Atabey Condado — Restaurant in San Juan

I came to this spot during the afternoon. This place was not busy at all. There were only two other guest beside myself. At first, I thought this place was closed because the door would not open. Despite me clearly seeing two guest sitting at separate tables thru the windows at table, but no staff. I had to go next door to find out that you really have to put some elbow grease into your pull to get the door to come open. An odd feature for a business that should want customers to come in freely.

I sat myself near the window and waited a brief period for hostess to arrive. Apparently, the hostess was also the bartender, and the line cook. Understandable, given that it was around 2 in the afternoon and there was hardly any business at this time.

The hostess appeared coming from the restroom. I found myself constantly questioning the sanitation standards as I could not tell if he had washed his hands before coming out. Also, when I really looked at the small details of the restaurant, specifically at the edging on the windows and the title on the ceiling I could tell that some housing keeping needed to be done.

I finally ordered my food. My first time dining PR. I was curious and nervous. I quickly found out that all menu items are A LA Carte. Not just at this restaurant, but seemingly all independent restaurants throughout San Juan. There is no such thing as a combo here.

I finally ordered after going on the menu many times. I ordered the chicken tenders, with fries, and a coke. After a brief moment the hostess returns to inform me that they didn't have any fries in house today. I was disappointed. He offered potato tots or fried plantains as an alternative. I chose the tots. The food came approx 20 mins later. My dish look very appealing. The potato tots were surprisingly delicious. My chicken bites were another matter. They didn't look bad, but the taste was off. They didn't taste great unless I drowned them in the barbecue sauce. I was about 80% done with my dish of chicken bites when I noticed a lengthy human hair surrounding my chicken bites. I placed it on a napkin and left for the host to see. I didn't make a fuss as I was essentially done with my meal. But the discovery did confirm what I felt after sitting down and surveying the establishment. There is no food safety and sanitation guidelines in place here. Or, at minimum they are not being adhered too. I would not...

We were part of large party (14 people) visiting Puerto Rico from NY. On Sunday night, we arrived to Old San Juan shortly after 8pm for dinner. To our surprise, after trying several places, we discovered that most restaurants in OsJ closed by 8pm (though most don’t have their hours updated in their websites or in Google) so we started to call around restaurants in El Condado area to check if we could find a reservation for our group. We called Atabey at 8:49pm and spoke with a woman who confirmed a reservation for our group and asked us to arrive no later than 9:30pm. She called us back at 8:53 to check if it was OK with us if they sat half of our party indoors and half outdoors to which we agreed. Due to the traffic to get from OSJ and Condado, we arrived at Atabey at 9:15. To our surprise, the hostess had given away one of our tables “because she honestly thought that they were our group”. The group they seated was only 5 people. She then told us that we could order to go but that they would not seat us. At that point, we were left scrambling to find a place to eat. Some people in our party decided to leave and we ended up with a party that could be accommodated indoors. We went back inside and asked if the smaller party could be seated, and they reluctantly agreed. After we were seated, we waited for the waitress to come to our table to take our orders but she never did. The hostess then came back to our table to let us know that the kitchen had closed. I asked her to please speak with the owner. Jessica, the owner, who after trying to persuade us to leave, and even try to defend the hostess saying hat we had called “over 1 and a half hour ago”, agreed after a lot of back and forth, that she would get in the kitchen herself to help prepare our order so we can eat. At that point, we didn’t trust that our food was going to be handled sanitarily and decided to leave. So, in short, perhaps their food is good, we obviously will never know, but SERVICE IS BEYOND HORRIFIC. We do not recommend.

UPDATE: owner is also a liar. Photos attached of phone calls made showing time stamps. If a business doesn’t take reservations, why take reservations when someone call? HORRIBLE SERVICE. JUST SAVE YOURSELF THE...

I was in Puerto Rico from March 18th in the AM Until March 29th in the late evening. I decided to go to Atabey since it was across the street from where we were staying, and it stated on the website that it had Vegan options for my sweetheart. We went there on Thursday, March 27th at 9:09 and we were met at the door by a tattooed woman with long jean shorts and were told that they were closing although we could see that there were patrons that she was hovering over. We said that the website stated that it was open till 10:45 and her response was that the owner needs to change that. I said that my fiancé was hungry and we needed to get something, even if it was appetizers. She said that we could "have something easy." I said that we were customers looking to get a meal and her reply was "Don't test me, my boss is a white woman named Jessica." I have no idea what that had to do with ANYTHING, but she said the owner's name is Jessica. Psychotic experience for someone looking to feed my loving lady. Scary and disrespectful!! Even after I was thoroughly disrespected by the same individual who I believe to be the manager, bartender, etc. as she stated, I carried chairs inside the restaurant to make her job easier, there was other staff that witnessed it. My act of assistance and diffusion did not change her volatile attitude, and again I was just the paying, helpful customer. Is this the way you feel customers...