Shining Star Restaurant

The food was ok, everything we ordered from the menu was not available, the menu is out dated. The owner needs to pay more attention to the business and not just the money the restaurant makes.

The Shining Star restaurant serves Puerto Rican food in North Philly. I couldn’t help comparing this visit to when I ate at Freddy and Tony’s, who serve amazing Puerto Rican food one mile north, especially since we ordered similarly (fried things +pork). Note that there are two menus, one in English and one in Spanish. If your food Spanish is halfway decent, stick with that menu, since the English translations were confusing.
To start, some chicken and beef empanadas and papas rellenas. The potato ball was more enjoyable than the empanadas, which didn’t have enough filling, but was not as good as the one from Freddy and Tony’s. Sauce makes a difference.
Then we ordered a half pound of pernil ($ 7.50), having seen it glistening in the window. The flavor of the pork and the skin were very good, though I like my pernil a little more moist and greasy.
Shining Star has a list of seafood mofongos that were all over $ 10, so we tried to get creative and asked for mofongo with carne frita. We were hoping they would be combined in the pilon, creating a plaintain-​meat fusion, but instead they were served separately. Thus, the plaintain mush has a nice nutty flavor, but did not get the added fat it needed from the crispy meat. Though the carne was quite good, perhaps we missed out by not getting a signature seafood mofongo. Next time.

One word-​DELICIOUS! Always friendly and food is consistently delish, my only complaint is they run out of pernil… please make more!

This is a local family style Puerto Rican resteraunt. Neighborhood is sketchy, and the menu is bare-​bones.
The rice and beans were great, and the penir asado was very juicy.
I recommend to a person who wanted a cheaper, faster experience then the superior Tierra Colombiana.
Service was very good considering the budget friendly atmosphere.
3.5 stars rounded up.