Iguanas Cocina Puertorriqueña — Restaurant in Río Grande

I'm shocked at the amount of "good reviews" for this place. Highly overrated which makes me skeptical on the validity of the reviews here. I took my daughters here for a nice evening meal at the advisement of the hotel staff. Menu looked great, so we were excited.

I am sorry to say the food was not only subpar and not as authentic or tasty as we'd hoped, but the staff was inattentive.

We ordered the fried cheese for an appetizer -boy that was extremely terrible. Displayed beautifully, but one small bite in what we thought was going to be a warm dish served to us cold and we all spit it out.

Though the app didn't pan out, we had high hopes for our meals. It took about 40 minutes after the app to receive our meals with not one update or check-in from our waiter. Our waiter was now consumed with a table of 8 and no longer vested in our needs. When we finally received our meals from another waiter, we weren't provided utensils for our meat - just butter knives. Ok, no big deal except it took a few flags to get another waiter to attend to our request for a sharp knife.

Moved on because ok, small things right? We dig in and each of us make a face.... the presentation of the food was spectacular.... the flavor.....gag worthy. No seasoning, overcooked (burnt a bit), so tough it took multiple different steak knives to cut a piece. When alas we were able to get our original waiter's attention to show him, he acknowledged the toughness and said "sometimes some of our knives can be dull".

We decided this was one of the worst meals we've ever had on vacation. I quietly spoke our grievances with our original waiter and he said he'd talk to management. I knew this would be another excessive wait so I excused myself to use the restroom. Upon returning my daughter advises me that the manager came to her to speak about our meal and that she (my daughter) encouraged her to wait for my return. She didn't. Never spoke with the manager though I asked to do so after hearing that she came while I was away.

My original waiter proceeded to let me know they'd comp the app. Great. However, we barely ate any of the plates. Shoulder shrug. Fine. I'll pay your bill because you're looking at me like I can't afford this meal just because I pointed out how bad the food was. Oh and here's a tip still (though this review does not do justice to explain how frustrating our service matter was).

The drinks were decent and I that's about all I can give for a positive review for this place. There are MUCH better options for the residents of the hotel in and around the area. When my family and I vacation- we vacation and love to try new spaces and places. This place was a bust and the worst meal from our entire trip or any of our trips for that matter.

Don't...

This restaurant in located within the gated community that houses the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Puerto Rico Golf & Beach Resort, oftentimes referred to as Coco Beach. We went there on 11/29/19 as OpenTable had a write up that is was recently reopened after an extensive renovation and had a customer rating of 4.7 (I should have factored in they only had 5 reviews). The fare is advertised as “Puerto Rican”. We are constantly on the hunt for new discoveries in this area so we went. The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of the clubhouse (of course there is no signs in the building to inform you that). Once you locate the restaurant which isn’t hard once you find out its on the 2nd floor, I found it strange the bar would be located in the lobby, outside the restaurant. Once seated the restaurant was large, open, high ceilings and plenty pf space between tables. The menu is not too extensive. We shared a shrimp in green sauce appetizer that was just OK – the green sauce had some type of gel which I’m not used to in green (garlic) sauce. One of the 3 shrimp was undercooked. We then each had the arroz con pollo which was prepared way different than I ever had. The chicken was chopped into very small pieces and added to the rice. The chicken had the taste of BBQ sauce. I gather they prepared the chicken that way as opposed to putting pieces of chicken in the rice as a way to use a minimal amount of chicken in each dish. I literally had to hunt for the tiny pieces of chicken. It was OK. In short, we are not running back anytime soon, or maybe ever. If you need a place to eat on a holiday or have a large group and nowhere to go, then maybe. Otherwise, there are so many really good small restaurants (mom and op, brother and sister) in the Rio Grande, Luquillo and Fajardo area where the food is excellent and truly "local". If your looking for fancy in Rio Grande, the only place is Paros, an excellent Mediterranean restaurant in an elegant setting at the St. Regis Resort. Its not Puerto Rican but it...

I was very happy with my service tonight. For once, someone knew how to make a bushwacker and it was VERY good considering they don't have ice cream. They found a way around that and made the drink fantastic. Then came the food. I do as I always do and asked what the server would eat if they were the one eating right now. I ended up loving my surprise dish. It was a perfectly prepared crispy pork belly. I don't know the name of it, ir even if it was on the menu. All I know is that I put my trust into the staff, and they knocked it out of the park. Perfectly cooked, exceptional flavor and not overly crispy to where you break a tooth on it. The BBQ sauce they served with it was on the sweeter side which I liked, and perfectly complimented the savory flavor of the pork belly. The red beans and rice that came with it were also on point.

My wife and mother got tue mofungo and that very good.

Now the star of the show that took care of us, Ettenaesh. She did such an outstanding job and took care of my family and me very well. She recommended some outstanding dishes and surprised the heck out of me that she knew the drink I wanted immediately as I asked for it. As I stated earlier, I haven't run into too many people that know this drink, and it's not on their menu. I guess being in the Carribean helps, but still surprised me. If you are reading this, Ettenaesh (of even her boss...psst...give her a raise), thank you for making this a very...