San Juan, Puerto Rico report [March 2024]

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

We stayed for a couple of days in an Airbnb in Santurce, south of the expressway, and then for a week at the Sheraton by the Convention Center (my partner was attending a conference, I tagged along). We did not have a car, and did not take public transit. The hotel had a shuttle to Escambrón beach and Old San Juan, and we took that a few times. As is typical these days, we tried to eat well, but not fancy. Food is on the expensive side in PR, and our proximity to tourist zones did not help. I’ll list the highlights and briefly summarize the rest.

Our Airbnb was too minimally equipped for me to even make coffee, but we had a good breakfast routine in Santurce: we walked past 787 Coffee (where apparently one can spend $9 on a latte, or $34-47 for 10oz of beans) to Café Comunión, with a good flat white and a great soundtrack, and then to Levain Santurce for quality pastries (around $6 each).

The Convention Centre is geographically isolated by water and expressways. My partner had her hotel breakfast buffet paid for but it would have cost me $25, so I made coffee (Aeropress, hand grinder, beans from Hamburg) in the hotel room, and had bananas and yogurt to tide me over until lunch. It was a 15-minute walk (with some elevation changes) into Miramar (to the west) to get to a decent supermarket, and 20-25 minutes to a reasonable selection of food choices on Calle Cerra and nearby. I did that walk often. Top of the list is the Lena Eh food truck, whose chef, Rubén Guzmán, has a James Beard nomination this year. (The other one from PR is the chef at Orujo, Taller de Gastronomia, a much more expensive tasting restaurant a block away.) We went three times (it is only open three days a week, or I might have gone more often).

Across the street from the food truck park is Pollos Schnarneco, which looks like a fast-food chain restaurant, but is one of several concepts by prominent local chef Raúl Correa. While the chicken sandwich was good, the highlight was the porchetta sandwich ($11), full of flavour enhanced by the salsa verde, and with loads of crispy skin. We went twice.

Our best restaurant meal was, improbably, at Kemuri on the adjacent Calle Eduardo Cerra (maddening street naming!), which served Japanese comfort food. This set of kare raisu topped with karaage was $29 (so maybe three times what it would have cost in Japan?). The curry was not from a box; it was balanced and quite tasty.

The pizza at La Santurcina was quite good, though we may have escaped the dreaded soggy crust just by ordering one without tomato sauce or fresh mozzarella (mushrooms and fontina, $23). Quality selection of craft beer (cans/bottles).

The one place we ate in Old San Juan was Taberna Lúpulo, which is primarily a beer bar (and a very good one, with over 40 taps) but with quality bar food. After ten months in Portugal, I was thirsting for good craft beer on draught, so we went twice, and I went once by myself.

Pictured below is their Cubano sandwich ($13, big enough to share) but we also had their tripleta burger sliders (ground beef/chorizo/sausage, $14 for four), blistered shishito peppers ($13), and I had a chicken gyro, which was a notch below but still a generous portion, reasonably tasty, and a bargain at $8. The beer is not cheap ($7-10 for 13oz, or 8oz for higher ABV or fancier pours) but the selection (we could see the rotation through our visits) compensates.

The best tacos we had were at Acapulco Taqueria Mexicana in Ocean Park. Good flavours from the al pastor and cochinita pibil. The server said proudly, “We make our corn tortillas fresh every morning,” and we were like “You let them sit around for several hours?” though of course we didn’t voice that.

I enjoyed my two visits to Lucía Patisserie and Café in Miramar. It is only open three mornings a week. Viennoiserie was good (also around $6 each) as was the Basque burnt cheesecake I tried. They also had savoury stuffed croissants, lemon and fruit tarts, cinnamon rolls, cookies. Coffee was only decent (on our last morning, my equipment packed away and beans exhausted).

That concludes the highlights. I’ll post this now and follow up with the also-rans, for information.

[digga]

Thanks for the report. We have been considering a visit to PR so this is quite helpful. Looking forward to your follow-up post.

[GretchenS]

I enjoyed reading that, thank you!

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

Here are the places we ate at that were disappointing in one way or another.

Bebo’s Cafe is an all-day restaurant in Condado serving Puerto Rican food. My partner ordered chicharrones de pollo, which we understood to be marinated and breaded fried chicken, with a side of amarillos (fried sweet plantains); I ordered the daily special of pastelón (described as “plantain pie with ground beef”, reminiscent of lasagna) with a side of arroz mamposteado (a sort of composed rice and beans). The server asked me if I wanted avocado, for some reason, and I said yes.

Mine was the more interesting choice, but it was still dull. My partner described hers as “like chicken nuggets”, so we switched halfway through, and she was right; it was even more dull. The place is popular, the servings plentiful, the price reasonable, and I believe the food is authentic. Just not to our tastes. The server spoke a bit of English, and probably understood more, but mostly she spoke Spanish to us, which was fine for our purposes. We’d read complaints about the service but it was quick and correct in our experience. There may have been one other tourist couple in the place but everyone else seemed a local.

Metropol was a similar story, though there were more tourists, as it is right across from the Sheraton (used to be located in the casino attached to the hotel). It is a local chain with several locations across the island, serving both Cuban and Puerto Rican food. One day when rain discouraged me from a longer expedition, I went to it to have one of their lunch specials. Prices are a little higher than at Bebo’s, and one can order fancier meals. I ate at the bar, where everyone else was speaking Spanish, and had meatloaf with congrí and maduros (also fried sweet plantains). The meatloaf was stuffed with chorizo and bits of ropa vieja and diced hardboiled egg, but unfortunately doused with a very salty gravy which I did my best to scrape off. The sides were respectable, but again, a large serving of fairly boring food.

Another day, my partner had a work dinner, and while I wasn’t invited, I hoped to catch a ride with them and eat somewhere nearby. But they decided not to leave the area. I previously mentioned the geographical isolation of the convention center. On the same roundabout as it and the Sheraton is Distrito T-Mobile, which is an “entertainment district”, like an open-air mall but without stores, only restaurants and other food options, a couple of arcades, and a large screen and platform in the centre with loud music playing (presumably small bands or DJs could hold court, but all I ever saw was videos). The food options are mostly expensive and mediocre, judging from online reviews. They were going to Barullo, a Spanish restaurant; I opted for La Burguesía, a burger and fries joint. They had a number of towering burgers, but I opted for the simplest thing on the menu, a cheeseburger, which for $16 came with a paper cone of fries. I asked for the burger to be medium, but it was more like medium-well (no pink inside). A quartet of sauces (ketchup, mayo, aioli, and BBQ) helped punch up the flavours a bit, and the fries were respectable. A can of local craft beer cost me another $10. They also had loaded fries of various sorts, and shakes. Not what I’d call a destination, but not a bad choice, if one is stuck in the vicinity.

A couple of my partner’s colleagues were vegetarian/vegan and had not had a proper meal since arrival, so on a pleasant night, we walked the nearly 3km to Mai Pen Rai, in Santurce, a pan-SE-Asian place that had a number of options for them. My partner ordered pad Thai, and was asked “spice level, 1 to 4?” She was nonplussed; she’d never been asked about spice level on pad Thai before. “Zero, of course,” she said. I ordered drunken noodles, spice level 4, and they were quite hot, with thin slices of red Thai pepper visible, but they were missing umami oomph. The pad Thai was also muted, not too sweet, but not enough tamarind flavour. Our companions declared themselves satisfied with their stir-fries. Atmosphere was pleasant and service good.

Tacos and pizza are two things we miss after our move from NYC to Lisbon. Fidela is on Eater’s recent list. It started out as a food truck and managed to open a bricks-and-mortar place. Unfortunately, our margherita pizza was soggy. The thin crust had the consistency of a crepe in the centre, and the thicker rim was chewy, not crisp. The flavours were good, though. The mushroom trick that worked at La Santurcina wouldn’t work here; Fidela’s mushroom pizza has fresh mozzarella on it also.

El Axolote is on Calle Cerra in Miramar, a street that has a number of food options. They were out of the el pastor, to our disappointment. We substituted the special, described only as “tacos porkbelly”. This was a dish of four tacos with chunks of crisp roasted meat, with a sort of dark, sweet sauce. I couldn’t get any information about it out of the server (he spoke great English, he just didn’t know). It was respectable, but the cochinita pibil we ordered off the regular menu (three tacos plus rice and beans) lacked flavour.

Once we hopped the free hotel shuttle going to Escambrón beach, but walked away from the beach to the nearby El Axolote, on a side street in an area dominated by the large multi-lane one-way streets to/from the old town. This turned out to be a nice open-air space with a linear garden beside (though, as I found out, that meant mosquito bites). Complimentary chips and salsa arrived with our drinks, and the salsa was habañero! (But too spicy for my partner, who took a bite before I could warn her.) The tacos al pastor came three to a plate, but the tortillas were about four inches around (for $14!), the meat diced fairly finely, and no pineapple. That said, they tasted good, just not as gutsy as al pastor off a spit.

I’m not done, but I’ll post this, and finish off in a third message.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

I don’t think I emphasized enough how good the porchetta was at Pollos Schnarneco, and I can’t edit the original post now. So I’ll make this brief post to underline that this is some of the best porchetta I’ve ever had. Eleven bucks for half a pound of terrific meat and crackling! When I went back, the guy at the food counter said they were out of the specific bread they used for that sandwich, but would I like the chicken sandwich? I said, no, I want the porchetta, it’s amazing. And he said, “I know.” Like a mic drop. (Meanwhile, the young woman working beside him had quietly found the right kind of bread and put it on the grill already. But one can get the meat plain, with several possible sides, and I was going to ask for the chimichurri, also…)

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

Continuing now with the also-rans. Actually, the first one isn’t an also-ran, really. It was perfectly respectable for what it was, which was a lunch sandwich. We spent a full morning at the Museo del Arte (recommended, an excellent regional museum, I have seen much worse, and it wisely focussed exclusively on Puerto Rican artists) and needed a quick lunch. It was at Sabor Tropical Café and Bakery (a long block south of the museum), which is a small narrow well-styled place right next to a place with “Sabor Tropical BBQ” on a temporary banner, looking more like an older place serving Puerto Rican food off steam tables. The latter does not appear on Google Maps but the former has a high rating (though at least some of the reviews are for the latter). The café has large screens cycling through menu items (sandwiches, drinks, desserts) but the door behind the counter looks as if it leads to a shared kitchen. They had the classic Cubano listed as a signature sandwich, but also a “Christian sandwich”, which was ham, Swiss cheese, egg, bacon, and mayo, which we both went for. This was a mistake, as one was plenty, so we saved the two halves for breakfast the next morning, warming them as best we could in our inadequate Airbnb kitchen before checking out. The sandwich was quite good, and I imagine their other food would be as well. Not a destination, but worth keeping in mind if you are in the vicinity.

I tried twice to visit El Cuerito de la 15, a lechón place in Miramar somewhat south of the zone I kept hitting, but it was closed. When it is open, it is only open for weekend lunch. There were recent reviews on Google Maps, but also some that indicated random closures, like I encountered. On one of those days, I wandered up to the food truck park, and tried El Jangiri, a poké place. They have a bricks-and-mortar restaurant that gets good reviews, and the menu here is the same. It was all right, but nothing special. The fish was fresh (they have raw tuna and salmon, and five cooked options). I checked off base (I opted for half sushi rice and half avocado) and five toppings (from more than a dozen choices) and one sauce (I opted for ponzu). It cost $14, and was a modest size, reasonable for lunch. The protein share was nothing to complain about. But in the end, it was unsatisfying, and I think I just don’t like poké outside of select joints in Hawai’i, and my own kitchen. There are any number of poké places that mask fish trimmings with a lot of slop; I don’t think this was like that. So I am not willing to condemn it, but I don’t want to laud it, either, and that might be just me.

Our original motivation for going early and spending a couple of days in an Airbnb in Santurce was to meet an old friend of my partner, but it turned out they were busy during those days. Eventually we did meet up, at Ali Baba in Condado (where they lived, their choice). There are not many Turkish restaurants in San Juan, and this had the “greatest hits” on their menu, along with very mediocre beer and wine choices. We opted for meze, which came with housemade lavash (just okay). Hummus and baba ghanoush were all right, but the imam bayildi we ordered failed to arrive (after I told our friends the story of its name) and then they tried to charge us for it. Not impressed. At least we had good conversation at the reunion.

Nearby is the SuperMax, the best supermarket I encountered, and above it is The House, which is a good wine/liquor store if you are into more obscure selections. I bought a bottle of El Barrilito 3-star aged rum there (not at all obscure locally, and the price was the same everywhere), which I had encountered on my first visit to PR (33 years ago!) but only found a couple of times on the mainland since. That was for sipping in our hotel room while watching movies on the large screen (we do not have one at home at the moment) but I also, after this meal, bought a bottle of Elijah Craig bourbon to take back to Lisbon, at a cheaper price than I normally paid for it in NYC, go figure.

One note to close: a majority of places had QR codes on the table for menus. What do they do for people who don’t have phones, or don’t have roaming? And what is worse, scrolling through two dozen screens, or clicking on a dozen subcategories and having to back out of each one?

Puerto Rico was not a voluntary choice, but I’m not sorry I went (I could have stayed at home), and I was glad for those days in Santurce, which is at least a real neighbourhood with some grit to it. PR is clearly warped by imperialism, but not as much as Panama (which I visited under similar circumstances). I wish the best to the Puerto Rican people, and hope that some day they can both control their own destinies and not be as dependent on cruise ship and resort traffic.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

One more point, since the forum turns off edits very quickly. I was not overly impressed with Metropol near the Sheraton, but it is the most economical choice in the vicinity for those who don’t want to or can’t drive elsewhere, which is probably why I saw locals at the bar. The convention center has a food concession inside, with baked goods trucked in, and tacos (easy enough to ladle fillings onto industrial tortillas from a steam table). They also have metal detectors and bag searches at the entrance. At one point I brought food from Lena Eh at the food truck park for my partner, and they said it wasn’t allowed. I thank the young woman working security who accepted my argument that my partner couldn’t get away and wouldn’t eat otherwise, and waved me through. (Not entirely true; she had enough time to come down and eat outside somewhere, but it was much more pleasant to be inside.)

[digga]

@plragde

I wish the best to the Puerto Rican people, and hope that some day they can both control their own destinies and not be as dependent on cruise ship and resort traffic.

Thank you @plragde for your helpful candid reviews. We loathe the cruise set. If we go to PR, we would get far from the madding crowd, as we usually do.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

My own parents, in their eighties, are now taking cruises, and after a lifetime of parsimony, car trips to drivable destinations (plane trips only back to the country they were born in), and staying with friends, I am pleased that they can go to places I still have not been, despite my much more adventurous life. So I cannot entirely condemn them. But huge cruise ships seriously distort the local culture, and encourage a very superficial engagement with the realities on the ground. Plus their environmental impact is horrendous. I hope to never have to resort to one. I have only taken one guided tour, and that was to elephant sanctuaries in Kenya (in early 2020, just before COVID hit), where there was just no other way to gain access. It was low-impact, I believe, and the money went to support the rehabilitation and reintegration (into the wild) of orphan elephants. When I travelled in the '80’s, it was still possible to go somewhere, sit quietly and observe, use a few words/phrases in the local language to get food and shelter, and not stand out too much. Now it seems that everywhere you go, someone is there to grease the skids as they have for so many before you, and the whole feeling is altered. It is a loss, to be sure.

[plragde (Prabhakar Ragde)]

Also: we were on the 11th floor of the Sheraton, bay view, high up enough to see over the roof of the Distrito T-Mobile and to the three cruise ship docks (one by the small private-plane airport near us, two adjacent to Old San Juan), and I used cruisemapper.com to find out about what I was seeing (boats that towered over the city). The largest one had nearly 5000 passengers and 1800 crew members. Granted, the cruises were mostly starting/ending at San Juan, but it’s no wonder that Old San Juan, which is tiny, doesn’t feel as if anyone actually lives there full-time any more.