I hate to give this restaurant 3 stars because in my opinion it is one of the best if not the best Puerto Rican restaurant in the city. I really want to see this place remain and be as successful as possible. If my experience changes in the future I will make sure to come back and modify this review.
The place itself is nice, it's not huge, but it's not tiny either, it's a comfortable sized restaurant if you feel like going in to eat there. I've never gone in with a group but I'm sure the staff would be happy to help you with anything since the staff has always been very polite.
So why only 3 stars?
2 reasons.
1. Consistency
The first time I went, I ordered some "Frituras" from the front and I also ordered some food from the menu to eat right there. Some of the stuff that I got was ok, some was very good, nothing was bad, I had the Jibarito Sandwich de Pernil, I personally felt the Pernil was very boring, not bad, not good either.
This day I had regular Alcapurrias and Alcapurrias de Yuca. The regular ones were pretty "Bleh", they were filled with ground beef , the Yuca ones were amazing and they were filled with pork.
Another day I go looking for those Yuca Alcapurrias and they didn't have any, but they had Rellenos de Papa, so I bought a few of those. Didn't really care for them, I felt too many chunks of potato in my mouth and normally the rellenos de papa I'm used to don't have larger chunks of potato.
Another day I go and they DO have the Yuca Alcapurrias. I buy some and take them to my Sisters so they can taste them because they were so great the first time. This time, however, they are filled with ground beef, instead of pork (not sure if this is supposed to be an option and they just failed at letting me know what kind they had). So this time the Yuca Alcapurrias were not very good.
Another day I go, they don't have Yuca alcapurrias but they have regular ones. They also had rellenos de papa. Neither of these were great the first time but they weren't bad either, I still eat them, so I ordered some of those. This time however, the Rellenos de papa were exactly how I like them. The Alcapurrias which last time were very bleh because they didn't have much flavor, now tasted like someone tried to season the meat and the salt shaker opened up and all the salt came out. Which honestly kind of works for me, I LOVE salt, but even for me at times they were a bit too much.
So this is why I'm removing a star. The restaurant is great and the people have always been great but the consistency, at least in their "Frituras" which is what I normally get, has been seriously lacking. I don't know if they have multiple cooks cooking however they feel like it or what, but there should be a recipe and that recipe should be followed.
2. Lack of credit card payments
This one isn't such a bad thing for me because they DO take payments over Cash App, however, they have a SQUARE logo right by the register with the VISA and MASTER CARD logos on there, but then they also have a sign letting you know they don't take cards.
Now a days, I can take credit card payments from my home office using Square, I feel like there is no excuse for not taking credit card payments. Yes, there is a fee associated with it, but if I'm going to buy $30 worth of Frituras from you, Square will only charge you less than $1 (2.6%+$0.10), isn't it better to get $29 than to get $0 because I didn't have cash?
With those things said, I still highly recommend the restaurant and hopefully it will only get better. read more