Café El Punto — Restaurant in San Juan

Extremely Disappointing Experience with the manager

My husband and I are currently on vacation in Puerto Rico and decided to have dinner at Café El Punto in Old San Juan. My husband is a retired member of the U.S. Air Force and has a registered service dog. We were pleased at first to see a sign at the entrance stating that pets are not allowed unless they are registered service dogs—which is completely reasonable and understandable.

However, once we sat down, the restaurant manager, Hernan, approached us and demanded to see the registration for the service dog, despite the fact that she was clearly identified with her service dog harness and had all her tags. We provided the documentation without hesitation. What truly shocked and upset us was that Hernan then took the ID and took a photo of it before returning it—without asking permission and with a very unpleasant attitude.

As someone who is familiar with the rights surrounding service animals, I know that this behavior is completely inappropriate and illegal. Businesses are not allowed to demand documentation, let alone photograph it. It felt like a complete invasion of privacy and a lack of understanding of ADA laws.

We left feeling disrespected and frustrated. It’s unacceptable for a manager not to be trained on proper protocol regarding service animals—especially while advertising policies they clearly don’t understand. We will never return to this restaurant and do not recommend it to anyone traveling with a service animal. What should have been a nice dinner turned into a...

While visiting Puerto Rico we found this delicious little gem. Their entrance looks like an art gallery. We did not know it was a restaurant, but luckily a local recommended this place. All the food we had was absolutely delicious. I ordered the grouper with creole sauce, my husband ordered the whole fried snapper covered in seafood. Our friends also ordered ceviche, skirt steak and their stuffed avocado. Our friend didn't love the ceviche, but it was because he was expecting Mexican ceviche, which it was very different. Myself, I thought it was amazing. Each meal came with 2 sides. They also had their own delicious hot sauce. We asked to purchase a bottle, but due to it being made daily without preservatives, it would spoil quickly, therefore they did not sell it. The food was incredible and such a great price! We had gone to another restaurant the day before, their food not even half as decent for double the price. They had a large pitcher of red sangria for $50. We had about 3-4 glasses between the 3 of us. Service was great too. Very friendly and patient with those of us who didn't speak Spanish. They had 3 separate rooms with 3-5 tables in each room with colorful wall art. Small, but cozy. We had a group of 8 and were able to comfortably sit in one room and it still allowed for 3 other tables. When I return to PR I will definitely returning to this restaurant in old San Juan. My husband and I both agreed it was the best meal we had in...

The BEST meal we had while in Puerto Rico! Excellent traditional PR food. Very cute, tucked away atmosphere where you really feel like a local. Everything we had was delicious and by far the most delicious and strongest Piña Cooladas we have had thus far! Highly highly highly recommend this spot.

FOOD: we all got different variations of the stuffed avocado. The avocados were HUGE (like a softball size!) and delicious. The stuffings were great- I got the shrimp w garlic sauce and the other guests got mixed seafood w garlic sauce and chicken w garlic sauce. The fried sweet plantains were AMAZING- so sweet and soft and caramelized. The Piña coladas were so delicious and authentic with a very generous rum floater on top! They hit the spot. The house sangria was also great.

ATMOSPHERE: it’s a small little cafe tucked away behind a gallery entryway. The gallery has cute art (checkout the painted matchbook magnets of the VSJ doors for only $5!). The restaurant consists of a service bar and 2-3 modest dining rooms with cute murals and nice lighting. Everything was clean and really felt like we were locals and tucked back in real San Juan. Very casual and comfortable.

SERVICE: we were seated right away. Service was quick, friendly, helpful and delightful.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND for dinner for authentic PR food and feel! The kitchen closes at 8 pm but they do drinks to go until 10 pm. DO NOT MISS THIS SPOT FOR THE BEST...