Los Pinos Café — Restaurant in San Juan

🇵🇷 🇩🇴 Los Pinos - “loes pee nohs” (The Pines 🌲) is a casual restaurant open 24/7! A very short drive from Condado, the convention center area, or Viejo (Old) San Juan 🤸🏽‍♂️ It’s been at this location forever...do they ever sleep? If you’re hungry this is the place to go! You can come in shorts and a T-shirt if you prefer, no hay problemo aqui 🏄🏿‍♀️ 🏄!!! This is sort of like Puerto Rico‘s equivalent to a diner. This local spot serves big portions of Creole/Criollo food at very reasonable prices. This is hearty filling food (most creole food is what people in the contiguous United States would eat for dinner) although this establishment also sells breakfast until 11AM and sandwiches until about 2PM 🤔 . You could certainly make their lunch menu a brunch menu for yourself. They even have a kids menu. 🎪 Order their Chicken Milanese 💙, their delicious Churrasco steak, any of their dishes on their menu in the category of dishes “Over Rice“, order their coconut flan 🍮 or Trés Leches cake 🍰 and one of their amazing drinks🍹 such as a Piña Colada or their sweet fruit Shakes/Batidas made with Papayas and one Dominican one called “Morir Soñando” (to die dreaming) a mixture of Orange 🍊 Juice and (usually sweet condensed) Milk 🥛.

For an old school drink with alcohol try something called “Licor 43” (known as quarenta y trés) over ice with cold milk. It’s great..Licor 43 is one of 🇪🇸 Spain’s most popular alcohol exports and a favorite in Puerto Rico for decades! Los Pinos also serves non-alcoholic beer 🍺 which is great when your driving or living clean. I’d skip the hamburgers here but if you get an urge for one, grab a couple at local fave “El Hamburguer” 🍔 🍟 a 5 minute drive from Viejo San Juan.

🎶 They used to have a great jukebox 😭 and although they claim to have valet parking, I don’t think it’s offered every day - - there IS a private multilevel parking lot (for a fee) across the street near the Pueblo Supermarket and the “Caribbean Cinemas Fine Arts Miramar” theater across the street (which has movies in English and in Spanish). 🎥 PRO TIP: Los Pinos Miramar restaurant is a great place to come on Wednesday’s for a bite and then a movie...the movie theater across the street (Caribbean Cinemas Fine Arts Miramar) offers a special low price all day and night on Wednesdays for women, so it’s an especially cheap date/family night! I think it’s $5 for women. 💃🏾 That is a must, you’ve never met a kinder staff! If you plan to eat before the movie, allow plenty of time beforehand in case service is slow as it often is in San Juan. 🤷🏽‍♀️ check their terrific website if you want to decide what you’d like to eat in advance and know that although it’s difficult to call there because whoever answers the phone doesn’t always speak English (and perhaps you don’t speak Spanish) their entire staff is bilingual.

🚨 Parking on the street here is almost impossible to find at any time so you’re better off either using the nearby parking lot or taking a taxi or an Uber here and back. ¡Buen Provecho! (bwayne pro vay cho = enjoy your meal) an expression commonly said politely to other seated diners as you enter and exit a restaurant in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 It’s one of the islands many beautiful...

The only good thing about this place is they're open 24/7. When we sat down at our table 10 minutes went by before a server approached us and said "let me see who's your server" Eventually she came back, I guess she didn't know that was her table. I guess she didn't wanna wait on us because when she came back she didn't even greet or introduce herself. She just said " what do you want to eat" like she was doing us a favor. We asked her about the empanadillas because we wanted to know how many came on the plate and she said "6... Two of cheese, two of beef and two of chicken" It was fine so we ordered it. When they brought the appetizer and started eating it we noticed they gave us three of cheese, two of chicken and only one of beef. So we called our server over and let her know what was going on and right away she gave us attitude and started making excuses. First she said " well I told you they were mixed" and my wife without missing a beat told her "No, you said two of chicken, two of beef and two of cheese" The next excuse was " well if we ran out of beef they are going to give you a different one" Hmmm how about telling the customer before making an arbitrary decision? Again my wife said "No, you said two, two and two" Then the server made a very ridiculous suggestion saying "ok, I can take one cheese away and bring you another one of beef" Hmmm I thought she said they ran out of the beef empanadillas? So she took it away!!! What a pathetic move. I made the mistake of ordering what they called "Ribeye" what a sad looking piece of meat. It didn't look or taste anything like it. I know what a ribeye steak looks like I've eaten in the best steakhouses in Chicago and I know how they look and taste like. Here we go again! I tried to call "our server" but she never showed up, a different server came over . When I told him about the steak. He tried to convinced me. " That's what ribeye looks like in Puerto Rico" Hmmm I thought ribeye came from the same part of the cow. Whether if here, Chicago or Japan. Then he said " these people over this table ordered it and over that other table too and they didn't complain" well frankly I really don't care if they don't know what a ribeye looks like that wasn't a ribeye!!! This one looked like a piece of chuck roast. But you be the judge look at the picture. I also order two sides amarillos and arroz manposteado. The amarillos were almost black and not cook all the way. Again lol at the picture a tell me that's how a Amarillo is supposed to look. I couldn't finish the steak because of the taste and texture. That's a first one for me. What a disappointing experience. Lastly when it came time to pay "our server" magically reappeared all smiles and talking nice to my wife, I think she just wanted to make sure she got a good tip. I gave her the minimum and she should thank her lucky stars she got something. Not coming back...

This was our first and definitely last time at this restaurant. We went because of the good reviews and didn’t bother to read the negative ones. We walked there from the Hyatt Place San Juan, expecting a nice experience, but it turned out to be extremely disappointing — mainly due to the poor service.

Our server, a Dominican woman named Zulema, started off okay. When I placed our order, I clearly told her that my wife does not eat pork and only wanted fried chicken. After waiting one full hour for the food, the fried chicken finally arrived — and there was a piece of fried pork on the plate. My wife noticed it right away, asked me to taste it, and I confirmed it was pork.

I asked the server if the dish was fried chicken or pork, and she said it was chicken. I pointed out the pork on the plate, and she rudely replied, “Well, then you eat it.” Completely unprofessional.

To make matters worse, I had ordered juice and requested a refill. Without warning, they charged me $12 for the refill, which is just outrageous. Most places include refills or at least inform you of the cost — not here.

I wanted to respond to the server’s disrespect, but my wife asked me to stay calm and not let it ruin our vacation. So I stayed quiet and asked for the check. When it came time to tip, I selected the custom tip option and left $10 out of the $100 we spent — not because the server deserved it, but because the busser, the young woman who cleaned and brought our refills, was very kind and attentive. She had nothing to do with the bad service and I wanted her to receive at least part of the tip.

As we were leaving, the server again showed her attitude. She tore the receipt from the handheld printer violently and right next to my left ear, clearly trying to be annoying. I walked out angry and honestly regretted leaving any tip at all.

I will not return and would not recommend this place. Waiting an hour for food, getting overcharged for a juice refill, and dealing with a rude and unprofessional server completely ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing dinner during our vacation. One person’s attitude can ruin the entire experience...