Tía Dora — Restaurant in San Juan

Tia Dora has fantastic food, but horrible service. Get takeout or have your food delivered. It is obvious that this place is not invested in dine-in service.

When we found the entrance (tiny sign - clearly not trying to attract dine-in business), we walked into a counter with kitchen prep. The guy behind the counter was very gruff. He did not even say hello. We stood there for 5 minutes doing something on his iPad while we just stood there.

Upstairs there are about 8 2-person high top tables, plus 2 tables that seat 3 and 5 people. There were 2 other occupied tables - 3 people total - when we arrived.

I tried to order their version of a pina colada but they were all out (first time that’s ever happened when I ordered a cocktail.). I switched to a watermelon sangria made with white wine. This was fabulous!

It took 30 minutes to get our mezze appetizer tray - pumpkin hummus (phenomenal!), baba ghanoush (eggplant), and muhammara (also excellent). The pita bread was homemade, hot out of the oven, and the best we have ever had.

Our entrees took another hour, even though no one else was in the restaurant by then. The Moroccan chicken was also fantastic. Service throughout was lousy.

There is a public, unstaffed parking lot around the corner - $4 for 1st hour, then $2/hour. Pay at the machine before you get in your car to leave. (We did not try to find street parking as we had no idea what the...

We had high hopes for this restaurant, but unfortunately, the experience left a lot to be desired.

Let’s start with the tea: The “mint tea” was not mint tea. It was just black tea with a single mint leaf floating in it which didn’t even impart a mint aroma (black tea isn’t even on the menu, so this wasn’t a mix-up).

The mezze we ordered were underwhelming: •    The labneh was overly sweet. •    The beet puree was refrigerator cold. •    The hummus was the best of the dishes, but it’s hard to make hummus bad.

The cauliflower wings were just fried battered cauliflower on a bed of sweet red sauce, there was no flavor profile to indicate what it was trying to imitate. No heat, no zing or tang, just bland.

The pita that accompanied the meal was too dense and oddly enough gave my husband an instant stomach ache (he’s not gluten intolerant, so we’re unsure why). The flavor was otherwise fine.

The lentil salad was okay in flavor but the toasted quinoa was bland and gratuitous, not dissimilar to the grit of sand. We were overall so dissatisfied we didn’t order a main meal.

The service was nice and the ambiance of the inside seating area was intimate with low lighting and music that wasn’t too loud.

Overall, we wouldn’t come back or recommend this place. Maybe the meat and alcoholic options are decent, but what we had was not a good representation of the delight that Mediterranean food can be,...

I didn’t have a reservation when I came but I was happy to hear they were able to accommodate us. I came here because I wanted to try their pumpkin hummus, however, I was sadly disappointed. It didn’t taste like pumpkin or like hummus. It lacked salt, flavor and it was bitter. It was my first time sending back a plate. I told the server that the kitchen may have forgotten to add salt which she had nothing to say to my comment. I noticed the couple sitting next to us were not eating their hummus so I asked what their thoughts were. They had ordered the regular hummus, which they also felt lacked flavor, garlic and salt. We also ordered the dates, the halloumi and the lamb which were good. I asked the server if they could substitute the hummus for a dessert which they did but it wasn’t my favorite because I didn’t like the taste of olive oil over the baklava and the ice cream. There was another couple that left their food, because there was something on the husband’s plate that he could not eat, and he had requested to have that item substituted for salad which they couldn’t do so I saw them leaving most of their food on the table and leaving the restaurant. I was super excited about trying this local restaurant but sadly I will not...