Travel To Puerto Rico

[Tica]

Is anyone familiar with places to eat in Puerto Rico. Restaurants, health food grocery stores etc. Any ideas will be welcomed.

[laurelfla]

Hello!

I have just returned from a trip to Puerto Rico and wanted to post about the AWESOME food I had there! I will list the names of the places I visited (mouse over the names for links to webpages), as well as what I ate, but I want to make a disclaimer first, and that is that I talked to the waitstaff in each place, and none of them really knew what I was talking about when I used the word gluten. I explained things in Spanish in detail and then often they would check with the chef. They were all very accommodating. I just want to make it clear that these are not places with gluten free menus, nor are they familiar with the diet, from what I could tell. If you do not speak Spanish, in San Juan you might be able to make it, but I would recommend restaurant cards in Spanish just to be certain, especially on other parts of the island.

Good choices generally include white rice, fresh fish (SO good!), and veggies. Avoid the fried foods (such as tostones, maduros/amarillos, yuca frita, aranitas, etc.) because I have not found one single place that does not fry all fried items together (leading to cross-contamination).

San Juan: Condado area (touristy, higher-end kind of place)

Open Original Shared Link: Arroz con Pollo con Don Q - Chicken and rice (chicken thighs marinated in Don Q rum)

Open Original Shared Link: Dorado en una salsa de mango, arroz blanco, yuca encebollada - Mahi-mahi in a mango sauce, white rice, yuca with sauteed onions and garlic

Cafe Caribe - in the Open Original Shared Link hotel: Arroz con pollo - Chicken and rice

Open Original Shared Link- in the Condado Plaza hotel: Sopa de leche de coco y calabaza, "Mashed root vegetables" - Coconut milk and pumpkin soup and mashed root vegetables

San Juan - Old San Juan/El viejo San Juan

Open Original Shared Link: Mero en salsa de hierbas y mantequilla, vegetales, flan de vainilla - Grouper in a butter and herb sauce, vegetables, vanilla flan (like a custard). This was my favorite! The waiter wrote down everything I could not have and went back to talk to the chef. There was live jazz, played by the owner (Carli) and there is outdoor seating, so nice and breezy at night!

I stayed at the Condado Plaza (GREAT place!) and there are little fridges in the rooms (no microwave, though). The nearest grocery store is SuperMax en Avenida del Diego, and you need to take a taxi there (about $10 each way from this hotel).

Outside San Juan, I have been to the Isabela (northwestern coast) area. There is a health food store in Aguadilla that sells Pamela mixes and the like and some frozen bread. It is a good place. I have been to Open Original Shared Link in Isabela as well and it was good (again, talked to the waitress, who talked to the chef).

I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me in case you have any questions about the places above, or about gluten-related Spanish, etc.

[eatingganesh]

Thanks for this info! I'm about to go to Ponce PR for Thanksgiving week and was wondering what to watch out for. Luckily, I have a fluent host in my boyfriend and he knows and understands my gluten-free diet and will watch out for me. I suppose I should learn the word FLOUR in Spanish just to be safe though.