Old San Juan

The food was good, but the prices were ridiculous.
I mean, how hard is it to make Puerto Rican food?
I believe, once, it was hard to find this particular dish in Miami; the owners (of course) took advantage. Now, more and more Puerto Rican restaurants are opening and prices have naturally come down. It was just a matter of time. This is the third time this place goes under new management and I believe its current owners serve desserts. Folks, you want a successful restaurant? Stop overcharging the customer for food… that can be made at home.

THIS PLACE IS NOT CLOSED.
I had lunch there two days ago. Yummy mofongo with carne fritz. Also loved the pasteles

Noooo, this place is NOT CLOSED! :) I will have a mini heart attack if they were, they just changed owners.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this place. I think I fell in love from the first time my boyfriend took me, & no, not in love with him but with the place lol (I was already in love with him by then) ha. Okay back to the review.
My boyfriend is Puerto Rican & he was dying to take me here for a really long time but we never found the time & trust me after the first time, we have made time! Did I mention we live 45 minutes away? yeah, its that good !
The service is superb & so is the food. The Mofongo is probably the best Mofongo I have ever had in my life, & the steak & the yuca & the tostones & ahh, every single little item in that menu is great!
Worth the drive, love the food, the service & the ambiance.
Thank you Old San Juan for the excellent service & delicious food!

Excellent food and love the music. Price is kind of on the high side but great for once in a while…
I always get the conch salad. The best!
Beer is $ 5.00

First of all we waited awkwardly at the door to be seated and when finally somebody came he just pointed at the table and said «seat there» which I found kinda rude. After that we had to wait looking at our faces while waiting for menus, which I thought we would get as soon as we sat down, but no.
Now the food, at first the appetizers came out fast and were delicious, we ordered alcapurrias and they were really good. Now more wait… Then the waitress came and took our order. Now much more wait. Apparently they only have one cook our really slow cooks. The place wasn’t full, only 4 tables including ours. The wait for our food was really long and we didn’t like that. The food was good. I had mofongo y lechon asado, my hubby mofongo with chicharron de pollo and my daughter had a pastel, she’s only 16 months and she loved it. We finished and the waitress took my husband’s plate while I was in the restroom and then we had to wait almost 20 minutes for her to come back and get my plate. No good service at all!
The service was awful although the food was great and we didn’t like that the tip was included in the check. Tips are an appreciation of the service, which we didn’t like or get.

Cute place… but not your abuela’s cooking.
Love that there is a store inside with PR goods! And I am curious to try the coquito, but didn’t. The arroz con gandules & bacalaoitos were not good. The alcapurrias were decent and the pasteles were okay. The waitress was far from friendly which was disappointing. But I might go back and try something else.
Yea on second thought maybe I will go back in hopes of finding some hot PR eye candy if any exist in Miami.

Great Puertorrican Food, como hecho en casa!!! Y Medallas friitas…:-)

I’m not going to lie to you. I didn’t go to this place for the Puerto Rican food. Mainly because I live in Chicago in a predominatly Puerto Rican neighborhood and I already had my fair share of Chuletas, Papa Rellenas, Pasteles, tostones, pinchos, etc. I stopped here because I was starving and craving a really good homemade chicken salad. As I’m driving down the road. I see this little place, I’d figure why not? I parked my car and walked in. It was kinda of empty and only a couple people in there. Keep in mind that I’m rating this place more from my experience while dining there rather than the actual food. As soon as I walked in the restaurant people stopped what they were doing and just stared at me. The host, I’m assuming he was the owner of the place, because he was sitting down with some other guy talking business. He gets up, greets me and finds a table for me. Now this is where my experience begins to get uncomfortable.
I get the menu and I was tempted to try all the greasy Puerto Rican food. But I contained myself and I stuck to ordering a salad. Now the Chef’s Salad sounded delicious from what I read on the menu. Add chicken and it sounds finger licking good. Yeah right. The host literally had a shocking expression on his face after hearing me order the salad. I’m not lying. Anyway as I’m sitting there. I noticed that the host’s friend kept staring at me. To make it even worst the host comes out from the kitchen and sits next to his buddy and stares at me as well. This is where I begin to feel awkward. As I waited, another lady comes out from the back and serves me some toasted bread (and no butter?) A few minutes later the host comes back and asks me if I was going to drink anything. I told him water was fine. Again, he had that look on his face like I was crazy.
Finally, I get my food. The plate was a decent size, the vegetables were fresh and the chicken was delicious. BUT I did notice that it was just a plain salad. It was missing ingredients that were under the description on the menu. The salad was supposed to have some apricot sauce and god knows what else. I cant remember exactly. However, I was given some vinaigrette and extra virgin olive oil for my salad. Again, EVERYONE was watching me eat. That made me feel very uncomfortable. At this point I didn’t even bother bringing up the missing ingredients to the waiter– host-​whatever he was. As I am sitting there eating my nutritious full of vitamins salad. This kid walks into the restaurant selling his peanuts and chocolates for some charity. The funny part is that no one bought anything from him (because those peanuts were expensive $ 8), but they did give him dollar donations. Then he approaches me and goes on telling me how my donation will help him go on a trip and blah blah blah… I told him I didn’t have that much cash and offered him 5 bucks for a box of roasted peanuts. That made him go away. Again, after doing that EVERYONE including the customers this time were staring at me. (LBVS)
I ate my meal as fast as I could so that I could just get out of there. Because it was getting intense. The host’s friend even gets up from his chair to take a better look at me. WTF? Seriously? I asked for my check and got the hell out of there. Will I ever go back to this place to try the actual Puerto Rican food? Perhaps, if I was living there and craving yuca or papa rellena, but it will have to be CARRY-​OUT. Either way, it was also pricey for what I order and gratuity was already included in the check. Did I mention that Helery Clinton ate at this place? Well she did, good for her.

This place is great! The decoration is very puertorican house– warming so I felt great just by walking in. They have Medalla Light Beer which is a puertorican beer made in Mayaguez. I had for appetizer Alcapurrias de Yuca (Yucan fritters), excellent! For entrée, I had Mofongo Marinero and it was one of the best mofongo I’ve had in my entire life. The serve was so nice and even the chef came out to greet us.
I’LL DEFINITELY COME BACK HERE!

I went here for dinner the other day and I was excited to try the food. I went to Puerto Rico last year and loved the food and I was too happy to find this restaurant. Upon entering, there was no one to greet us and I was unsure if I was to seat myself or not. I was about to walk to a seat when a server came out to seat us. Since I didn’t speak Spanish and his English was minimum, he spoke to my BF only.
There was a buffet, but we had to ask about it because he didn’t offer that as a meal option. I thought it was a bit pricey for a buffet since I don’t eat much. MY BF went the buffet route and tried practically everything… and so did I, lol. His buffet came with dessert and coffee i believe. He ordered a tres leches type of cake with coconut. I didn’t like it as I don’t like anything with coconut flakes.
I ordered mofongo con pollo and it was so good. Seasoned just right and a nice size. Everything was delicious!
The shocker came when the waiter asked if I was done with my half eaten plate and whisked it away. Mind you I thought he was boxing it up in the back for me to enjoy tomorrow for lunch. Only to find out that he just brought the check and no food. I was gravely disappointed and my BF blamed it on miscommunication. Can you say upset.
Overall the food was amazing, but Im still upset

So, we were in Miami for one night and instead of doing the Cuban thing, decided to try something new. In this case Puerto Rican. Old San Juan definitely was the right choice, especially since this was a new cuisine for us.
The greeter/​server was so nice and you could tell he was prepared to explain anything that we needed. But I had done some homework prior to walking in and so we were prepared with what we wanted. Started with Pasteles, which I loved. My love is not a huge fan of tamales and so wasn’t overly impressed with the Pasteles, which just meant more for me. I needed something green, as I so often do and so ordered the house salad. Nothing revolutionary but good. The best part was the sour peach and tamarindo dressing. I’m still annoyed that we didn’t get a bottle to bring home.
For entrees, I had the mofongo con carne frita, which was so, so good. I mean, it is crispy pork pieces so there was little chance I wouldn’t like it but when I begin to resent that I only have one stomach, it does mean the dish is especially well-​done. My husband had the roast pork plate with rice, pigeon peas and fried plantains, which he adored. Normally he is not a huge fan of plantains but these were so good that he finished them off quickly. Same thing with the rice and pigeon peas. In fact, he ate more of that meal than I have seen him do in quite a long time.
Oh, almost forgot, be sure to get some of their house-​made hot sauce for your meal, and to bring home with you too. It’s heat isn’t especially searing but instead it has a well-​rounded taste to it. Of course, I am a sucker for good hot sauce.
Long story short, whether this is a cuisine with which you are familiar or not, try Old San Juan. I can’t imagine that you would be disappointed. Plus you get enough food to eat for at least 2.5 meals.

Food was good and drive was long… If you’re in the Ft. Lauderdale area go to
Latin Café
5190 Coconut Creek Parkway
Margate, FL 33 063‑3913
(954) 978‑8799
.

I’ve never had P.R. food before and was somewhat skeptical, but I went along with my lovely Puerto Rican friend and I loved this place.
There fried plantain are the best I’ve ever had. I’ve had plantain in the Caribbean and Ghana and they don’t even begin to compare. they were fried hard enough that consistency was gummy, yet not so hard as to take away from the lightness and flavor. The steak I had was cooked and seasoned well and the rice was perfect.
Anytime I’m in Miami, I definitely heading over here!

Okay so the place is a small hole in the wall with limited parking but I’d gladly walk the 836 to eat here! Miami has 800 Cuban restaurants and few Puerto Rican ones. This is by far my favorite restaurant in south Florida. The service is not rushed. Everyone makes you feel like you are in their home. Every time I go I can’t decided what I want to eat since everything is so amazing! I’ve literally eaten every item on the menu and I’ve loved them all. Definitely the only place to get amazing homemade pasteles besides my cousins house in San Juan! I’d gladly bring Jesus here if he ever shows up!

Pasteles, pasteles, pasteles, my heart literally skipped a beat when I realized I was less than a mile away from this restaurant that I have had bookmarked for well over a year. Growing up with Puerto Rican food my entire life, and searching for a real authentic restaurant has been such a feat.
Nice size restaurant, casual, and relaxing. We came here for lunch, so we were given a lunch menu and regular menu. Our waiter spoke great English and was so helpful on answering any questions I had. He left us to look over the menu and get our drink order. He came back in due time, took our order and brought over a warm basket of garlic bread that was delicious.
All lunch options were $ 8.95, great deal and the serving’s are fairly large. I ordered Pasteles with Tostones and Arroz con Gandules. I just knew it was not going to be what I expected like so many times in the past. Hubby ordered pork with rice and sweet plantains.
Our dishes arrived after about ten minutes.
Instantly after seeing my dish I knew it was what I have been searching for.
Yes, yes, rejoice, I hear angel’s singing, the sun is shining ever so bright, love is in the air, happiness flows through every vain in my body. Finally, this is what I have craved for far to long. Filled with meat, potatoes, olives, and wrapped in an outside layer of smashed green banana, now this was authentic. I literally savored each and every bite which took me forever to finish it because I thoroughly wanted to enjoy. Hubby loved his dish very much. Our waiter did disappear after we asked for hot sauce, in which he forgot and it took quite a bit of time to track him down. Holy crap, we both enjoy hot sauce but I nearly went into convulsions when I poured a good size on my rice. Darn, this was beyond hot.
The arroz con gandules was good and I may be biased but I can make it better. There was no chorizo in it, and it was bland with very few Spanish olives in it. I prefer much more olives and Goya seasoning’s.
Our waiter was a bit slow but very friendly. I inquired if they sell pasteles frozen. He answered «yes». Score!
I ordered half a dozen for $ 15, a little steep in price but well worth it.
Keep in mind they automatically add fifteen percent gratuity on all checks and I was forced to pay it when he added the fifteen dollar charge of pasteles to my bill. Not that I had a major problem with it but I did not leave an additional tip like I normally do because someone put something in a bag for me.
Thank you for satisfying my long awaited craving, you are authentic, and made me a fan. See you again!
Geez, I almost forgot to thank Maria A. for sending this place over to me many moons ago, thank you dearly.

This was amazing! Wish I lived in FL just to experience the GREAT food and wonderful staff often! Will return for sure on the next visit!
Pasteles were fantastic!

There is Puerto Rican food and then there is Puerto Rican Food. Old San Juan has the best PR food. I even went so far as to take a real Puerto Rican to sample the food as well. She loved it.
Her favorite is Monfongo. There were several Monfongo choices. She chose Mahi Mahi. I chose a different dish with Camarones (Shrimp). It was all good.

Ate here last Sunday. Authentic homemade PR food. Love the bacallitos and our food was yummy. Reminded me of my family cooking back in the day being raised in Brooklyn, NY.

Best Pork Chop I’ve Ever Had: Check
Really Good Homemade Hot Sauce To Drench Said Pork Chop: Check
Mofongo: Gazuntit
Great Empanadas: You bet your sweet trasero.
A Restaurant Where No One Speaks English To Make For A Seemingly Authentic & Super Fun Experience For Both The Waitress & My Pocito Spanish Speaking Trasero: Concerteza
As this is my first experience with Puerto Rican cuisine and having nothing to compare it to, I cannot say this is «as good as it gets» or else I would have given it 5 stars. I will say that if I could have given it four and a half, I would have.

Being a foodie with a Puerto Rican brother-​in-​law, it was only a matter of time until I had my first foray into PR cuisine.
Walking in, this place has mom-​and-​pop charm, down to the PR gift shop in the corner.
I dove head first into the cuisine, sampling Pasteles, Piñón, Mofongo, Pernil, and others. It was all delicious. Now, here’s where my brother-​in-​law might smack me, but it was wasn’t «outstanding». Have you ever left a restaurant and said, «You know, I just wish everything was a little bit tastier.»? I just felt like each item could have had a little more spice, or a little more garlic, etc.
Would I go back to savor PR cuisine? Maybe, but I’d would inquire where else the group wanted to go first.

If you are in the mood for real PR dishes (Pasteles, Piñón, Pernil, Arroz con Gandules, Mofongo, etc…) at a GREAT price then you have to try this amazing mom & pop restaurant. They offer friendly service, great tasting food and a homey atmosphere. My boyfriend is PR and loooovvves to EAT, whereas I can eat a bowl of cereal and be satisfied. But after trying their food I find myself eager to go back. I highly recommend you try this Restaurant! They will win you over.
Sat & Sun from 12 – 8 they offer a $ 22 all you can eat buffet (including wine/​beer, dessert and coffee)
Try the Bien me sabe Guava flavor its AMAZING!!!