This joint saved me.
It was the middle of the day. The sun had been beating down on me. We just rented our scooter (I had to run up the hill a couple of times to get my driver's license and was totally dehydrated & hot). It was lunch time, and we were told Tito Bloque is a good local restaurant to hit up.
The town of Esperanza is tiny, so I thought the directions would not be hard to follow, but we managed to get lost. This eatery was literally within a neighborhood, and looked like it was in the porch of someone's house. Needless to say, it was hard to find, and required us to ask for more directions.
By the time we were here, my lame butt was ready to pass out (dehydration is a son of gun when you're in a tropical locale!).
But we made it. We grabbed a table. Looked at menus. And first things first, I had to hydrate: with a can of ice cold Medalla cerveza (Puerto Rican beer). Maybe not as good as water, but this brew certainly flipped my mood to the positive.
For food, I saw lots of basic home-cooked options (seafood, chicken, steak, etc.). I went with the steamed chicken. It came with a very basic salad (meaning, mostly lettuce). But the chicken certainly filled the spot with its juicy tenderness. And when all is said and done, the two cans of Medalla also made all well.
This place looked to be run by an elderly couple. The guy mainly lounged on a hammock hanging inside the open-air patio. The woman was in the kitchen behind the bar, and also came out to take orders and serve us. They both weren't very talkative to me (the gringo). But as I paid, I noticed some photos of snowy mountains and elk. I asked about them, and the lady said they are from family in Oregon---I told them I was from Washington, and she lit up. She was nice and sweet.
While here, I saw some locals pull up in a jeep. The old guy hopped out of the hammock and chatted with the guy. He then went to the back and came back out with a bag of food. So yeah, if you want take-away, you are set here.
All in all, if you want to bypass the humdrum/crowded restaurants on the malecon (waterfront), venture a couple of blocks inland and have a meal like a local. read more