Cocina Abierta — Restaurant in San Juan

This is with the massive caveat that we went on New Year’s Eve when there was a massive power cut. This obviously affected things but it was less about that and more about how this was communicated to us/the service once we were seated. We arrived and saw a lot of people waiting outside. We were a bit early before our revelation, but lots of servers were walking past and no one said hello to us or that someone would be with us in a minute. After about five or so minutes, someone checked us in, and said our table would be a few more minutes. This wasn’t the case- it turned out that the powercut meant they had no AC in part of the restaurant so they had fewer tables, hence the longer wait time. But no one explained this to us until we had been waiting for about 15 mins and were asking how much longer it would be. We understood this was out of their control, and were happy to get drinks outside, but it took me having to flag down a server and ask for a glass of water to find this out. If they had just told us this on arrival that would have been much better, or even if they had contacted us and asked us to arrive a little later, we wouldn’t have minded. We get that the situation is not within your control, but how you communicate to guests is. It was a five course set menu, we had the vegetarian one. The food was nice but nothing to me was incredible- I had somewhat high expectations of the food based on the reviews I had seen, but also maybe the power cut didn’t help this. There was nothing wrong with it per se, just nothing where I thought it was absolutely incredible. I would have liked it if the food was explained a bit better to us too. The service once we were sat down just really wasn’t great. Our gazpacho came, and then the second course was brought out without clearing the gazpacho cups. Some of the courses came right after the other, some we were left with the plate for a long time. Although someone introduced herself as our server, we had about four or five people bring us different things/collect dishes. At one point I had to ask someone to take my empty cocktail glass and the empty gazpacho cups after they sat down our third course! At a restaurant where you’re paying this much you don’t expect to have to hand dirty glasses to the server to take. The spacing of the courses was also very weird. Our final savoury course was cleared up and our desserts brought out instantly, when we would have liked more of a gap going from savoury to sweet, but at other points we were left with dirty plates for a long time. I saw some people complain the meal was too slow/lasted too long in other reviews, but if I’m doing a five course dinner I don’t want it to be over in 45 minutes! This meant weird things like we were served and cleared a whole course before the beer my husband ordered arrived. It felt like they were rushing us out at the end, but then we saw other tables were way before us in terms of their courses so it’s not like we were the last people dragging their heels to leave preventing them closing. Like I said, the powercut probably affected things so this wasn’t easy for the staff. However a lot of this felt service related rather than food. None of it was disastrous but our total bill was around $250 including two drinks each and service so when you’re spending more on a meal...

Of the 5 items on the tasting menu I would only recommend 1 based on the items I had. As a start I had a nonalcoholic soursap lemonade that was $7. It was overly sweet, not very well balanced, and had an artificial flavor.

The first course was ceviche. It was decent. I didn't care for the peanuts on top, but I understood their purpose.

The mushrooms tacos were very good! This should be a consistent item on the menu. Nicely done.

The lobster (as pictured) was beautiful, but as a complete bite tasted the way vomit smells. The lobster was overcooked. The attempt to combine different flavors was not a successful execution and a waste of good lobster. The dish needed to be simplified.

At one point it felt like the wait staff forgot about us. It took a while before getting the next course.

The entree course - I got the filet and my partner got the fish. The fish was the best item of them all. However, if you are going to serve skin on fish the skin must be crispy. The skin was chewy and limp. The root vegetable with the fish were undercooked and hard in some areas.

The beef filet was cold and not cooked well. As a result some areas of the steak were tough and others were chewy. I did not like it at all. The server had no idea what it was at first. The same plate was walked back and forth to the kitchen as the assumption was it was beef Wellington when it was actually beef filet. The filet was covered in a sauce. The sauce was a play on a mole or a bbq style sauce. The sauce had a nice flavor, but again the steak was poorly cooked.

I had the chocolate dessert and my partner had the plantain cake.

Both dessert had the potential to be good, but the ice cream was over churned. There were large ice pieces in the ice cream. It was not smooth or creamy at all!

The plantain cake with the goat cheese ice cream was good. It was well balanced and not overly sweet. If the ice cream weren't over churned it would have been a very good dish.

The chocolate dessert would have been better without the passion fruit ice cream. That as a whole bite was unbalanced and not well thought out.

Overall I don't see myself going back to this place again. I think it is overrated, needlessly expensive and overly hyped. Maybe some of the other tasting menus were better, but this...

Was looking forward to this experience - a 5 course meal for only $85 seemed promising. Pictures of the food online looked great, the dessert especially. However, the taste of the food was subpar for the most part.

I started my first act with the crudo, which was fresh, tasty, but too acidic. This is not something to eat on an empty stomach as the first course. I would recommend instead to have the carpaccio, which my partner ordered. It was better balanced and quite tasty.

For the second act, I got the spiny lobster. I expected to see a visible piece of lobster meat on my dish, but I was too optimistic. The dish was squid ink pasta, which tasted decent, although they likely forgot to salt the water when boiling the pasta, so it was bland. There was only a few bits of lobster meat, which was somewhat disappointing. But, overall the flavors of this dish, when the sauce was thoroughly mixed, was pretty good.

Third act I got the Wahoo, which was a fish steak wrapped in some sort of duxelles and basil leaf, with a side of chanterelle mushrooms. The fish was pretty great, but the chanterelles needed more salt. Otherwise, it was a good dish and I recommend it over the gnocchi.

Fourth act was the absolute worst, I ordered beefsteak. The steak was about 1/4th inch “thick”, was cooked super well done, and was so tough to cut and even tougher to chew. Additionally, it was topped with a raw onion salad, which was far too pungent and overpowering. The sauce on the dish was also way too salty. Everything about this dish was wrong. Honestly this was super disappointing, especially since the fourth act is supposed to be the culmination of the five acts.

Fifth act was dessert, which I got the forgotten fruit. This was a refreshing end to the meal, and was probably the best dish of the five. They have a great dessert chef for sure.

Overall, the food was disappointing. For what you are paying for, it is absolutely not worth it. But, if you have never experienced a multi-course meal, then maybe you could give it a shot. Just avoid the fourth act beefsteak at all costs.

Service was great, our waiter Erick was attentive and helped us with the wine options. ambience was also good, I liked the...