I went to Raíces in 2015 and it was delicious. I was excited to take my family and I was a bit disappointed.

Let’s start with the food: we got two mofongos and neither looked or tasted like what I got in 2015. The one in 2015 looked more like the picture in the menu with a plantain chip sticking out, had meat mixed in with the plantain and had great flavor. The ones we got this time did not have the meat mixed in, instead it was mashed plantain at the bottom and meat sitting on top, okay flavor. That’s not real mofongo. We mostly went for their mofongo, so this was disappointing. The other dishes we got were the garlic chicken (pollo Al ajillo) and the the steak with onions (bistec encebollado) we’re both incredibly delicious and flavorful. We also got the flan and the tres leche. The flan was creamy and perfectly baked, however the tres leche was a little too sweet. We ordered the alcapurrias as an appetizer and asked the waitress if they had meat (we just had ordered these at another restaurant and they had nothing inside), she assured us there’s had meat inside but they did not. It was just fried dough with a tiny shade of something brown, but honestly the taste was not distinguishable. The cold drinks, especially the piña colada was delicious. We also ordered coffee and they literally brought us half filled cups. Very strange.

On to the service. The plus, they seated us right away and came to take our order pretty quickly. However they didn’t bring us enough utensils for everyone, even after we asked, we ended up sharing, some people in our group ate with forks and others with spoons. When we ordered desserts they brought us a mix up dessert spoons and soup spoons, but again not enough for everyone in our group. When we got the coffee, we had to ask (and ask again) for spoons, sugar, and milk for the coffee. I get that we went on a day when multiple cruises had docked so maybe that’s why the service was off.

The ambience is quite lively and festive. They have great music, which was fun. I love their Christmas tree, decorated with traditional Puerto Rican food & drink items like a mini caldero and sazón boxes.