Mi Viejo San Juan Restaurant

Father’s Day dinner has been ruined, this establishment took 2 hours to serve my food when other families sat down way after my party. I had to get my whole family to leave this restaurant hungry after waiting hours to go to another restaurant. Thank you to this place for this horrible experience. Sincerely papa Ray.

The food was mediocre. My coffee came out cold and then just was put into the microwave to reheat. We didn’t get refills of water and we weren’t offered refills on pop/​soda either. Our service was terrible! It took the server 10 – 15 minutes to get our drinks then another 10 minutes to get our order taken, which wouldn’t have been a problem except for we were one of 2 tables in the whole place. We came all the way from Denver, Colorado and we won’t come back here, ever! Extremely disappointed.

Typical Puerto Rican style fried goods. For lunch they serve a small buffets with toston, Moros, pork masitas, etc. overall the food is good but a bit too greasy. Very casual place and the service is just ok.

I’m not Puertorican, however, I have been to the island and have eaten to my hearts delight some of the most delicious homestyle food across the island. I know how the mofongo is suppose to taste, I know how crispy and flavorful the pork is suppose to be, and even the right balance of the mayo ketchup that everyone seemed to eat on the island.
The problem with this place is not the portions or the look and feel of the restaurant, nor the presentation of the food. The service is great and attentive. The problem is upon taking the first bite of the many foods I’ve ordered including the big pork chop mammoth, is that whoever is in the kitchen may have dead tastebuds. :(
It is obvious the quality of the products they use are great but my god the seasoning is off or not present at all, at least the two times I’ve been there.
So my advice, be prepared to add a little salt my friends.

Highly recommend the place. Not well decorated, actually ugly, but a nice dive. I love the food and it is always so fresh. Great price and excellent staff. If you like Puerto Rican food, this is a cool one with home made type food. Order from the menu, skip the buffet and good luck finding dessert. Just go with an open mind.

Trying this little hidden Gem with a great waiter named Ronnie, you must try las arañitas they were awesome !! The mofongo is the best, the place is a cute PR place loved it and nice music

Excellent food!!! Great atmosphere! Family friendly and AMAZING FOOD!!! Friendly staff! As puertorrican myself I am a hard critic on Latin food! This restaurant has the best mofongo I had in FL! Tried the carne frita which was amazing! Food has a beautiful presentation, fresh and in a timely matter. They just acquire a new Chef Emanuel directly from Puerto Rico so this is as authentic as it gets!!! There coquito is the bomb! So if you miss home this is the place to go! Or if you are in for some great Latin food this is your place!!!
Highly recommend!

Being Puerto Rican makes me a harsh critic. There are not that many places that prepared authentic Puerto Rican dishes… I got to say hands down to Mi Viejo San Juan Restaurant! The food and service was amazing! The owner very humble came to our table and asked us how was everything. On Fridays there is a buffet… To die for!

Servicio no sirve, los meseros se demoran mucho, mesero pide a clientes que vayan al ATM porque el servicio esta caido y no puede aceptar ninguna tipo de tarjeta, que ah la hora de pagar devolveria el ATM FEE, y al momento de hacerlo lo hace de mala gana y mala actitud…
El chef deberia bajarle un poco la sal a la comida

If you have craving for puertorican food… And nothing else is available, then is worth it. If not, don’t bother. It’s clean, quiet, and charming. The portions are huge, price are not bad for the portions, and the service is ok.

Came from Nevada! A very good experience! Very authentic (and I’m Puerto Rican so I know…) ordered a sampler, very big and had a little of everything… very tasty. The chuletas Kan Kan were good too and the moon go was delicious! /​muy buena experiencia! Muy auténtico (soy boricua). El sampler de antojitos tiene un poco de todo (sorullitos, pastelillos, alcapurrias, etc…). La chuleta kan kan estaba muy rica así como el mofongo… oh y las habichuelas (beans) deliciosas!!! Les deseo mucho éxito ! Espero volver en mi próxima visita a Miami.

Kaydy Valdes
On Christmas eve, we along with 3 other groups made reservations to celebrate at your establishment. To our dismay, when me and my family arrived, we were greeted by the 3 other groups outside saying that the cook and the server had just quit, that the owner was not present and that there was no food. We thought it was a joke from people who might of had too much coquito to drink. However, when entering the restaurant finding it filled with people and no one there to serve in order to find someone we had to walk all the way back into the kitchen and there was only one young girl they’re serving water. There was no one there to give explanation to all the people that were there to celebrate a special day with their family. Mr Gomez I’m not sure how you gain your license to open a restaurant it should be revoked. We wish you a very Merry Christmas if that’s possible for you. I’m not sure how you’re going to get yourself out of this quicksand mess that you made for yourself. A good start is going to church and confessing. Happy new year! Also for your new year please prepare for inspectors that will be going to your establishment and please know that we along with the other people that you almost ruin their Christmas will be or worse advertisement from here on out.
7 minutes ago

Yay! Finally found a Puerto Rican place in Miami with great pasteles! Amazing!!! Great customer service! Your able to order for party’s. I will be back soon!

I was looking for a Puerto Rican restaurant in the area and to my surprise I found out that they are not that many here. So, I decided to give San Juan a try…
We walked in for lunch on a weekday and we couldn’t believe that the restaurant was almost empty. There were just two tables with customers. There was no one to receive us so we stayed entertained for a while looking at all the pictures on the wall of the owner with many Puerto Rican celebrities. Music was awesome! True Puerto Rican music.
Although we waited for a long time to be seated in an almost empty restaurant and I felt that inner voice saying to me «warning don’t stay, ” I decided to stay and give it a try, after all, it had a PR feeling to it and even celebrities came here.
Customer service was below average. Although the young man taking care of everyone was polite he lacks hospitality skills. This issue can be easily fixed.
Food was good but a bit expensive for what you get. Sorullos (fried cornmeal with cheese) is one of my absolutely favorite treats to eat and it is also inexpensive to make. I think we got 4 for 4 $… A bit overpriced. They were also average in flavor. Let’s say I will not order them again. Tostones con camarones (fried plantains with shrimps) is another very typical PR treat. The order came with three tostones that were very good but the shrimps were not what I expected. They were tiny shrimps like the ones you use for salads. In my opinion, not worth the 9 $ for this plate.
For entrée, we ordered asopao de pollo (rice soup with chicken and veggies). This dish is like comfort food for puertoricans. I enjoyed the flavor of the broth because it had great «sazon» but there was hardly any chicken in it. It was just a lot of rice in a delicious broth. The presentation of this dish was very nice and unique (see picture).
I read in other reviews that they have a nice buffet on Fridays so maybe I give it a try. However, this experience was not memorable so I doubt I come back here.

Lamentablemente este lugar no tiene muchas expectativas. Cálida y precios. Las porciones no son abundantes. Suerte. Para los propietarios… La competencia. Es fuerte… Muchos restaurantes o cafeterías hacen lo mismo por menos $,

A truly great spot that has it all. Great ambiance, wonderful and friendly staff, extremely clean environment, and the highlight of the evening, beyond delicious food.
I only managed to take a picture of my plate of Mofongo with Octopus salad, but we also had some cheese empanadas as our starter, which were to die for.
The food portions are extremely generous and everything on the menu sounded delicious, so whichever entrée you choose, you will not be disappointed.
I highly recommend this place to everyone, whether you’re Puerto Rican or not. This place will not disappoint! Looking forward to round two, and bringing my family next time around.

There are two parts to this review…
First… The Service: There was no one to greet us, although there is a «hostess table». There was what I assume to be an owner or manager sitting at the far end on a laptop who came up and told us the waiter would be out in a minute to seat us. Still not clear why he just didn’t seat us himself. Waiter did not offer water or to take our drink order. Waiter spent lots of time behind the «bar» writing things down. Interestingly enough credit card machine was down (as I read in another review). When we asked for the check, the waiter came back and told us our total (VERBALLY). No actual check was ever provided.
Second… The Food: Alcapurrias were simply delicious. Authentic look and flavor. It is served with a very spicy thick sauce (which doesn’t really pair with it). The Mondongo soup was more like a Mondongo dish (not a bowl). It was served in a very shallow plate with very little «soup» attributes. Also, it was fairly salty. The churrasco was very small (should have been named baby churrasco (although it had a normal churrasco price). The meat was also fairly salty. Beans were great and so were the plantains.

Took a large group with me today and this was the first time some had Puerto Rican food. We had the restaurant to ourselves at first because we were there early and the service was exceptional even though the magical waiter was on his own once other parties arrived. Everything was delicious starting with the antojitos appetizer platter, mofongo, carne frita, alcapurrias, asopao and lechón. This place is a winner

The sampler was amazing and the service was superb! The chef outdid himself! Best Puerto Rican food in town!

I went to the restaurant for lunch because I was excited about trying their lobster mofongo. Unfortunately, I had a terrible lunch and will not be returning to the restaurant ever again. I hadn’t had such an unpleasant dining experience in a long time.
The service was terrible. It was lunchtime, so there were only four tables being used. Still, it took forever for the waiter to ask for our order. While we waited for our food, the waiter never offered us water or bread. Throughout the meal, it was impossible to get the waiter’s attention. People even walked up to the bar (where he was on his phone or some other device) to ask him for what they needed.
The sangria was awful. It tasted like a bitter wine had been mixed with a canned fruit punch. It was both too sweet and bitter at the same time.
When my lobster mofongo came, I was very disappointed to see that there were chunks of chicharrón in the mofongo, though this was not mentioned in the menu. I don’t eat meat – only seafood – so I asked the waiter to please take it back. He said that’s how mofongo is and that I should have asked for it without the chicharrón. I said that I’ve had mofongo in plenty of other restaurants and that this was the first time this had happened to me. He then offered to take it back to the kitchen. I was annoyed at the fact that he tried to make this seem like my mistake when really, the menu was lacking information.
When the new lobster mofongo came out, the lobster was so overcooked that it was incredibly chewy and hard to cut. The mofongo itself had no flavor. The only thing saving it was the red creole sauce, but there was not enough of it to mask the flavorless mofongo.
It is also worth mentioning that we had to go to an ATM at a nearby gas station because their credit card machine was down due to the moderate rain outside. In Miami, it’s kind of inexcusable to have a system that goes down when it rains. If this had been the only issue, I wouldn’t have minded, but it was just an extra layer to an already bad experience.
BOTTOM LINE: BAD FOOD, BAD SERVICE.

Muy caro para lo que es aunque los camarones estaban ricos y la cerveza estaba bien fría. Pero con seguridad no volveré.

I really wanted to give this place 5 stars because I’m Puerto Rican and I want to support the few Puerto Rican restaurants out there, but this little place needs some improvements. Here is my honest review:
Positives:
1. Plenty of free parking
2. Variety of items in the menu
3. Food
4. The building has some good potential (nice mural of Old San Juan)
5. Good music playing in the background
Negatives:
1. Bad customer service
2. Only one waiter working on lunch time
3. Manager was on the phone or in the computer instead of helping the staff
4. Waiter lacks training and professionalism
5. Ambiance (it needs something more than the mural)
6. 20% gratuity is included in the service
For lunch I ordered the Pollo al Ajillo (chicken in a garlic sauce) with white rice, red beans and tostones. The chicken was good and the tostones were also very good but the the red beans could be better.
It’s my hope that they read this review and take note of it. I really want to have a good PRican rest nearby where I can go when I get home sick.

Been living in the area of this place for about 5yrs now and always thought of visiting; but never did. This time my girlfriend decided to say, let’s go! So we turned back after planning on going some place else and were absolutely incredibly happy with our decision. I always wanted to try the alcapurria and then ordered right off the menu. The pasteles where delicious. We ordered the mofongo with lechon and the carne frita with arroz con gandules and tostones. For desert we had the flancocho, which I have never had either. Everything was DELICIOUS! The service was wonderful. Ronny was our waiter and was on top of everything. Very cool place, simple and well kept, I expected a bit more decoration. There is a beautiful mural painted on the wall; but that’s it. The music was very typical Fania music and it is exactly what I like, so that was perfect. The prices where just right for our evening; but a bit on he high side.
We are looking forward to coming back.

This place is a true Puerto Rican cuisine. Everything had flavor from the rice to the steaks. I ordered the steak with onions, white rice and beans. I also had a passion fruit drink and the drink had real fruit which was very tasty. The place is a little on the expensive side, but it is so worth it. This place is much more better than any restaurant on Miami Beach. You should definitely check this place out. The employees and atmosphere are amazing! I felt very welcome. They do automatically charge the gratuity on your bill, but you won’t be disappointed on the food here. My dad ordered the Mofongo (a popular Puerto Rican dish) he also loved his meal and was very satisfied.

El mejor restaurante Puertorriqueño en Miami, la comida es muy auténtica, el sabor y sazón que le dan a sus platos te lleva a Puerto Rico estando en Miami. La atención es muy buena y sus precios están muy acorde con las porciones. Mi familia y yo hemos disfrutado de sus platos por mas de 2 años y siempre ordenamos comida para los días festivos y nunca nunca nos han decepcionado, al contrario. Les recomiendo el lechón asado, los pasteles son deliciosos, las frituras típicas y los jugos naturales.
Excelente servicio y un ambiente muy agradable.

Excelente, a mi pareja y a mi nos fascinó el Restaurant, la comida muy rica y Raui tan bello y muy finas atenciones. Es acogedor y la comida 100% recomendada.

One of my absolute favorite places to go! The owner has done an amazing job in transforming this small restaurant into a true representation of PR cuisine and hospitality. The walls are beautiful painted as the street of Old San Juan and there is always traditional music playing. The service is always outstanding and the food, well that’s coming!
The food is absolutely delicious. You can taste with every bite the passion of those in the kitchen working tirelessly to bring this amazing Boricua experience to Miami. Mofongos are hands down delicious! For appetizers try the sampler with alcapurrias, sorrullitos, arañitas, and pastellos! Ask for extra mayo-​ketchup :)
And if you want a full experience! Go next door to El Yunque Lounge for laughs, music, dance and great drinks! Love this place!