Jibaritos de la Isla — Restaurant in California

Came excited to try some Puerto Rican food. I have had some before but never been to a restaurant for it. We walked in around 11:30am and no one was around so we walked to the back and they bartender asked if we were placing an order, then a women from the back came out and we asked if we could dine in and she said yes we can sit anywhere. She brought us our menus and waters and shortly after we placed our order.

We ordered the lechon plate. The pollo frito plate, a chicken pastelillo, queso frito, tostones, and an order or habichuelas. The queso frito was two different cheese and are noticeable in the picture. One cheese was soft and had subtle flavor, the other cheese was not as soft, had a rubbery feeling and sound when you chewed it (kind of hard to eat) but it had a lot of flavor. The tostones were cooked perfect and had great flavor. The chicken pastelillo delicious! The chicken inside of it could’ve been distributed better but it had a nice crunch and the ketchup-Mayo sauce was pretty decent sauce, we had to ask for more!The lechon plate was slow cooked pork with a small but thick piece of fried skin on top, a size of arroz con gandules and a small salad with picketed onions. The pork was alright. Not too much flavor honestly.. the same with the rice and the salad was pretty fresh. The pollo frito was the three giant fried chicken legs! Fried perfect with good flavor.

The serve was super nice and tentative to us. She was kind and constantly poured us more water and gave us updates on our food and when it would be ready. Over alls he made out experience...

I sought this place out as I had a major craving for some Dominican food. It was a gloomy Saturday morning and I could tell this place had just opened for the day - there was no one else there but the music was loud as if last night's party never ended. It took a minute for someone to come out and seat me, so I was already kind of hesitant about my experience here. I was seated and quickly figured what I would order, and again it took awhile for someone to come out and take my order. This is where the waiting begins. I think I waited a good 40 minutes for my order to come out, which was shocking because no one else was there. The waitress acknowledged it was taking awhile and even brought out a courtesy Coco Rico soda. The wait time wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have to be somewhere after this.

By the time my food came out I had to ask for a box to go, I tried the tostones with garlic sauce and they tasted amazing, I was so disappointed I couldn't eat them fresh. The fried chicken plate was very hearty and much bigger than I anticipated, and again was disappointed I had to wait to try it later. It looked very crispy. I was able to eat them later that day and while it took some of the magic out of it, the food was still pretty good. I don't expect fast food coming to sit down places like this but the wait time just seemed so egregious for the time of day and occupancy. I'm hoping I will go back again and have a better...

If you plan on coming here to eat, prepare to call before hand to double check if certain food items are available.

My friend invited me to dine here. Sadly, they didn’t have the bistec available, it was only 5pm on Friday. This was the 4th reoccurence that my friend was told that they didn’t have the food (bistec) available due to certain logistics.

Although we got to order other items, the sliced meat was incredibly salty and so were the beans and rice… these alternatives left us disappointed.

Additionally, we got to speak with the Owner and see if there are solutions. This could’ve been a productive interaction, like for example promoting certain foods on specific days due to the lack of ingredients and other logistics. The owner was busy and we appreciate her taking the time to discuss with us but we weren’t met with understanding or professionalism, as though our frustration was not justified. We weren’t satisfied with the service we got.

We simply wanted to provide constructive feedback to the Owner of the restaurant, so that she may want to consider for the future.

I just hope there will be a resolution because the restaurant is beautiful - we love Dominican Culture!! And from a business standpoint, to consider adopting a different strategy to make sure they have the right food stock/less salty food, especially for a food item that is a staple to...