Restaurante Bili — Restaurant in Isla de Vieques

Absolutely recommend Restaurante Bili! We got right in at 6:30 on a Tuesday. The staff was super friendly and attentive without making us feel rushed. We had the appetizer sampler which was three small bites of each option which was so good and perfect for two people. I wish they bottled the chimichurri they have with the Empanadas! The cod fritters are SO good and not too fishy. Great for kids who like fish sticks. The mofongo bite - delightful. The corn and cheese bites with tomato jelly are the sweet treat of the plate.

We also ordered the lobster, as its caught locally, and did NOT regret it! Grilled to perfection, juicy on the inside and served with lime and butter. It was large enough for two people to split, as well as the portions of rice and beans. The rice was cooked to perfection and the beans you could tell had been cooked low and slow, so much flavor! We also saw that the chef cooking our lobster was a woman, even better! ;) Grilled plantains came with the chef as well and were the perfect dessert. So, compliments to the chef it was absolutely delicious! Dont sleep...

This place simply put is awful.

Pros: ambience is nice, location convenient

Cons: Food was absolutely horrendous without even considering the exorbitant prices. The "fresh" sea food paella tasted like it had been sitting out in the Puerto Rican sun for about a week. It was just a big bowl of bland rice with pieces of rotting sea food thrown in. For $30 um thanks but no thanks I'd have paid that to not eat it. Don't believe the lies that their sea food is freshly caught! This stuff tasted like it had been shipped to Indonesia and back again.

Even the avocado they couldn't seem to get right, it was over ripe and had a very bad flavor.

Drinks were terrible, my Pina colada was 95% ice and basically tasted like a bad snow cone. Worst of all they don't provide a drink menu making you inquire awkwardly about the prices for every drink! Very unprofessional sorry but I like to know what I am paying for stuff.

Fawning and ill trained wait staff alternating between interrupting your conversation every 2 minutes to ignoring you for 30.

Go...

First, Bili is the only restaurant we’ve visited in three days on the Malecon that checked neither vaccination certificates, IDs, or temperature. Fifteen minutes after we were seated Gabriela finally acknowledged our presence. We ordered sparkling water, wine and our entrees. Gabriela brought the water and wine and promptly disappeared. Thirty minutes later I hailed another waitress and enquired when we might expect to be served. She soon returned and said our orders were “being plated”. The pork tenderloin was served without the advertised “tropical salsa” and the pigeon pea risotto was more rice than risotto. But the pièce de résistance was the abundance of crown-shattering shell in the pasta with crab meat. The flavor was very good, but eating it was a challenge (yes, I should have sent it back to the chef, but I was hungry and had no confidence in receiving a timely replacement). When I pointed out the stack of shells on the table, Gabriela laughed. The most disappointing dinner experience in many moons. Perhaps you’ll have...