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| - The food here was really great and true to the Puerto Rican tradition. This place reminded me very much of my childhood in New York even down to the music. My boyfriend and I had a pastelillo, a pastel, and an alchipurria (sp?) for appetizers. I REALLy enjoyed the pastelillo, I would just call it an empanada. The ground beef was seasoned perfectly and I will definitely go back for one of these. I've never been a fan of pasteles, but my bf enjoyed it. The other item (alchurria?) was very tasty but also very greasy.
For our main course we had the mofongo with shrimp and the bistec encebollado with white rice and red beans. The mofongo was great but the oil-based sauce that the shrimp were in was NOT. The mofongo and shrimp were drowned in a sea of semi-bland oil. Next time I would try the mofongo with chicken as another reviewer said this was delicious, hopefully it comes in a different sauce. The bistec was good, not great, but it is something that I might order again (hopefully this time was a fluke). The rice and red beans were delicious, and almost the highlight of the entire meal. A good plate of rice and beans is really hard to come by in AZ. I can get by on the refried beans sold in most restaurants, but these kidney beans are really what my heart desires.
The restaurants white and black sign doesn't really stand out in the mini-mall that they are tucked away in, but keep a look out for the Puerto Rican flag flying out front. Everything is ridiculously affordable, especially for the huge portions they give you.
I have to say something about the service. I love that this is a family-owned restaurant, but the service was terrible. I believe that the owners two daughters are the servers and also the cashiers and they were really unprofessional and really slow. Without showing us a drink menu or at least describing what drinks they had to offer, one of them asked us what we wanted to drink. After she took our order I gazed around at the tables and saw a couple drinking Coco Rico (one of my favorites) and my boyfriend noticed a man drinking beer (it turned out to be a Malta). We ordered one of each, but even a simple sign on the wall listing the drinks available would help clients choose something other than water and up their sales. In the end they never brought us our tab. We had to walk up to the cashier (after waiting more than 15 minutes) and ask for our bill. I think the girls are too young for this type of responsibility. They are just too distracted to wait tables.
All in all, I would go back, I still LOVE Puerto Rican food and there are only one or two restaurants like this in the valley, but next time I would order a pastelillo, rice and beans, and a malta and THATS IT... and I would bring a book so that I don't get impatient waiting for my server.
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