Where to Eat in San Juan, Where Restaurants Aren’t Just Rebuilding—They’re Thriving
Hope tastes like plantains and pernil. Two years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, rebuilding efforts have led to an increased emphasis on sustainable farming, breaking up the colonial legacy of industrialized agriculture and reliance on imported food while also doubling down on native ingredients. Now local farmers enjoy steady business from seasonally minded chefs pushing the culinary heritage of cocina criolla. Both farmers and chefs are powered by a resilient spirit that can be witnessed in real time, as La Placita de Santurce is packed once more with dancers balancing flaky empanadillas and Medalla beer. At these upstart and legacy spots, the food of Puerto Rico has never felt more Puerto Rican.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY1/9The New-School Staple
Husband-and-wife team Francis Guzmán and Amelia Dill, who met at Range in San Francisco and worked together at Blue Hill in New York before returning to Guzmán’s native Puerto Rico, opened Vianda just a few months after Maria. It already feels indispensable. Here, Guzmán puts playful twists on Puerto Rican staples, turning bacalao into aromatic tom kha, topping tender short rib encebollado with fat onion rings, and tossing local root vegetables in an herby yogurt dressing. Looking at the globe lights and hanging vines, you could be in any trendy farm-to-table restaurant, but when a passing pyrotechnic cocktail perfumes the air with burning rosemary, the magic of Vianda is clear.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY2/9The Choose-Your- Own-Adventure Spot
You’ll see a lot of familiar faces at Lote 23’s rotating kiosks (Juan José Cuevas did fresh pastas at La Massería; Natalia Rivera Vázquez serves pristine poke at El Jangiri), but we’d come to the open-air food truck park just for Pernilería Los Próceres. Chef Mario Juan Pagán sells different types of tricked-out pernil sandwiches and a slew of sides (yuca in escabeche, arroz guisado). Hurricane Maria interrupted his plans to open a restaurant, but his silver Airstream swings beyond its square footage. We still dream about the Revolución es Orden sandwich, shards of crisped slow-roasted pork piled with pickled onions and plantain chips atop a pillowy brioche bun. The politically named menu items (plus a not-so-subtle stencil of Puerto Rican independence advocate Ramón Emeterio Betances) echo PLP’s slogan: “Pernil es Patria.”
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY3/9The Vibe-y Bar with Very Good Food
Tiki drinks flow freely throughout the island (Puerto Rico is the birthplace of the piña colada after all), but Jungle BaoBao at Jungle Bird has an edge on the competition: Paxx Caraballo Moll’s imaginative bar food. The young chef, who promotes LGBTQ+ cooks through the hashtag #QueersInTheKitchen, works with local fishermen and farmers to create punchy plates that stand up to high- octane cocktails. Think fiery fried chicken and crispy “enoki bloom,” blooming onion–like mushroom clusters served with togarashi and saffron aioli. It’s a hands-on eating experience best enjoyed with a tepache colada, especially on weekends when DJs spin vinyl and the patio becomes a blur of tiki torches and tattoos.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY4/9The Fine-Dining Splurge
The sun-kissed and impeccably dressed flock to 1919 inside the ritzy Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, where chef Juan José Cuevas preaches the gospel of local produce from a fine-dining pulpit. Cuevas, who earned a Michelin star helming Blue Hill, has spent years cultivating relationships with family farms like Frutos Del Guacabo in Manatí and Josco Bravo in the Toa Alta mountains. His tasting menu deploys their produce, taking diners on a whirlwind tour of modern Puerto Rican food with local queen snapper in ají amarillo broth and crispy cochinillo (suckling pig) with caramelized eggplant, dried lime, and fresh yogurt. It’s a full-throated salute to regional ingredients, as breathtaking as the restaurant’s ocean views. Bonus: Well-fed diners are sent off with nutty banana bread.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY5/9The Healthyish Hang
Tucked behind the eclectic Pública community art space, Cocina al Fondo trades in the unexpected. Chef Natalia Vallejo creates quietly healthy food with a fittingly artistic eye, like silky bowls of sweet-corn panna cotta and terrines made with candy-striped beets and goat cheese. Thoughtful design touches, like plush oversize cushions perched on ample teak benches, inspire hang-outs fueled by crispy fried malanga buñuelos and a glass (maybe two) of cava. Whether you’re swinging by for Saturday brunch or seeking a nightcap, you’ll feel the urge to linger a little longer. This is the kind of place where we yearn to be a regular.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY6/9The Ideal Breakfast
Owner Kali Solack filters trademarks of third-wave coffee shops (small-batch beans, alt-milk lattes) through the rich kaleidoscope of Puerto Rican agriculture at the airy Café Regina. Turmeric tea is spiked with fresh pineapple juice, and slices of locally made sourdough come topped with fresh ricotta, sweet star fruit jam, and neat rows of brûléed (and adorably tiny) guineo manzano bananas. But really, you’re here for the coffee: Solack cofounded the Beans for Puerto Rico initiative to keep cafés stocked with donated beans after the loss of local crops, and she now sources from Puerto Rican–American roasters like Metric and Máquina. Grab a late-morning affogato, made with ice cream from local creamery Vía Láctea, and a spot on the sunny front porch, then revel in an actually idyllic brunch.
Photo by Jose Enrique7/9The Farm-to-Table Icon
For 12 years, crowds gathered on an unassuming front porch to wait for dinner at one of the city’s most beloved restaurants, Jose Enrique. The no-reservations, BYO spot recently moved from Santurce’s vibrant placita to upscale Condado digs, but the eponymous chef’s elevated yet unpretentious takes on criollo comfort food haven’t changed. One of the island’s earliest farm-to-table trailblazers, Enrique changes his menu so often that it’s scrawled on whiteboards and carted around the restaurant by good-natured waiters. Blessedly, the citrusy crab salad and whole fried fish served with buttery yam mash and avocado papaya mojo remain constants.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY8/9The Vegetable Whisperers
Mossy mason jars and worn tin ceilings give Verde Mesa greenhouse vibes that are further reflected in the vibrant plant-focused menu. Owner Loyda Rosa opened her restaurant ten years ago and became a pioneer of sustainable sourcing, with a pescatarian approach inspired by the indigenous Taíno diet. After Maria damaged crops, Rosa and chef Gabriel Hernandez worked magic with any underutilized produce they could get from farms to keep the doors open. And their ingenuity paid off. Dig into grassy chayote, pickled to cut through salty bacalao salad, or simply served with mango, lemon, and cilantro to ease the heat of the San Juan sun.
PHOTO BY LAURA MURRAY9/9Five Stellar Coffee Shops
You’re gonna need to stay caffeinated to get through all this eating. Luckily, San Juan is home to a bonafide coffee boom. Island coffee crops are still in recovery, but local shops supplement local beans with mainland roasters to keep the espresso flowing. There are two main draws at Café con Cé: cult Gustos Reserva beans and a killer patio. Café Comunión is run by a bona fide latte art champion runs this coffee shop, so expect frothy cortados. Hit up O.G. single-origin spot Don Ruiz for perfect pour-overs with house roasted beans, then walk through Viejo San Juan to Spiga, an Italian-ish café that takes its sourdough as seriously as its espresso. End your coffee crawl at Café Cuatro Sombras, which has been growing Arabica beans in the Yauco mountains since 1846. They’re best in cortaditos.
