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| - Basis for my starred ratings (which skews heavily to the food or drink):
1 star: Never again.
2 stars: Poor food, poor experience, extraordinary measures in order for me to come back.
3 stars: Average, nothing really special, nothing particularly bad.
4 stars: Very good, would definitely return.
5 stars: A favorite, one of the best.
As a fan of Puerto Rican food, brought in my wife who's never had it before. Only other places I've had Puerto Rican outside the Valley were in LA and NYC. This is place. Quite good. Not the best (that was NYC), but good enough that even my wife said she'd come back for the food.
First off, the owners are super personable, very friendly, and will tell you everything you need to know about the food if you've never had Puerto Rican before.
We ordered the tostones, pastelillo, the pernil, and the pollo guisado. Both come with beans and we opted for the arroz congandules. The tostones were perfectly cooked. The owner gave us a side of hot sauce/mojo and dipping the tostones in there made them even better. The pastelillo was deep fried deliciousness. Super savory, good balance between crust and filling.
Both the pernil and pollo guisado were tender, moist, and flavorful. Some might complain - you mostly get beans and rice and not enough meat. Welcome to the real world fat America, where most people around the globe eat mostly beans and rice with not as much meat. Would the value of the platter increase with a little more meat? Sure. But is it a bad thing that they serve food as they normally would everywhere else in the world? Nope. You eat a little of everything and believe me, there is enough meat to notice, to taste, and to fill you up.
We finished with a flan, which was good. Not amazing, but good. My wife hates flan but she liked this one. I also ordered a Malta as my beverage because, you know. Puerto Rico. Try it. If you like Moxie, or sarsparilla, you will like Malta.
They don't serve mofongo or pasteles, which I was really hoping for, or soups. So the menu is a little limited, but they hit most of the highlights and we enjoyed what we ordered. We'll be back to try the rest of the menu.
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