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    El Refrán

    4.5 (329 reviews)
    ModeratePuerto Rican
    Closed 5:00 pm - 12:00 am (Next day)

    El Refrán Photos

    EL REFRÁN ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Trendy
    Moderate noise
    Dogs allowed

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    Reviews With Photos - El Refrán

    Heidi M.

    We were looking for places to eat in San Juan, and El Refrán kept coming up, so we decided to check them out. It's not a big place and was pretty packed when we arrived, but we got there at a good time because a lot of people had left, and we didn't have to wait too long. Our server was amazing and made us feel right at home. The food was great. We had ham croquettes, and my husband ordered a pork dish. My blue drink was bomb and matched my nails perfectly! My husband had a smoked old-fashioned that was pretty tasty as well. The best part was the dessert. They have the best Tres Leches I've ever had! It's been voted the best in all of Puerto Rico for the past six years. It's to die for!!!!

    Kayla B.

    First dinner of vacation and it was amazing!! Had the Red Sangria and a Gin & Tonic, both were nice and strong. We had the shrimp quesadilla, chicken quesadilla, chicken tenders with fries and Mofongo with Garlic Sauce. All were amazing!!! And the portions were adequate for the price. Also, Derek was super dope as a server. So friendly and gave great recommendations. We will definitely be back.

    Pernil Mofungo
    Danielle J.

    Should have been our 1st stop! Small spot, but service was welcoming. The food was flavorful, would have liked a little more juice on the pernil but it was tender. The pork chops and grilled veggies packed flavor too.

    Spinach and mushroom quesadilla
    Jasmeet M.

    Indoor seating with a open front which allows for a nice breeze! The service was impeccable, started with a passion fruit juice which was very refreshing and from a local farm. I ordered the surf and turf mofongo. It was incredible, the mofongo had a garlic forward flavor. The shrimp was also garlicky and the shrimp was incredibly tender. The grilled veggies were flavorful and fresh!

    Delicious
    James L.

    It sure has a cool vibe here. We sat with our friends to the right of the beautiful, bold mural and looked out across the open facade to see the people walking by and the sights of Ashford avenue on a warm evening. The food is just great. I ordered mampostao rice (rice and beans on the griddle till it gets crispy) topped with the perfectly cooked skirt steak. This was delicious. Hubby got the same with grilled shrimp, also real good. Our waiter was really friendly and, ahem, pretty nice on the eyes.

    Fish nuggets
    Breanne R.

    El Refran is a small restaurant. They had the bartender also serving as the waiter, so service was a little slow. However, he was friendly and tried his best. I enjoyed my fishbowl drink, but the fish nuggets and grilled vegetables lacked seasoning. I also didn't particularly care for the sauces that came with the fish. However, the rice and beans were delicious!

    Surf and turf mofongo amazingly well seasoned steak and shrimps with unique flavor you can only have in this place

    Amazing food. There is reason why this place has 4.5 stars on yelp. Mofongo was a bit plain, but the steak and the shrimps are amazing

    Croquettes
    Remi W.

    We stopped in here on Saturday for lunch. The server was super friendly. Unfortunately, they were out of about half of their items which wasn't the best. They didn't have the cod fritters, empanadas, any chicken, or any pork chops. We definitely would've gotten different things than we did, had this not been the case. We ordered the croquettes which were very good. They did have the chicken wings because it was a different type of chicken. They were good and absolutely huge. We also had the boribowl with steak because they didn't have chicken. It came with rice, beans, and plantains. It was also good! We had the tres leches cake. It came frozen in the middle but overall was very tasty. Great service and good food. Being out of over half of the menu was not good.

    Jasmine W.

    While on vacation, we decided to try this restaurant based off the reviews. We had to wait about 7-10 minutes for a table to open up, not a bad wait at all. When we were seated, we were handed menus but were also told that most things on the menu were not available. I had my mind set on getting the skirt steak but unfortunately they were all out of stock. We did go late at night so we couldn't be disappointed. I pivoted and went with the strip steak with truffle fries. The fries were the best part of the meal. The steak was overdone, I asked for medium rare and ended up with a medium well to well done steak. The sides that we ordered were decent. Maybe I'll try to go earlier in the day to see if that will make a difference as far as experience.

    Light local beer
    Tiffany L.

    Cute little restaurant. Opens later when it rains. Impeccable service. Suggestions provided. Good fresh food without feeling bloated. Salmon and veggies with a beer for lunch! Check it out. A little pricey for lunch. Meal total $31+, but good nonetheless.

    Pernil mofongo, Chicken Criolla Mofongo
    Angelo A.

    Super tasty mofongo and the service was incredibly friendly! Great place to stop by and would definitely go again

    Outside
    Shawnie J.

    I don't necessarily want to give this place a bad review, but I do want to be honest about my experience. To start, I ordered a Shirley Temple and my daughter ordered a cranberry juice. Unfortunately, neither drink was good--my Shirley Temple was flat and unimpressive, and my daughter said her cranberry juice tasted watered down. For food, we ordered the chicken with rice, beans, and tostones. The chicken was juicy (not particularly standout, but still good), the beans were tasty, and the tostones were really good, especially with the ketchup-mayo sauce on the side. The biggest disappointment was the rice--it was hard and unpleasant, almost like the overcooked bottom layer (I think it's called graton). I personally don't enjoy that texture, so it really threw off the dish. If I were to go back, I'd skip the drinks altogether and just stick to the tostones and chicken. Service was fine, nothing remarkable either way. The ambiance is unique--it's technically indoors but completely open to the outside since there's no doorway, which gives it a kind of inside-outside feel. Overall, not a terrible experience, but definitely hit-or-miss depending on what you order.

    Mofongo surf and turf
    Michelle L.

    I tried a couple of places while I was here in Puerto Rico looking for authentic Puerto Rican food but this place by far has been the best!!!! Depending at what time you stop by there may be a huge line but it is worth the wait. I would recommend what I call going during off time like late lunch at 1-1:30 or early dinner 5-5:30 to avoid lines.

    Grill chicken + grilled veggies  Mofongo  Pernil + Arroz Blanco Habichules

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    Nice people but food is so so and VERY SLOW! Better places around. But the smoked drink is very nice!

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    Bebo's Café - Vanilla flan

    Bebo's Café

    3.9(964 reviews)
    1.3 km
    $$

    Bebo's Cafe is everything people say it is and more. After hearing so many positive things, we…read moredecided to visit during our trip, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. The food was incredible. Everything we ordered was flavorful, comforting, and clearly prepared with care. My mother even commented that the arroz y habichuelas reminded her of her grandmother's cooking, which is probably one of the highest compliments a Puerto Rican restaurant can receive. The meal felt authentic, homemade, and deeply satisfying. I ordered the stuffed avocado, and it was absolutely to die for. It was one of the standout dishes of our entire trip. The staff was attentive and worked hard to keep things moving despite how busy the restaurant was. You can immediately tell that this place serves a very high volume of customers, and for good reason. The only thing that may confuse first-time visitors is the seating process. People generally line up in the hallway adjacent to the dining room and wait to be seated. At first, it can feel like organized chaos, but the staff clearly knows how to manage the crowd. Given the popularity of the restaurant and the amount of people coming through the doors, the system works. The quality of the food for the price is outstanding. This is the kind of place you visit when you want authentic Puerto Rican food that tastes like it came straight from someone's family kitchen. If you're visiting San Juan, you owe it to yourself to eat here at least once. Our family loved it, and we would absolutely return on a future trip.

    Came recommended by our driver as a good local food option fir good Puerto Rican food . Food okay…read more- service okay - nothing special. Not many people were there and not many locals. It was not the local flair I was expecting. When most of the menu contains all-American hamburgers and pasta,,,, and mediocre at that... I had plantains with rice and beans. Chased the waiter for the bill.

    Photos
    Bebo's Café
    Bebo's Café - Chicken soup

    Chicken soup

    Bebo's Café - Steak with a side salad

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    Steak with a side salad

    Santaella - FILETE DE SALMÓN ORIENTAL

    Santaella

    4.3(694 reviews)
    0.9 km
    $$$

    Kept seeing a bunch of reviews on how amazing this place was and honestly it's up there…read more To start off, I'm not really a sweets guy so my take is going to be a little off from the general public. We were able to snag a reservation but for a late time which was about an hour and a half before close. The service was super great but one thing I wished they mentioned that the bottled water was going to be a $40 charge lol. Makes sense for any upscale restaurant though. Should've mentioned we wanted tap so fair warning, ask cause you WILL get charged haha. We had a group of 10 and for how big the group was, the food came out pretty fast. I don't think we ever had a time between drinks to entrees where we were waiting for food to come out. We got the watermelons mojito for drinks since it was the most raved about. It was good but personally nothing crazy for me. 8/10 score on that. We also curry popcorn chicken, the ahi tuna lollipops, the empanadillas and the goat cheese quesadillas for apps and honestly overall 9/10. This is where I don't like the sweetness part of this meal. The empanadillas were what I was most excited for but it was more sweet then savory which sort of lose my appetite a little. I think if you like that kind of taste then it's going to be good. It wasn't a bad taste at all. Just too sweet for my liking. The curry popcorn chicken was good and the lollipops were great. Again, nothing crazy. The goat cheese quesadillas was good as well but again, too sweet for my liking. Now on to the entree, they didn't have the porkchop since we came late so I ended up getting the porkchop belly dish. When it came out, it looked amazing but then I got a whiff of it and smelled cinnamon. That's when I was sort of disappointed. It was like eating pork but tasting Cinnamon Toast Crunch and as said before, it tasted great but too sweet for me. This one was way too sweet to where it seemed like a dessert item. I just had poor luck and got one of the one items that were sweet. This doesn't tank the rating down whatsoever because I also should've read it had cinnamon. It would've been great if they made a dipping sauce or something to pair it with and not have it on the pork belly itself. I got to try other dishes my friends got which were good as well but I wish I got to try something else. If I came back I would try the sold out item which was the pork shank or the sea bass. I know for a fact the sea bass was amazing. Had a bite of it and thought "I'll come back for that" Overall, 10/10 experience and nothing bad about the place but gotta try different items when I go next time. I understand the hype now

    My friend travels to PR occasionally for work and this time I decided to tag along. Both being…read morefoodies, she only made one reservation and that was to her favorite San Juan restaurant, Santaella. Not only that, she made it weeks in advance because reservations are hard to come by. We arrived for dinner before reservation time and we attempted to open the front door. It was locked, so we along with two other couples, walked to see if there was a side entrance.. Nope! We kept walking to the rear and stopped a random parking lot attendant that shirt had a different restaurant's name on it. He asked us if we had reservations for Santaella and we said yes, and he directed us to a rear entrance. Once inside, my friend realized this was NOT Santaellas but a rooftop restaurant with an entirely different name. Visibly perturbed, she asked our server QUESTIONS! He said, it's the same restaurant, however, only the rooftop is open on Sundays and it's named Azotea.. WHAT?!? LOL! Because we took an Uber, we decided to stay a while. The menu was extremely limited, but we decided to try the Tamarind margaritas, which were really good, along with two appetizers, the tuna lollipops and the pulled pork quesadilla. Both VERY good, but the dinner menu was lacking. That said, I suggested we go to STK for the seafood tower that I had my eye on the evening before, so we exited stage right! Shame on Santaella for accepting reservations through Open Table knowing full well they are not open. I'm giving them two stars because Azotea was decent but it definitely wasn't what she was going for!

    Photos
    Santaella - Dinning room area

    Dinning room area

    Santaella - Pulpo Parrilla

    Pulpo Parrilla

    Santaella - Tomatoes with Parmesan Cheese Ice Cream

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    Tomatoes with Parmesan Cheese Ice Cream

    La Cueva del Mar - Mofongo with Ropa Vieja

    La Cueva del Mar

    4.4(526 reviews)
    1.8 km
    $$

    I highly enjoyed La Cueva Del Mar! I wanted a mix of Latin and seafood and this was the perfect…read morechoice. It was recommended by one of our tour guides so it is a great option for both locals and tourists. It had a nice atmosphere and very large menu with many different types of options. The Frutti di mare was one of the best pastas I've ever had! It had almost every type of seafood you could want. A great option for someone who wants to try a bit of everything. It was large enough to satisfy you but not too large where you have to take leftovers it back to your hotel. It also came with a salad and delicious bread. My husband ordered the yucafongo pollo, and was very impressed. It was also filling and well made. The drink menu also had a lot of options. I went with the sangria which was super tasty! It's more on the fruity side. Our service was great and we didn't have to wait long for a table or our food, although it seemed busy. Whether you live in the area or are just on vacation, I would recommended trying it out!

    We visited La Cueva del Mar for my wife's birthday dinner during our family trip to Puerto Rico,…read moreand despite a few minor issues, the meal itself was absolutely outstanding. The service was a little confusing at first. We were seated and expected to access the menu through a QR code, which wasn't immediately explained to us. We initially expected traditional menus, so there was a bit of uncertainty before we realized how the ordering process worked. We were also seated near one of the air conditioning units, which made some members of our party feel a bit cold during the meal. However, once the food arrived, all of those concerns quickly disappeared. The food was incredible. Rich, flavorful, and beautifully prepared, every dish at the table was delicious. The arroz con pollo was honestly the best I have ever had in my life. It was perfectly seasoned, comforting, and packed with flavor. Every bite felt like authentic Puerto Rican cooking at its best. Our family thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and it made for a wonderful birthday dinner for my wife. While the service experience could be a little clearer and some seating areas may be colder than others, the quality of the food more than makes up for those minor issues. I would absolutely return on a future visit to Puerto Rico.

    Photos
    La Cueva del Mar - Inside

    Inside

    La Cueva del Mar - Fish tacos & Sangria

    Fish tacos & Sangria

    La Cueva del Mar - The bar area

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    The bar area

    Cocina Abierta - Second Course

    Cocina Abierta

    4.4(745 reviews)
    0.4 km
    $$$$

    PHENOMENAL This is…read morenot just a restaurant, this is a dining experience. This is upscale elegance in a relaxed environment. This is global techniques blended with locally sourced Puerto Rican ingredients. From the moment you walk in, you feel welcome. I was there to celebrate my birthday (a reservation is a must). I asked if I could be seated in a different section of the restaurant, and even though they were packed, they said absolutely and found me a lovely seat in the bar area. The staff is knowledgeable and attentive. I suffer from severe food allergies but wanted to experience their tasting menu. My server spoke to the chef directly and then took the time to walk me through every option. I TRULY appreciated that they did not take anything off the menu but rather told me how they could adjust for my allergies. That is very rare and so very much appreciated that they went that extra mile for me. I highly recommend the tasting menu. It's 5 courses and they give you 3 options to choose from, within each course. And for the price ($85), a great value. Everything was delicious but I highly recommend the Breadfruit Gnocchi, Rainbow Runner Crudo, and Criollo Duck Mofongo. Chefs kiss! What I also noticed was, even though they were insanely busy, they didn't make you feel rushed. The invited you to savor the experience - which I did. Next time you are in San Juan, make a reservation and go. You won't be disappointed!

    4.5 stars. Cocina Abierta was one of the better meals of our trip. The food was excellent overall,…read morewith the lone exception being the empanadas, which were simply too salty. Everything else was very well done. The two of us split one order of the five-course tasting menu plus an additional starter, and it ended up being a nice light meal. Had we each ordered our own tasting menu, it would have been far more food than we wanted...something we found to be a fairly common theme with portion sizes throughout Puerto Rico. The standout of the evening was the Criollo Duck Mofongo, which was absolutely exquisite and easily the best mofongo we had on our trip by far. The cocktails were tasty and unique, but a bit small for the price. This definitely isn't an every-night kind of restaurant...the prices are on the higher side. But if you're looking to splurge a little, it's a fun place to do it.

    Photos
    Cocina Abierta - Bar

    Bar

    Cocina Abierta - Snook

    Snook

    Cocina Abierta - FRESH LOCAL CATCH CEVICHE - Leche de tigre | avocado chips

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    FRESH LOCAL CATCH CEVICHE - Leche de tigre | avocado chips

    Orozco's

    Orozco's

    4.0(1k reviews)
    0.2 km
    $$

    The ambiance is casual cool. The service is EXCELLENT! Our waitress answered all our questions and…read morehelped us figure out what we should drink and order. The food was delicious and nice and hot! We had shared a plate and it was just the right size for us. Excellent choice!

    I have been to Puerto Rico four times and this is the best Puerto Rican food I have ever had…read more First, let's talk about the service. Lény was amazing. She saw me walking by, chatted me up, invited me in to dine and the rest is history. She was so personable and so funny and really made me feel welcome. Same for the rest of the staff. They created a really light and chilled out atmosphere that was just so inviting. You can tell they genuinely enjoy working with one another. And that definitely translates over into the guest experience. The pina colada I had was hands down the best one ever. This definitely did not come from a mix in a bottle. Just unbelievably delicious. I started off with the alcapurrias. Wow. You have to get these. Perfectly fried, chewy, meaty, seasoned perfectly... If that's the only thing I ate here it would have been well worth it. I haven't had mofongo in over 15 years and I recently learned about trifongo, which is a combination of mashed sweetened and unsweetened plantain, as well as cassava. I ordered the trifongo with shrimp and steak. Oh. Wow. The flavors. The textures. Every bite was something different. At each bite was amazing. The meal little pricey, but OMG was it absolutely worth it. If you are visiting Puerto Rico, no matter where in Puerto Rico you're visiting, you must make a trip here.

    Photos
    Orozco's - Seating area

    Seating area

    Orozco's
    Orozco's - Tree milk

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    Tree milk

    Cocina Al Fondo - Rabbit meatballs, root vegetables 'al pilón' - good!

    Cocina Al Fondo

    4.6(98 reviews)
    0.7 km

    We visited at the recommendation of a friend and WOOOOOOW. This was my favorite dining experience…read morein San Juan...maybe all of PR. The high quality preparation combined with the classic tastes of the island... mwah chef's kiss. LB and I ordered apps and split and entree. There was sooo much food and it was all so delicious. Our server was a DELIGHT and made it feel like we were dining with friends. Love the ambiance. The location. The menu. Put this high on your list of things to check out

    Beautiful restaurant with outstanding, creative dishes…read more My husband and I ordered one app and two entrees. The portions were very large, and we would have been fine with just two menu items! To start, we had the roasted eggplant, lamb 'picadillo', date sofrito, 'Feliche' yogurt. Really delicious and probably best for sharing among 3-4 people as it's a bit heavy given the lamb. Nevertheless, it was really good and we finished it! For entrees, we tried the (1) rice with rabbit, sweet plantain in its leaf and the (2) breaded pork loin, mushroom cream, cherokee tomatoes from San Lorenzo, tostones. Our server was super excited when we ordered the rice with rabbit and I understand why. It was insanely flavorful. Also a massive portion haha. We really enjoyed this. The pork loin was delicious as well, especially with the mushroom cream. Plantains are one of my favorite foods, and these tostones did not disappoint. The restaurant itself is beautiful. It's a nice mix of modern decor with homey, vintage elements. There is a very large outdoor space, but I'm really glad we ate inside. Definitely recommend - especially for a group that likes to share!

    Photos
    Cocina Al Fondo
    Cocina Al Fondo - La Maja cocktail, Beets and 'Lucía' goat cheese terrine, honey, cherry tomatoes, almonds, artisanal bread toast - lovely

    La Maja cocktail, Beets and 'Lucía' goat cheese terrine, honey, cherry tomatoes, almonds, artisanal bread toast - lovely

    Cocina Al Fondo - Funky Fashion - their twist on Old Fashioned

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    Funky Fashion - their twist on Old Fashioned

    El Refrán - puertorican - Updated July 2026

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