Restaurante Don Esteban — Restaurant in Fajardo

I have no clue where these other reviews came from.. ( they must be fake) I am a foodie and have over 49 years of Eating all over the island and this is one of the worst restaurants I have ever eaten in This island with amazing food everywhere. Went on a Friday night and was skeptical Since there were only two other tables With customers. We waited for about 10 minutes before our waitress Tamara Even acknowledged us. We ordered an appetizer plater and Meat plater as our main dish. We waited about 30 minutes for our Appetizer plater, it had sausage which Was rubbery and tasteless, it had Bacalaitos which had absolutely no taste of Bacalao it was just fried dough. It had fried cheese which was dry and Also bland… it also had mozzarella balls Which where typical frozen bar food. Worst appetizer plate ever for a Whopping $25 dollars… Next the main dish we ordered the Parillada Don Esteban.. The churrasco were small very thin Slices of overcooked she leather With absolutely NO FLAVOR OF CHURRASCO… threw most of it away. Next was the chorizo, again overcooked And like rubber with absolutely no Flavor of Chorizo. Next the Ribs which Where just fat on a bone, really awful The chicken was so dry it was un edible. The tostones where over fried and rock Hard… last but not least the rice tasted Sour!!! I have never had rice that tasted Sour… ALL FOR A WHOPPING $45. To put the icing on the cake our Waitress Tamara was really rude, Raised her voice at me for having our Phone on the table. Please don’t pay attention to all the Rave reviews you...

If I could I would not leave any start. Food was subpar. We had several dishes and most of them were a disappointment. We asked for fried cheese and it was fried but apparently had been reheated to serve us. Asked for the soup of the day and turned out to be my favorite plantain soup...it was not hot, the texture was super grainy, and the stock was sour (not at all what is expected) A Plantain soup should be creamy and the broth should be subtle as to accompany the plantain not overshadow it. We had a plate with fried pork and asked as for reference about a type of rice that we had not tried ( know the name) it tasted more like 2 days back pegao (rice that crust in the bottom if a caldero) than a freshly made one. The meat was hard and tasted like old overused oil. We also had mofongo with shrimps creole, the sauce was so thick and pasty my mom's shirt has a permanent stain now. There were 4 shrimps in the plate ( server went to kitchen to ask what happened and came back with 3 more on a plate). We also had the churrasco filled mofongo and again another missed opportunity to get it right. The brown sauce was sweet and pungent in flavor(and looked like Alpo). The only good part of the food was a Kan Kan pork chop and even that had a soft and chewy skin... They charge the soda without refills, the server was lost in her universe, showed up with a soda 30 minutes after she had gone to get it. And they charged 17.00 on a tip that was not even deserved but was included in the bill..

DON'T LOOSE YOUR TIME...

Came to Fajardo P.R on vacation this past weekend, went to Don Esteban by referral of a family member. Had the absolute WORST experience with the Tamara (unicorn hair lady). The food was amazing (they have an amazing chef) but the service was horrible. We had to wait more than 30 minutes to get our drinks, we had to ask several times. We had an extra family member coming and asked for an extra chair which they never brought to us. Me and my boyfriend had to move a table and add a chair ourselves and this Tamara lady had the audacity to approach the table to give us a lecture about the table not being stable. She stated that we had to divide the tables and sit separately( no where else do they make you divide the party into different tables) and she then proceeded to say that her worry was being sued and kept screaming and being disrespectful. Honestly the worst experience we as a family have ever had. It is sad that such a nice place with good food is being tainted with such horrible customer services. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone unless they either train their staff properly or get rid of that...