El Hipopótamo — Restaurant in San Juan

3 of us were to return to St. Louis, MO recently after a cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our return flight was delayed, forcing us to spend another night in San Juan. The Airport Hotel was full, and every place we called was full, except Dreams Hotel on University. The Dreams Hotel desk clerk or Manager told us about a decent resturant within walking distance called El Hippopotamo. We walked there, found it and with full hams hanging in the front window, we passed it by thinking it was a meat shop of some sort. I walked back, pulled on the door and to my surprise it was open. We went in and were greeted by men in black uniforms. A quick look around told us that, yes there are tables and a few patrons. All of the waiters spoke Spanish and a little broken English, but that was all we needed to relay to him that we wanted to eat, and boy O' boy did we eat. The waiter began to bring us plate after plate of several kinds of Salads, Meats and Seafood. None of us could speak any Spanish, but the menu was such that Red Snapper must be the same in English as in Spanish, So we got some of that and a dish with some wonderful tasting Octopus. This meal went on for at least two hours. It was very, very Special to all three of us. It's nearly all we talked about our whole trip home the next day. I cannot think how to relay to anyone in any stronger words than these, that this El Hipopotomis Reasturant, was the Cherry on top, for this trip. Thank you...

El Hipoptamo is a great San Juan restaurant favored by locals for many years. Their culinary style has strong roots in Puerto Rican, Spanish and Cuban cuisine. They have an extensive wine list and pretty much anything else you could want to drink. There are quite a few tables situated in two rooms, suitable for couples on up to small groups. There is also counter service available. Everything is good in terms of food. The black bean soup is a must have. The tostones are freshly made and come with mayo-ketchup, the uniquely Puerto Rican mixture of its namesakes. We had two kinds of steak, both of which were super tender and very good. Since the menu doesn't necessarily list everything you can order, feel free to talk with your server if there is something you want. In our case we ordered a ham plate to try some of the Iberico ham displayed in the front window. We saw another table order tortilla española, a really tasty mixture of eggs, potatoes and onions. Neither was on the menu, but they make it work. This is really a special place and they...

I would not recommend this place to anyone, it is absolutely overpriced, and the service was horrible. I ordered a cordon bleu, and it came with so many bones in the chicken. I almost broke a tooth they charge outrageous prices, like you’re at a five-star restaurant when clearly it’s a one star restaurant, I had to ask our waiter six times to bring the coffee I ordered as soon as I sat down and that took 45 minutes. I would feel horrible if I recommended this place to someone and they went and got the same service I did it is a hole in the wall that looks somewhat decent on the inside , it is not authentic, and the furniture and atmosphere were basic. The only reason it got one star is because the soda was super cold. Our waiter has been there for a little while, and still could not provide service that was adequate to the prices of the menu. This place is extremely overpriced, and the food wasn’t even that good. Also, the restrooms were extremely dirty and made you not want to...