El Rincon Del Sabor

This restaurant was the best place we went to on our week long vacation in Puerto Rico. The food was delicious! We started with shrimp cocktail and fried chicken wings. The oil/​garlic sauce that accompanied the shrimp cocktail was very good. For dinner, my husband had the mahi mahi and I had the lobster mofongo… wonderful! My daughters split a porterhouse steak while my 5 year old ate mozzarella sticks… nothing was left on any of their plates. The food was accompanied by rice and beans (the best we have had in Puerto Rico) and arepas. The most enjoyable part of the evening was meeting and speaking with the owner. He was just lovely and has so much knowledge about Puerto Rico. The dinner, 2 adults and 3 kids, $ 120…worth every penny!

The chef is like a magician spreading his passion and love for Puerto Rican food and culture with anybody who comes in. One of us is vegetarian, and while the menu is catered to carnivores and seafood aficionados, the beans and rice and mozzarella sticks took us far. The sweet creole sauce with chicken was also appetizing.

Wonderful atmosphere, amazing food and the best service! The owner is just the most attentive, friendly and a great guy. From detailed information and recommendation on the food he shared a lot of history about the island. The food was cooked into perfection! 5 stars on everything. Louise and Carmen great owners and chefs.

The service was excellent and the food was hypnotic. Husband and wife owners make you feel like family and it’s wonderful! Best criolla sauce hands down.

Good authentic Puerto Rican food plain and simple. The couple who own and operate this small little gem were awesome as was our dinner! Definitely a place we recommend and will be returning to.

What a find! Our dinner was delicious and was, in fact, my wife’s favorite meal in Puerto Rico. While my kids and I enjoyed steak dishes, it was the whole red snapper and snapper with garlic sauce that really stood out. Luis was incredibly hospitable and his wife, Carmen, is the chef. We highly recommend eating here!

Good restaurant for PR visitors. The owners are very nice, and food is tasty. This restaurant is somewhat off the beaten path absent Unilocal/​trip advisor, but once you make it through the door, the restaurant is very nice.

A small family run business and gift shop. Top quality home made Puerto Rican style food! Their home made spicy sauce is delicious too! Great service. Friendly staff. Will come here again!

Wonderful experience at this hidden away joint. Although a little hard to find (it’s in the back of a gift shop), the food was incredible and the service was the best I’ve experienced in PR. It’s owned by a husband and wife — she cooks, he serves. The grouper and mofongo were both fantastic, the homemade hot sauce was amazing, and we were treated to a round of moonshine rum at the end of the meal. On top of that, when the owner found out we were in town to get married, he met us at our car with a wedding gift from the store. I can’t recommend this place enough.

My husband and I ordered grilled fish over their «ranch salad». This was probably the best salad we’ve ever had. Beautiful micro greens, tomatoes and some shredded cabbage. The fish was cooked to perfection and the woman added her own hot sauce. Definitely a place to go again and again

Great local place!
Husband and wife team, know their business and cook good food!
Pass by, PASS BY!!!

Whoa! Simply amazing. Definitely a restaurant I would frequent.
Luis was so hospitable and his wife’s cooking — Wow!. This food was superbly delish! We had the shrimp mofongo, shrimp gumbo, and sweet plantains.

Look for the gift shop in front. If the door is locked just ring the bell. Family owned and run with the father hosting, son waiting tables, and mom cooking.
I had the lobster with garlic and butter sauce. Much lighter than you would expect. My mom had the lobster in creole sauce. Not spicy, sort of sweet in a tomato kind of way.
They just got new tables and chairs which the old man was super proud of. His son kept trying to tell him how to organize them but the old man was going to do it his way. Hilarious to watch as it reminded me of me and my dad.

Just a man and his wife– she cooks and he runs the small place. The front is a tourist shop, the restaurant is in the back. The restaurant is tiny, it probably holds 25 max. The owner is very friendly. He instantly knew we were tourists (I have no idea what gave it away: our southern English accent, our pale white skin or the look of being confused!) but he welcomed us to Puerto Rico and made recommendations on the menu.
The food was presented beautifully. My husband had the red snapper and loved it. I had the shrimp gumbo– it was good, but the flavor was very strong so a bit overwhelming.
It was good, but not a place I would suggest if I had family/​friends traveling to the area.

This place is AMAZING! Our best dinner out in Puerto Rico during our entire vacation. The owner, Luis, and his wife, who is the cook, are the sweetest, most hospitable folks you could ask for in the restaurant business. Yes, it’s tricky to locate, and yes, the restaurant is in the back room of a gift shop, but the food is fresh and amazing.
We were a party of nine and we called in advance and they had room for us. We arrived, and it turns out we were the only guests that night! Luis had the table set and salads prepared for all of us. The drinks menu just had a la carte options, but he made an exception and brewed up pitchers of margaritas for our group!
Everyone said that each dish they ordered was delicious. We tried shrimp in creole sauce, red snapper with garlic sauce, mofongo, and lobster in garlic sauce. It was some of the freshest, most tender fish I have ever had! The garlic sauce is light, buttery, and you can actually taste the garlic! I also hear that the arroz con habichuelas was delicious as well as a side dish.
When we finished our meal, Luis poured us all a shot of homemade moonshine rum, which was strong and sweet and the perfect way to end a delicious meal.
Then, to top it off, the next day (which was our last day in Puerto Rico), we got a call from Luis telling us to have a safe flight home and for us to visit him again the next time we are in Luquillo/​Rio Grande. What a total sweetheart! If you want to try some local cuisine while supporting a true mom and pop operation, then head over to El Rincon del Sabor.

Very authentic little restaurant run by nice a couple in the back of a gift shop. Service was great, and the husband was very welcoming and made great Pina Coladas. Only issue with such a small operation is if all 6 tables come in at the same time there can be a hold-​up on receiving the food.
Only complaints were that the food was a little pricey for what you received and our mofongo was drier than what we had at other restaurants. Perhaps it was a just a bad plate though since other reviewers raved about it!
Definitely recommend the shrimp in creole sauce — very delicious!

Very authentic and genuine. You walk through a store front to the restaurant with 6 – 7 tables. Husband is the waiter and wife is the cook. I had mixed seafood mofongo and my girlfriend had mixed seafood soup. The flavors were fantastic and quality of food excellent.
I will go there every time I can!

I really really enjoyed our dinner here. Luckily, for us, we went during the slow season. So we had the full attention of the owner/​waiter (his wife is the cook). It’s a cute little restaurant a few blocks from the plaza. The menu is a mixture of meat, fish, veg etc. I had the steak and mofongo, my wife had a seafood/​mofongo dish. Everything we had was very good. While eating the a local fisherman brought in some fresh lobster that he just caught. But perhaps the best part of our evening was the host. He is over the top friendly and helpful. He’ll explain everything to you, have a nice conversation and just make you feel at home. Afterwards he even gave us little shots of home made liquor. When i’m in Luquillo i’ll totally go back here. He did warn us, during the tourist season there is often a wait.

The restaurant was recommended by our hotel nearby and boy were we glad to stop there!
At first glance we weren’t sure we had made the right decision but the owner was extremely friendly and hospitable. The décor and location were unassuming but once the food came out my wife and I were blown away.
I had the Creole shrimp with mashed plantains, which I had never experienced before but I know I will be sure to look for when I get home. The owner explained the chef was his wife and the creole sauce was her specialty. I’m not great at using flashy words to describe what I eat — I’ll just say the shrimp were plentiful, the sauce perfectly sweet and savory and the plantains, my god the plantains. You get a heaping «bowl» of plantains with the sauce and shrimp mixed in. It was just perfect.
My wife got the snapper with garlic sauce. The fish was very fresh and the sauce light, creamy, not overpowering and delicate at the same time. I’m not a huge «not fried or crusted» fish guy but this dish changed my perceptions on good solid fish.
When we were done the owner was nice enough to bring out some very local alcohol shots on the house which were quite good (and very strong). Overall the food was great but the experience was even better.
I would recommend this place to anyone I knew. It might seen unassuming from the outside but we saw plenty of locals there as well and it was a true local eating experience, one that I would take any day over some flashy Michelin rated restaurant.

We gave this place a visit after finding it on Unilocal with decent rating. We were not seeking diarrhea while in a foreign country. Any who, the food is pretty great but so are the high prices to match it. I ordered Lobster Gumbo with Mofungo [mashed plantains that taste like mash potatoes] while my group ordered pork chops with rice and beans and grilled lobster with rice and beans. The only reason why I am giving this place 4 stars is because of my dish.
My gumbo and mofongo was amazing! A little on the salty side but the intense flavors mixed with the mild tasting plantains produced an out of this world combo. The other dishes ordered came out and definitely disappointed. The pork chop was dry and almost impossible to chew. I would describe it as cardboard like, but others called it jerky, any way you get the point. The grilled lobster was just ok, but for $ 40, it wasn’t so okay. I would understand if that was the price for lobster in NYC, but for a little hole in the wall? I don’t think so.
Bottom line: All in all the service was great and we enjoyed our dinner. The food is a hit or miss so beware.