La Pradera — Restaurant in San Juan

🇵🇷 🍳 GREAT VALUE & YUM!! La Pradera (la-prah dare ah) aka ”The Prairie” is a local bustling place. Sit at the counter at this likable Puerto Rican 1960’s-type diner.

They serve a great breakfast and filling lunch everyday except Sunday. Sit at the counter you’ll enjoy the “food show”, order eggs with cheese and toasted flattened buttered bread 🥖 - their American cheese tastes much better here than anywhere else. Order a sweet thick fruit shake “Batida”, preferably the papaya one. It’s thick, sweet and delicious. You must order a cup of their creamy Café con Leche! Enjoy a Mallorca (my your kah) with margarine.

This is where local people from the neighborhood start their day, you’ll see many sweet older Puerto Rican women pop in here dressed in their pretty dresses with a simple necklace. 🌸 Spanish is spoken here primarily but many of the staff speak or understand English. This is a feel good spot, nothing fancy but good homemade food. I love it’s old school vibe! Everyone feels like a local here. 😇

🥖 If you’re very hungry, their lunchtime food features hearty Puerto Rican fare… stews, chicken, meats, rice and beans and often Tostones. If you’re from the contiguous United States, you’ll equate this with a heavy dinner meal but in Puerto Rico that’s what people have for lunch! Many places such as this offer red snapper on their menu, it’s usually fried whole so be aware of that, it’s also delicious. I really wish this place was open for dinner because I know it would be packed!

La Pradera is located across the street from the wonderful “Courtyard by Marriott/Miramar”. If you’re staying there, you may want to make this your go-to place for breakfast and lunch. They have bargain prices and they serve generously. Two blocks away is the terrific “Caribbean Cinemas Fine Arts” theater/Miramar. (Check out their app!)

La Pradera Hours: 7AM - 3PM daily EXCEPT Sunday when...

I decided to try this place as I am now living in the Miramar area and have tried just about all the places in the area. I waited in the front for about ten mins and then a waitresss came out and asked me what did I want. I told her I wanted to order somehting to eat, she pointed at the menus written on a piece of paper outside and told me to order. She didnt even ask me if I wanted to sit and eat inside. I proceeded to look a the menus and literally ten seconds later she asked what do you want to order. I said can you please be courteous and give me 30 seconds. At that moment a miserable man who looked to be the owner gave me a dirty look and then proceeded to ask me what do you want...bizarre, maybe he was in a bad mood and wanted to take it out on me or maybe he is plain miserable.

At this point I decided to leave as for no reason I obviously was not wanted there, before I left I did tell him he was rude and told him I would spend my money somewhere else, many people witnessed this and commented that he was rude and miserable, they could not believe he had treated me this way. Do not visit this place, spend you money where you are valued and treated like a paying customer, this guy is miserabe with no class...

My girlfriend and I visited San Juan for the Valentine weekend. La Pradera was impeccable. The prices are very affordable, and the food is fantastic. My girlfriend and I had the Fried Pork Chops and Crab Salad respectively. For beverages, we had passion fruit juice, guava juice, and a standard margarita. The juices were so fresh. We loved it. One thing of note is that crab salad had an abundance of crab. In the mainland US, it’s not unusual for places to give you a tiny amount of crab. This was not the case here. My girlfriend said she really could’ve used more lettuce because she assumed there would be less crab. This is definitely a place to...