Mi Familia Restaurant — Restaurant in New London

Mi Familia Restaurant. So I am coming home to NY from a football game in Massachusetts and my wife and I are driving on I95 to New London to get to the ferry. We plan our trip to be in Mew London early enough that we can eat something. So, not knowing the area I come to my trusty Yelp app to search the surrounding area for a place to stop. And BAM - I see Mi Familia and see that it’s Puerto Rican food.

We arrive at Mi Familia at 11 just as it opens up. Small place - 1 table for 4 inside and a few picnic benches outside - that is it, in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I love these places because they are HIDDEN GEMS.

My wife and I enter and are greeted by the owner. Immediately we feel welcome and I engage the owner by asking him where from PR he is. The first thing that impressed me was the cleanliness and the way the food looked. The second thing that was very impressive was the owners excitement about his food. No he was not bragging, he was passionate. To the food....which is prepared a head of time and kept hot ready to serve.

My wife has yellow rice with peas, stewed red kidney beans, a fried pork chop and pastelon. If you don’t know what this is, google it.

I had some white rice, yellow rice with salchichas, google that too, red beans and the quintessential PERNIL.

We began to eat and WOW. If you are from Puerto Rico and grew up eating your grandmothers food and know what Authentic Puerto Rican food is that is seasoned and cooked to perfection, well Mi Familia Restaurant is just like that. The owners, Mr. Santiago and his wife, own and cook the food themselves. While eating my food I was brought back to my grandmothers food. Perfection Mr. Santiago, perfection.

While eating, Mrs. Santiago brings out guineitos en escabeche with mollejas - google it if you don’t know. I comment that it looks amazing. This is after having paid for my meal. The owner brings me a nice size sample and wants my opinion on his dish. Well - I gave it to him, it was better than my grandmothers.

If you are in the New London area by the ferry to Long Island/Block Island, do yourself a favor and look up Mi Familia Restaurant. I can not wait to go back to try some of their other dishes. This food is being prepared with a tremendous amount of passion and love. And extremely low prices. Thank you Mr. and...

Great location. Excellent parking. AMAZING display of the main dish options. FLUENT bi-lingual. I had ALLL my questions answered. She was so patient, easy to understand, and very friendly. I felt welcomed and like they were happy to see me when I walked in, as if I were a regular. That made me feel VERY comfortable seeing as this was my first time here. Not only did she answer my questions, but she inquired with her mom to be sure she was giving the best, most accurate information/descriptions. The place was VERY clean, bright, and upbeat. I ordered chicken mofongo with pigeon pea rice and pernil (pulled pork). The Mofongo was more wet than other places. I usually like dryer mofongo but this was SLAMMIN! The type of onion they paired it with on top really enhanced the entire dish and gave it a whole new dimension. The mofongo was made in the back and was not in hot plates out front. I did not wait long. She also FILLED the to-go container. FILLED. And when the mofongo came, that too, took up the entire container space. AMAZING deal for what you pay. One dish could EASILY turn into 1-3 MORE meals with the leftovers. The chicken looked like a filet of fish because it was cooked so beautifully. It was lightly breaded, very thinly sliced and much to my pleasant suprise, not dry at ALL. That was some of the most moist chicken, I've ever eaten. AND THIN! Now, I'm wondering if it was fried or baked because there was no grease that I can recall... There were SO many options of how to make a dish! I appreciated learning about "trifongo" which has sweet and green plantains as well as yucca. There were other items I did not order that were unique such as Puerto Rican style lasagna, blood sausage, and multiple cold salads (potato, pasta, etc) and they also offered drinks including fruit milk teas and Malta, as well as unique cultural candies (looked like coconut, sesame, or spicy lollipop options)

Overall, I loved every second of this experience. I will DEFINITELY be returning to try...

We are very blessed . . .

That our area of Southeastern Connecticut has such a large Puerto Rican population - - or we may have never tasted the wonderful food that this restaurant offers.

One of the best, if not THE VERY BEST, restaurants in the local area. My only concerns:

1. I didn’t see a bathroom, but I didn’t need one 🤷🏽‍♂️;
2. we could have used a knife for the pork stick, but we should have asked.

The staff is extremely helpful. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽Wonderful designs, with lots of inspiration. ♥️♥️♥️

Now for the food: Chicken Steam Plate: Chicken leg, rice & beans, fried plantain pieces. Chicken super moist, rice was outstanding, & plantains were very tasty. Beef Stew: very good, similar to Filipino Beef Mechado. Pork Stick: great tasting pork - - for me, I would have liked a bit more “fatty” on my stick, but it was really meaty!!! Beans were nicely done. Smashed Plantains were served with 1000 Island dressing: probably just as good without the dressing. Ground Beef Empanada: good, a bit of vegetables would have put it over the top (potatoes, onions, carrots, peas) - - but that’s there style. Chicken Empanada: ok, a bit salty for us.

Enjoy!!!!!

We probably ordered more than we should have, next time we’ll scale back . . . a...