay home wherever home is, get some therapy for your nasty attitude, and don’t be toxic wherever you go to.
The coffee is strong. Hot. Fresh. The bread used to make sandwiches is made here. It’s wonderful Puerto Rican water bread. Buy it by the loaf for the day, like the locals do.
Breakfasts are cooked to order, as are the sandwiches. Does it take time? Yes. Does it take 25 minutes? I’ve never experienced that in 30+ years, whether it’s in the height of the season or not. I don’t come to Vieques for fast anything. It’s counter intuitive. And if I were a local working here and a person orders who has an attitude, maybe I’d be just a bit slower, as poetic justice.
The pastries with guava are awesome. As are any filled with sweet cheeses. Just get them. Get a coffee. Sit and watch people come and go. Watch the social scene. Watch the kids stopping by on their way to school. Or the police who park their cars half off the street and come in and get their stuff. Note, many locals phone their order in before arriving so they ask for it and thus, it may appear like they are being served ahead of you. Not the case.
They’ve added tables and chairs to the sidewalk which I thought was cool. See, now you can drink a coffee and eat a guava filled pastry on the street, observing all of the life out there. And don’t write snarky reviews about how slow it is.
This is cash only. Tips should be added to the jar on the counter. If you don’t have money to tip, stay home. [Don’t be like a Unilocal Elite who goes to a free event and stuffs their face with passed food and guzzles down drinks all night and then tips $ 4. That’s #beyondtacky]

Loved this little place. It’s cash only (and cheap), and expect to wait a bit for your food. This worked for us b/​c we had a cream filled donut first which they gave us when we ordered (very yum!). We then shared the tortilla espanola (which is not like a normal tortilla espanola, but it was REALLY yum with a really good sauce). Good coffee for this type of place.

In yet another example of being treated «like a tourist,» my family was extremely disappointed in this little dump. At first, it seemed fine, dumpy, but the girl at the counter was friendly enough. Fast forward 30 – 45 minutes later, our two little sandwiches still weren’t ready. They just kept pushing our order back over and over to accommodate the locals. And I understand that tourists can be annoying — but we sat very patiently and politely, our kids staying seated and waiting very nicely (I was proud of them!), but it didn’t matter. If we hadn’t have already paid, we would have left and gotten to the beach a lot earlier.
The worst part: having to explain to your children why we were being treated so poorly.
The next-​to-​worst part: the food was very, very average. And they microwave everything.
There are much nicer people and better food all around. GO THERE. NOT HERE.

It is rare that I would rate somewhere so unbelievably low. However, it was very obvious that since we were not locals, we were not welcome. We ordered our food, then proceeded to wait a half an hour for it to be ready. Our order was only two sandwiches. At least 20 residents came in during that time and had their orders made immediately. Even the girl at the counter seemed to know something was up. She grinned when I asked for our order. We will not go back. Avoid this place if you’re not a local!

This place is delicious. The Spanish omelet was so good and I tried half the baked goods section. My boyfriend tried the cuban for breakfast and was happy with his decision. Highly recommend. Take some goodies to the beach later and you’ll be delighted all day.

Very good spot to grab sandwiches for a day on the beach. We had the La Viequense and the Cuban. Both sandwiches were tasty and quite filling… perfect for a picnic by the water.

Slow. Disappointing. Forgot our order. Took forever. Don’t count on some local delicacy.

Staff is helpful, food is cheap and simple with some nice looking bakery deserts. Pick up some good breakfast or easy sandwiches to go.
We liked our sandwiches and the price and ease were great. ⁵⁄₅ for what it is as long as you don’t expect gormet.

The sandwiches here are great but the wait is terrible. We were behind one other customer and had to wait 30 minutes for two sandwiches. We figured out that the staff was making bread for the Sol Food Truck so the wait was justified, but waiting for a few sandwiches was maddening. If you can, check out another bakery in town, if not, the long wait for sandwiches is worth it.

Went to Puerto Rico, Vieques and Culebra for our honeymoon and we just absolutely had to go here every morning!
We would eat a breakfast sandwich and get a café con leche. Takes a little while b/​c it is made fresh! :)
Then we would ask for 2 sandwiches to go and hit the road to the beach and sight see. We would eat the sandwiches at the beach everyday and it was amazing. They are made on this amazing bread baked fresh there every morning.

Going back to the main land from Vieques is a bit of a hassle: the first ferry leaves at…6:30am (UGH!), the second one at 11am.
Well…that’s life guys. Nothing is totally perfect, even in paradise and you’d better deal with it.
I did. And gladly so.
We asked our publico driver to drop us off here around 8am. It was busy with locals and school students. SCORE. The people behind the counter were not the most pleasant ever but who cares when it’s before-​your-​first-​coffee early? Not this gal. We ordered donuts and café con leche and sat down, happy.
The pastries were absolutely delicious. We devoured them in no time. And the café con leche!!! I wolfed it down, had a second, and stole a few sips of a third one. Yes, I am a pig. –let.
Doesn’t look like much but don’t let that stop you. Walk in, smile, and enjoy. Then hop on the ferry. Or not.

We have been to this place dozens of times — it is our favorite place to pick up a lunch to take to the beach. No, its not much to look at but the sandwiches are great!

This place was decent for sandwiches but my judgment may be a bit clouded since the food options in Vieques are pretty limited. They didn’t have a big selection of baked goods so I’m not sure I would consider it a true panaderia, it’s more of a sandwich shop with a small pastry case. I would probably go back only because it’s the only panaderia we checked out.

my daughter are still talking about the sandwich. i’d like to know what kind of bread you use so we might be able to recreate one here in kansas city… until the next trip!

We picked up sandwiches to-​go from here to take to the beach with us
I got some sort of chorizo/​turkey/​ham sandwich
It was done up panini-​style, which I like
However, none of us were very impressed with the sandwiches. Too much bread/​lettuce/​tomato
I probably wouldn’t go back to this place. Eh.

This bakery does not look like much from the outside (or from the inside, for that matter)… No frills. The interior is very bare, and all the food you’ll see when you walk is a few pastries in a window. Seriously: the first time I walked in there, I walked right back out, that’s how unimpressive it is.
But: it’s actually pretty good. Their pastries are reasonably tasty. The highlight, though, is their sandwiches, which are made to order and are pressed (like panini). The bread is good, and there’s a huge variety of fillings. I really enjoyed the tuna, and the ham/​egg/​cheese is pretty good too. The place is frequented by locals and tourists alike, and it’s a pretty good place to stop by for a quick breakfast. 3−½ stars.