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Best Dining Bets
- Aquaviva (San Juan; tel. 787/722-0665): This ultra modern, sleekly tropical restaurant looks as cutting edge as its "seaside Latino cuisine." Its buzzing, blue interior lightly evokes the shoreline and an aquarium all at once. Ceviche rules at the raw bar, and hot and cold seafood "towers" group several of the inventive appetizers into a large portion for guests to share. The menu is expansive and full of wonders -- grilled mahimahi with smoky shrimp salsa or seared halibut with crab and spinach fondue. The catch of the day is cooked with consummate skill.
- Barú (San Juan; tel. 787/977-7107): Fashionable and popular, this Old World styled restaurant is actually a creative culinary showcase for fusion Caribbean-Mediterranean cuisine and a popular nightspot. Craftsmanship marks the menu, which specializes in inventive risottos and carpaccios.
- Parrot Club (San Juan; tel. 787/725-7370): This place still sets the standard in style and service, and its Nuevo Latino cuisine beats any of the hotshot restaurants of its genre in New York and Miami that we've tried. The menu here is a thoughtful restyling of Puerto Rican and regional classics, drawing on the island's Spanish, African, Taíno, and American influences. There's a criolla-styled flank steak and a pan-seared tuna served with a dark rum-orange sauce.
- Ramiro's (Condado; tel. 787/721-9049): Chef Jesús Ramiro has some of the most innovative dishes in San Juan, along with the city's best wine list. Ramiro's "Nuevo Criolla" cuisine reaches way back to its Spanish roots, and is as likely to mix in European as New World flourishes. His reputation rests on such dishes as quail stuffed with lamb in a port sauce and lamb loin in a tamarind coriander sauce, both equally delectable. His dessert menu is two pages long and includes the town's best soufflés. His death-by-chocolate mousse on a green grape leaf is equaled only by his caramelized fresh mango napoleon.
- Budatai (Condado; tel. 787/725-6919): Roberto Trevino's Asian-Latino cuisine has found its rightful home in this luxurious and stylish restaurant with an oceanfront view at the heart of Condado. With an emphasis on Puerto Rican herbs and seafood, the dishes rely on herbs and inspiration from the Far East without ever feeling too far away from home. There's a full sushi bar and lots of ceviche. On our last trip, we started with pork dumplings with shaved truffle and the fried calamari and sweet onion, while main courses were steamed halibut and seasoned potatoes and Spanish sausage and filet mignon with duck-fat potatoes and Asian mushrooms.
- Mark's at the Meliá (Ponce; tel. 787/284-6275): Mark French has elevated Puerto Rican dishes to a new height at this endearing restaurant that also serves an impeccable international cuisine. He brought haute cuisine to the Ponce dining scene, which had been a bit of a backwater and turned the place into an enclave of refined dining with such imaginative and good-tasting dishes as rack of lamb with goat cheese crust and tenderloin medallions with sautéed shrimp in a Hollandaise sauce.
- Pikayo (at the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, San Juan; tel. 787/259-7676): This dramatically beautiful restaurant has a menu as artful as its setting just off the main lobby over the art museum. The menu -- with dishes like grilled shrimp and julienne chorizo in a soursop beurre blanc, and grilled sea bass in a pumpkin puree -- fuses Caribbean, European, and Californian influences. For chef Wilo Bent, however, it's all about making high art out of his hometown cuisine.
- bbh (Vieques; tel. 787/741-1128): The best tapas in all of Puerto Rico are served at this restaurant at the elegant Bravo Beach Hotel. Tapas "by the sea" include everything from Jamaican jerk chicken to seared ahi tuna, grilled chorizo to marinated olives.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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