Hacienda Muñoz — Restaurant in San Lorenzo

This is a blended review of two starkly different experiences since there are not two separate business listings.

COFFEE TOUR & SHOP - 5 Stars

This morning we had a new and wonderful experience at Hacienda Muñoz with a tour of their coffee plantation and facilities. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, we had some extra feathered guests join us, and the tour ended with a sample taste of their 100% Puerto Rican grown coffee. Highly recommend this activity to anyone visiting or living on the eastern side of the island.

YIYA'S RESTAURANT - 1 Star

My advice? Enter at your own risk. Better yet, grab a quick drink and then make your exit. More about our 3 hour ordeal...

11:15am - We planned eat at the restaurant for an early lunch (since their FB page for the prior 2 days advertised open at 11am). Walk over and were told that no, they open at 12pm (although people were still there from brunch).

Annoying, but we figured it might be worth a wait versus driving somewhere else. Went back to the coffee shop, bought some bags of coffee, and ordered drinks to enjoy in their seating area to kill time.

11:50am - Walk back to restaurant to find a line of people, maybe a dozen or so deep, waiting outside. One gentleman made a point to tell us how wonderful and delicious it was. This seemed to confirm it was worth the wait.

12:15pm - We made it inside and hardly any tables were filled. Our order for drinks and an appetizer was placed. We all remarked what great ambience they had and were looking forward to the meal. Soon after we placed entree orders.

12:30pm(ish) - Drinks came and were excellent: Sangria, Parcha Sangria, Melon Daiquiri, house beer with coffee notes.

12:45pm(ish) - The sarullitos were good, even if the sauce was a little sweet for our taste.

1:00pm - Notice that all tables are full by now and most all have food. Our drinks are gone and we are chugging water.

1:15pm - Now we are getting pretty hungry. Some people who were also on our morning coffee tour appear to have left without ever being served.

1:30pm - Starting to get irritated as we see people who came in after us finish and pay out to leave. The waiter says "it's coming soon".

2:00pm(ish) - Food finally starts trickling in to our table. We are famished, ready to eat anything... or so we thought.

Salmon - covered with an odd consistency, sickly sweet sauce that was supposed to be coconut-cilantro, but was more like a broken beurre blanc + coconut (all got scraped off), no seasoning on fish (added a whole packet of salt)

Ribs - cooked enough to be technically edible, but not cooked long enough to properly let the meat slide off the bone

Steak - requested medium rare / came out well done (for such a thin cut, why ask the customer's preference?), and again with no seasoning at all

Pork Chop - definitely the worst dish, that was so dry and overcooked it was difficult to both cut and chew (had to use mayoketchup to be somewhat edible)

We all ate just enough to bring our pulses back, then sent the rest back to the kitchen. No doggie bags for us.

2:15pm - We asked for a manager, but got the Head Waiter. He listened to our story and looked at the food, but never offered an apology -- only weak excuses. They tried to bring over a flan on the house, but while appreciated, it was too late.

2:30pm - The check came with a "tasa reducia" of $5.34 for our trouble, but to add insult to injury, they added this to our bill rather than subtracted from it. By this time we all had headaches and tummy aches and just wanted to leave, so we paid it and left.

On the bright side, our waiter, David, was fantastic and provided excellent service for all things in his control. Likewise the bartender was on point.

It was unfortunate to end such a great morning activity with probably the worst service I have ever gotten in a restaurant. It could be such a positive impact to the overall experience if they can figure out how to turn their...

We went on the hacienda tour. Grounds are beautiful and well cared for. However, unless you want to spend $20 apiece to stand around in the hot sun for nearly two hours learning everything there is to know about coffee, I do not recommend this tour. While the guide was knowledgeable, the tour was excruciatingly long, with only a few stops along the route. At the beginning, the guide told us it would last 1.25 hours and that we'd be mostly in the shade. There were 40 people on our tour, and very few shady spots to stand in. Considering we had to stand in place for at least 20 minutes per stop, a lot of people got overheated and sunburned. Terrain was steep in places, but since very little walking was involved, everyone, from little kids to seniors, had no problems managing it. My party gave up and left after nearly 2 hours, and the tour guide was still talking away. They didn't even include any coffee tasting during the tour... just a cup of water near the end. About halfway through the tour, people started leaving or they mentally checked out. Near the end, only a handful were paying attention. I am a coffee lover, a PR resident, and I enjoy supporting local businesses and touring coffee haciendas. Unfortunately, this ranks among the two worst tours of any kind that I have ever taken. My suggestion is to cut the tour to 30 minutes and to include a coffee sample at the end. That would help guests leave with a good impression, and they'd also be more likely to spend $$ buying...

It never feels good when a local is denied of something & then a tourist arrives & gets it. I had lunch at Yiya’s last Friday. The whole Hacienda was basically empty (it was still early in the afternoon). There’s a tiny gate that divides Yiya’s from Doppio Caffè. I asked the infamous Cheíto, our waiter (I noticed he’s been mentioned in other reviews as well) if there were plans for that gate to be opened and he bluntly replied: No. He didn’t feel the need to explain. So we took the long walk (which isn’t that long but considering we were so close to it through the gate, it felt wrong) to Doppio where the pastry I initially ordered was trapped with a fly until the person I was with, told me about it. The lady that served us at Doppio didn’t seem to mind that there was a fly in direct contact with the food. We sat to have our coffees (very good) & (hopefully) fly free pastries and noticed how a group consisting of 3 tourists were trying to get to Yiya’s from Doppio and the tiny gate that Cheíto said it was not going to be opened, was indeed opened for this party. I’ve been visiting this Hacienda since 2008 at least. There have been improvements & pleasant changes over the years. However, when they fail in basics like this, it does remind me why it might take me 3-4 years to feel the need to visit them again. The experiences there are seldom good overall. There’s always something failing at basic levels & it’s sad because it’s an amazing...