La Picadera Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in San Juan

While the white rice was cooked to perfection maybe 95% better than most of PuertoRican restaurants Ive ever been, The chuleta Can Can was the worst I ever had. Chuletas Can Can is a process that not all chef and cook dominate. If you go back to the restaurant that created that dish “La Guardaraya” you will se what I am talking about. The fat layer between the meat and the skin has to render down and the skin has to be left like crackling pork or as we call it “Chicharron”. When I get barely crispy skin or a blob of white fat is an indicator that it was very poorly executed. On top of that it was very dry and flavorless. It really tasted like it wasn’t season at all. I did took a gamble going to this restaurant since most restaurants in Old San Juan are tourist traps. A couple of glitches with the service but nothing mayor, no water was offer to the table at any time. Beers where super cold which it was great, but because if this the table was dripping a lot, and was never even wipe dry while we were there. UPDATE Answering to the response of the businesses owner. This is no a matter of pleasing all customers. I understand not all palettes are the same. The issue here is that this dish is very poorly executed and flavorless. I believe that if you are and ambassador to PuertoRican Cooking being that your location (Old San Juan) receives so many tourist it should be up to par. Going back down and reading some of the past reviews I’ve noticed that this issue has been mentioned before. The fact that some customers had to ask for salt and pepper in the past proves my point. PuertoRican food is not supposed to be bland at all. We as PuertoRicans take pride in our flavors. This types of reviews should be used to address the situation and improve the mention dishes instead of trying to justify a sub par execution of such an emblematic...

Cute little spot. The hostess quoted really long wait times for food service but we took a gamble and had our app and meal out pretty quickly. We were seated at a table and told that bar seating wasn't available due to the rush.

A $5 Tito's vodka special was offered and was a nice change from all of the rum and margarita specials elsewhere. Drinks arrived quickly and were well mixed- highly recommend! We were there on a Tuesday evening, and it seemed like the special was running all night.

The cordon bleu balls were deep fried but creamy and good. We got 8 in the order. Presentation was lacking- they showed up in a metal basket without a plate underneath and no side plates. Side plates were small paper plates which made the meal feel more like a picnic. They were out of fish tacos for the evening so we opted for steak tacos. The beef was wonderfully seasoned, but the flour tortilla tasted cold and stale and the lettuce, tomato and onion fixings left much to be desired. Fries were a bit undercooked. We placed a second order and asked for them a bit more crispy and they came out how you would normally expect- asking to deep fry a second time might produce better results.

Overall, the place was busy. Service was average. Food was okay, but presentation was underwhelming. We would be back for the $5 Tito's specials but probably not seeking out any of the...

Visited this place thinking it would be a great experience, but it was a bad experience from the start. We got there about 1:30p.m. & as we opened the door a young lady stopped us & told us they were full. I asked how long was the wait time, she answered she didn't know. I asked if we could be put on a wait list, she answered we just had to wait outside. I asked if she could find out approximately how long, she looked bothered & said to wait. She came back after 5 mins. Sat us. I thought maybe it would be better only got worse. Didn't get our order right and then got upset when we returned something we didn't ordered. I ended up eating after my husband & friends finished their meals. Food was not at all what we expected for El Viejo San Juan. Food had no seasoning. We asked for salt & pepper and she bought us some with an attitude. I didn't ask for a manager because my food had not come out. Then I asked for the bill. She bought out 2 separate bills. I told her it was only 1 and to please bring it to me. She came back and gave it to my friend. Maybe she was not having a good day, but when you work in hospitality business customer service is everything. I would not recommend this place to anyone. The service was horrible, and the A.C. unit apparently wasn't working as well. And on top of that ended up paying over $186. + a $30.00...