Republika Beach Bar — Restaurant in San Juan

Awful food. The location and drinks are great. However, stay away from the food. Ordered a few items including the local beef burger. Half of the key ingredients were missing. Half the ingredients in the burger were not mentioned in the menu or by the waiter which triggered my allergies. It tasted only of margarine, way too much margarine that you couldn’t taste anything else. Every bite got worse until I gave up. Finally informed to the service team who mentioned they would remove from the bill. Upon paying the bill, they insisted to keep the burger as I had eaten a few (awful) bites. After debate they held firm and accepted our offer to leave a review. Very disappointing for a place with such a nice location, setting, and design. A quiet night is no excuse to serve half arsed food. Hopefully they take ownership of their food quality in the future as they have so much potential.

Update / response to owner comment:

Dear (Mr?) Owner, thank you for your somewhat rude response. First off, thank you for assuming that my brother and my partner are my employees!? I’m flabbergasted that a professional man like you would make discriminatory assumptions like that. Second of all, your two employees (who were very thankful for the constructive feedback and apologetic) never offered a cash refund… after I had asked them to remove the burger from the bill, they originally accepted then refused, only a while after when we were already processing the payment did they offer to honour a 20% discount, alas, it was already too late…

Thirdly, my “employees” as you describe it, also did not enjoy their: vegan pad Thai and quinoa mango something bowl (not noteworthy enough to remember) I’m sure you can read their own feedback regarding that matter.

I hope that when I come back, the issues flagged have been addressed as they are not to be pushed aside. Especially concerning potential allergens which are not mentioned in the menu. Mentioning in your food description and public pictures (that look beautiful btw) that you have red peppers, grilled onions, when in fact those do not exist and have subtly been swapped with huge layers of cucumber and margarine… unfortunately miss the basics of transparency towards clients in this business who are paying their hard earned money.

Overall, as mentioned previously, your property is beautiful, most of the staff are fantastic, and positively you have so much potential. Just a shame that someone so defending as yourself with no empathy to paying customers can ruin that potential for future guests (2 guests walked in when hearing our complaint and immediately left). I empathise for your team, who I imagine would want an “owner” to be more caring and receptive in having the honour to serve guests in such a magnifiant...

Absolutely stunning views are the ONLY redeeming feature of this absolutely tasteless place. Beyond that, it's an utter disaster. The food is nothing short of abysmal. Everything we ordered was below average and not even worth the price. My friend had the local beef burger, which was bland and barely edible; not to mention its paper-thin patty.

As for me, I had the vegan pad thai. It was a delightful surprise to discover that pad thai can, in fact, be made entirely of oil and still somehow lack any flavor. I opted for this vegan dish thinking that it would be healthy only to find out that it was practically bathing in oil, making it a greasy, unappetizing meal. The flavors were so uncanny that I had to double-check if I had actually ordered pad thai or some bizarre mix and match of residual ingredients. It didn’t taste anything like the classic dish and was certainly not worth the price.

The service was equally disappointing. Indifferent staff added to the overall frustration. The high prices for such low-quality food felt like a slap in the face.

I genuinely dislike leaving bad reviews, but this experience was just too serious to ignore. If you’re looking to enjoy the scenery, maybe just pack a sandwich and eat outside. Do yourself a favor and avoid wasting your time and money here. The view is not worth enduring the...

Worst customer experience ever. I don't write reviews that often but this one needs to be documented. Went there around 8am to try their breakfast. Upon arriving, I was initially ignored by the male server. I greeted him good morning, he half-heartedly greeted me back. The tables by the bar were occupied so we sat by one of the tables closer to the beach. The female server (petite, round glasses, tattoo on lower arm) definitely saw us and proceeded to ignore us for the next 5 minutes. My sister then went to the bar and asked for the menu. The female server didn't even bother to look at my sister and pointed to the menu piled on the side of the bar. We then decided to not eat here anymore and left. Upon walking out, the female server just looked at us - no smile, very passive aggressive face, no acknowledgement whatsoever. So disappointing to experience this kind of customer service so early in the morning on an island where people are generally super nice. Don't waste your money here - lots of other places with way better customer service! Bitaog restaurant (glamping area), monkey business, Shaka, Jainin's cafe have the most amazing servers. Something the servers in Republika bar are failing...