Vejigantes Restaurant — Restaurant in Boston

My family and I stumbled upon this place after dropping my little sister off at Boston College, for her first year. As proud Puerto Ricans, we all hoped that this place would live up to our expectations of traditional Puerto Rican food, especially since we’ve traveled to Puerto Rico several times and have been disappointed. I am happy to say that not only have we finally found a winner, but we have found a place that we will visit faithfully whenever we are in Boston. I’d even go as far as to say that we’d travel two hours JUST to have this food. First, we were welcomed by a place that felt like home. Just across the street as we parked the car, we saw a beautiful mural of all things pertaining to Puerto Rico, and its independence. It was as if a piece of Puerto Rico was with us right here in Boston. It brought not only a sense of pride, but also a sense of appreciation because it’s not every day we get to see something so artistic and meaningful to where we come from. As soon as we walked in the door we invited by salsa music that immediately got us shaking, smiling, and ready to soak in a great experience. To start we all ordered drinks. The guys had Cuba Libres, which they enjoyed, my mom had a Tamarindo margarita, which I later wish I ordered, I ordered a Beso Boricua, and my sister had a Passionfruit mojito. We were all impressed by how tasty and refreshing the drinks were. My favorite, however, was the Tamarindo margarita. I’ve never tasted anything like it. My mom also ordered a bacalaito for her appetizer. Our server was very generous and brought us three oversized bacalaitos, instead of one, which we were able to divide and share amongst the five of us. This I was very grateful for, as I was kicking myself in the head for not ordering one myself. The bacalaitos were delicious. They were crispy, fresh, and just like my abuela makes them. Not much can stand up to her cooking so when you can say that, it’s a pretty big deal. Dinner was the best part. I ordered the bistec empanizado which was out of this world. It came with white rice and habichuelas, and I ordered a side of maduros because they’re my favorite. My sister ordered the same and we were both in agreement that this was one of the best dishes we’ve ever had. My boyfriend ordered churrasco with white rice and beans and barely lifted his head from the plate. As the pickiest eater from the group, we were all shocked to see him enjoy his food so much. He is not a fan of beans but said these beans were so good that he could eat them alone. He also said that the food was so good that he could cry. My mom ordered the mofongo de yucca with lobster tail and as my sister and I each took a bite, we said in unison, “Mmmm sooo good!!” (I’m not kidding). My dad ordered the churrasco volcan, and wanted to keep eating even after he was full. Dining at Vejigantes was a great experience for all of us and our trip to Boston would not have been complete without it. The service was impeccable, our server did not leave our table until everything was right and he came back several times to make sure we were enjoying everything. The portions were huge and well worth the money because we all ended up taking food back with us to our rooms. We were all extremely satisfied and concluded that this has been the best Puerto Rican food we have ever eaten. The Rivera/Valentin/Chaparro family has found a little piece of home in Boston and we will continue to visit every time we are in the...

It has been the worst service I have experience in my life. I'm visiting Boston and people recommended the place so we went to check it out. We had to wait a good amount of time to get one of the waiters to get our drinks' order then another waiter came about 15 minutes later to asked us for our food order which was fine until that point. We started ordering and a good amount of the things we wanted were not available so we had to keep changing what we wanted and then we got our food order in. After a couple minutes she came back to asked us what kind of drinks we had at this point we had been sitting for about 35 minutes with no drinks and no water refills, but we were cool and told her again. As we were with friends we were chatting and time passed by but after not getting our drinks 3 times we tried to call the waitress and she kept ignoring us until she couldn't ignore us anymore and had to come to our table. When she got there I asked for our drinks and her response was "I'm going to check on those" it was probably 50 minutes into our sitting time so they should have bring those a long time ago but when she came back she literally said "they are starting to make those" at that point it was an hour and I didn't want to wait more for drinks or food to be honest because if it took them so long to get us drinks we didn't want to wait to see how long our food was going to be. Terrible service and it is sad because I'm Latina and I'm always trying to support our community but sometimes we lack customer service and we don't care plus if they didn't have something or have an issue it should be communicate to the customer so there is not this kind...

Hmmm where to begin....ok, so this establishment was recommended to us from a friend, whom I can say, has very fine taste when it comes to where they spend their money. It was to our benefit that we experience whatever this restaurant had to offer and make note on how our lives would be better because of it. None of that happened or was felt. Let's start with the service. Not gonna lie, atrocious. I know, it's not always fair to put too much emphasis on the service of an establishment but why did it take 35 min to get water?! Why did we have to ask 3 different personnel for napkins? I'm still not even sure who I paid to be honest, someone I had never seen before just dropped a check on our table and a different person picked it up 🤷🏾‍♂️. Moving forward, the ambiance: pretty on brand for what they're selling, I enjoyed the variety of colors and artwork used to convey the idea of family and traditions. Next up, and if not the most important, the food. Both items were plated welI and I found what I ordered to be delicious. The seasonings played well with each other and I enjoyed my plate, saving a bit for lunch for the next day. My partner on the other hand ordered the steak and was not totally impressed with the seasoning, after tasting some of it I concured that there was a slight missing of what needed to be and though it wasn't a complete disappointment it was something to note. All-in-all this is lovely venue with great options if your in the mood for relatively authentic dishes from PR. Just don't expect 5-star or even 4-star...