Brasas D' Palmas — Restaurant in Humacao

First off, I question the top / numero uno ranking Brasas D'Palmas is receiving on the google searches today. We went there two days ago May 27 2023, and found the dishes very poor. The 2-star rating I give here may be generous because of the good service from the waitstaff. Nice people, friendly (as some one else commented) but the food left much to be desired. I bring this up in particular because this is a tourist town, we need authentic reviews on google & yelp. We went to Brasas because it came up higher than 3 other restaurants that actually deserve 4 and 5-stars, I will name them because it is important to be specific -- they are Agustino's Steak & Pasta, Casa de Ville Italian (name?), and Koffy Bistro & Brunch -- these are all in the same plaza -- a min walking distance from Brasas; and Truvo at the Wyndham (about a 20-min walk, 5 min car or golf cart ride). As one of my friends in the party described "they (Brasas) have a cook, not a chef" ; i am inclined to think on the day we went for dinner, probably they had a short order chef from waffle house (ok, that may be hitting below the belt, dont need that :-)). In the subsequent two days after dinner at Brasas, our first in Puerto Rico, we had the opportunity to eat truly better food, Puerto Rican and other mixed cuisine, both in Palmas Plaza Humacao and in Old San Juan. Specifically I rated the Brasas food 2-star or lower because the mofongo was dry as hell, and crusty (we had nice fresh tasting, juicy samples at El Jibarito in Old San Juan), the $36 Lobster was "gamey"; steak was only half eaten by my 26-yr old friend who would eat almost anything, the $30 snapper was a dry and salty not a trace of tender succulent fish; the salmon was not right (my party members said "may be we will take it back to the hotel and hit it in the microwave later tonight" -- that shocked me, for a $30 entree !!), and the story was no better into dessert -- the flan was dense (not fluffy) with little to save in high tasting syrup ...

I dont want to beat up on the place. But there needs to be some balancing of the high ratings. Yes Brasas is highly marketed (i see signs everywhere, including on delivery cars in the area) but save poor first timer tourists a bit of comparative validation of the rankings. The next morning over coffee I was talking to two locals (who moved here from continental USA) and they quickly and vigorously affirmed my quick n' dirty poll & rating of Brasas based on the sampling from my party of 4 about the places we had eaten at so far.

Treat Brasas like Dominos pizza -- will suffice, quality. Prices are out of whack with the product they serve. More a $12-15 entree vs a $28-38, with how I have ballparked prices so far even in this resort area of Palmas, and the general city...

Service was really poor. We were there for over 2 hours. Party of 5. Started taking our order and then disappeared for another 20 minutes without finishing. When he finally came to take our order 30 minutes had passed. They brought our appetizers but didn’t bring plates utensils or napkins. Thankfully it was pastelillos. But we had 3 orders of those and they brought em all out on one plate which is fine but it made sharing difficult. Additionally they only gave us one side of sauce. Like the same amount they would have given us for one order. So there really wasn’t enough to go around. We had to tell them that we needed more sauce, like enough for each order, also who wants to double triple quadruple dip with 5 other people. No one. When my boyfriend ordered a glass of water they brought him the tiniest cup and then didn’t refill it at all while everyone else got large glasses of the drinks they ordered. They forgot my boyfriends food as well and asked him again what he ordered as they gave everyone else their food. They didn’t bring it out until the end when everyone else had recieved their food and finished eating because they had to go and make it while everyone else was eating. So he just had them box it up because we didn’t want to be there any longer than we already had. He ordered the fish tacos.. When the rest of the food came out we had to ask twice for utensils. Can’t exactly eat mofongo with your hands. They also charged us 2$ for the tiny glass of water that was mostly ice and when I caught it they reluctantly refunded us for the 2$. I ordered the pechuga de pollo con habichuelas guisadas and they told me they had no cilantro sauce and could only do carbonara or Alfredo. Which doesn’t pair well with habichuelas at all… I would’ve been fine with adobo and garlic on the chicken. That would’ve been a better suggestion and option. But they told me that after we had already been there for like an hour 15 minutes. In total we were there for a little over 2 hours. So I was just defeated. That being said the food itself was very good. Three mofongos, fish tacos, and the habichuelas and the rice were really good though. It’s a shame the service...

Didn’t call me for my take out order and extra charge for more than 1 side of ketchup to share between 4 plates. Steak was raw, tostones undercooked. Terrible service.

Update, because the owner replied to my review very hostile, I would like to add more information to clarify: I left my phone number with the staff and verified that they had it correct before I left. They did not call me. Our 4 dinner plates came with 3 sides of tostones. I asked for mayu-ketchup for all three and was told there would be an up-charge. I did ask for my steak medium-rare, not raw. There is a difference. I base my review on not one, but all three problems. My suggestion is that before you blame the customer, take some responsibility for...