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One of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had while traveling was at El Jibarito in Old San Juan Puerto Rico.

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San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital and largest city, sits on the island’s Atlantic coast. Its widest beach fronts the Isla Verde resort strip, known for its bars, nightclubs and casinos

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For my first time visiting Puerto Rico I did my research on the best spots to eat at and El Jibarito was on the top of the list.

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Long-running restaurant producing classic regional & Caribbean-style dishes in colorful surrounds.

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Needless to say I was very excited to check this place out.

So after an amazing day at the Zen Spa Oceana I headed out to dinner.

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First and foremost let me point out that this restaurant has two levels.

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But the first level is not very big as far as seating goes.

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It should be noted that this restaurant is very traditional or what some would call “Old School”.

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With that being said they do not take reservations here.

There is a hostess upon you walking in the restaurant where you would sign your name and wait to be called.

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This is going to be the one negative thing I have to say about this restaurant.

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After signing our names we waited patiently outside as there is no waiting area inside the restaurant.

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Unfortunately the wait time ended up being way longer than what we were first told.

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While I understood that they are a busy establishment it became evident that this place was poorly run.

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To make matters worse it became clear to us that they were taking Spanish speaking locals ahead of us.

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To which I did voice my displeasure to the hostess as well as to the staff.

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Ok so now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about the good stuff here.

Which is their scrumptious food.

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First things first I checked out the drink menu.

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I started off with a FRAPES/Guava flavored Tropical Smoothie with rum added.

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Undoubtedly this was the freshest, creamiest most delicious smoothie I have ever had.

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I only wish was that they bottled this stuff up and sold it.

It was absolutely mouthwatering, perfection in a glass!

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After that it was time for the appetizer.

I decided to go with the island tradition Mofongo.

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Next it was time for the entrees.

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We ordered the Chuletas fritas o a la plancha/ Fried Pork chops & Churrasco A LA CRIOLLA/Grilled Skirt Steak.

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I had ordered the pork chop dinner but we all shared our entrees.

Without a doubt this was the best Fried Pork Chop I had ever had.

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And as we tried each other’s dishes each dish was better than the next one.

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Starting with the Mofongo everything, was amazing.

The food here was clearly prepared with tradition and a extreme amount of love and respect for the culinary arts.

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Last but not least it was time to order dessert.

While there were quite a few dessert choices the buzz around the restaurant was how amazing the Flan was.

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Obviously I was not going to pass up on trying this much talked about delight.

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While I am a lover of Flan my friends were not.

Despite this they were compelled to try it based on the commentary from others dining in the restaurant.

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Unquestionably the best Flan I have ever tasted.

And I am glad we went with the Flan De Coco/Coconut.

It just added another level of deliciousness! My goodness .

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It was so good we ended up ordering another one for the road!

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To conclude I would have given El Jibarito five stars had we not experienced that unacceptable customer service while waiting to be seated.

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