Aguaviva

Ok so. The ceviche is good. The rest of the food was tasteless, meaning salt less, flavorless, and colorless. I was dining with 5 other people and none of us truly enjoyed what we had. Oh wait and the bill was insane crazy high, so not so happy that I ate bad food and paid BH prices. While the restaurant needs a FULL upgrade from top to bottom. The three stars ARE ONLY FOR THE CEVICHE.

Excellent place with excellent service! Try the red snapper stuffed with mofongo! I couldn’t stop myself!

first thought after waking out of the restaurant… overrated…
here, we had ceviche and the whole fish. but we had better…
it is expensive… did not feel that I had the food worth the money…
definitely got charged for the location…(the famous old san juan…)
once is ok but i would not go back

Really great service and décor. Our server Stephanie did an awesome job helping us pick out what to eat. Tried the trio of ceviche, shrimp and lobster gnocchi, and snapper with lobster mufungo. Gnocchi is made with Yuca and definitely worth trying.

3.5 stars on this restaurant row in old San Juan. The ingredients were fresh. The ceviche was on the slightly sweet side. Fish was fresh. Décor is so so. The open kitchen made it kind of noisy. Service was pleasant.

Upbeat, clean and friendly place to dine in Old San Juan. We parked 1 street behind the Restaraunt in a garage. Table was ready and place was already busy at 6:45pm. Nice cocktails with fresh ingredients and very good service. We liked the tres seafoods ceviche appetizer– fresh and flavorful. I had to get the seafood paella and it was big (enough to share) and very flavorful and nicely prepared. My wife had the potato wrapped sole and she loved it. We enjoyed the desert — crime brûlée and a late. I recommend this restaurant!

Aguaviva was great. It is right next to lots of shops in downtown Old San Juan. The hostess was very nice. The décor inside was very modern but welcoming. I ordered the salt cod fritters with lemon aioli, the SOFO salad, and a side of tostones. The fritters very pretty good; I’d rate them a ⁴⁄₅. They had a slight salmon taste and they were a bit bland. The aioli was okay. The salad, however, was great. It had jicama, cucumber, and some other greens on a bed of romaine. The croutons didn’t have much taste. However, the dressing was the best part; a mango balsamic vinaigrette, it wasn’t too strong and was very nicely balanced. We didn’t have any «postre» at Aguaviva, but they looked good. I would define you go back.
Food: 8.5÷10
Décor/​Ambiance: ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Service: ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Total: 28.5÷30

Dinner was amazing. We shared 3 – 4 appetizers and all were so good. We tried to pick a favorite but gave up.
The sea food soup was the best we ever had. Go there to eat, you won’t regret it!
Oh, and have a watermelon sangria. Very refreshing!

My friends and I went here just to get the oysters and they were absolutely delicious. You have three options on how the oysters are cooked and I suggest you get all three to try them out. These oysters were large, a bit salty and full. The menu items are definitely expensive (the entrees range from $ 27-​$ 50) so expect to spend close to $ 80/​person if you come here.
Besides that, the service here was great too. I had a few bad experiences with waiters/​waitresses here at San Juan but our waitress here was the friendliest. The service was prompt here.
I highly suggest this place if you love seafood and have a big budget!

The service is great. The atmosphere is modern and vibrant. Oysters are fresh. The salmon is surprisingly good. The scallop is close to perfection but the paella is too salty, which kind of ruined it. A little bit pricy.

I waa craving seafood and this place hit the spot! I started with the octopus ceviche and then had the Mahi Mahi. I could’ve eaten multiple servings of that ceviche, and haven’t had Mahi prepared that well in a very long time. Our server Jairo was extremely pleasant, knowledgeable, and professional. I would absolutely come back.
I was only unhappy with part of the experience– the horrible bathroom! It was a single occupancy with the sink outside the bathroom. Even for an older building, there is no excuse for how ugly that bathroom was. However, since this doesn’t affect my dining experience, no point in deducting a star.

I came here with my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day dinner. It’s in a very cute area of downtown San Juan, and I love the décor and look of it, very beachy. Our waiter and the hostess were also awesome, she held our table for like 45 minutes when we were stuck in unbearable traffic!
The food didn’t blow us away however and we spent almost 200 $ on the meal. We don’t mind splurging on dining, but it sucks when it doesn’t feel worth it. The appetizer gnocchi was really good and rich, and the ceviches were good for the most part. We tried the three ceviche sampler and I loved the truffle tuna and salmon basil, but didn’t like the spicy one… it just tasted like hot sauce. Then came the entrees: my boyfriend got the hyped up snapper with lobster mofungo, and I did the surf and turf: filet mignon with lobster. His snapper was very good, but the mofungo was cold and didn’t taste much like lobster. As for my dish, it was almost 50 bucks and the steak was raw. I’m talking like beef sashimi raw. I did order it medium rare, but it should be edible. The waiter came over after it was cut into cubes, and they threw it back on the grill… but by then the texture was compromised and the bites just tasted like the grill. My melojito cocktail was very good and strong, however!

My husband and I made reservations here for New Years. It was one of the highlights of the trip. As others have recommended, we got the pitcher of watermelon Sangria. It was really light, but delicious. We had the coconut shrimp with plum sauce. Definitely appetizing. Squeeze the Orange it is served with all over the shrimp. My husband got the full snapper. Really impressive. I ordered the seafood risotto. It was really rich and creamy. We found our waitress to be very attentive and the service quick.
It was a little chilly with the air conditioning. I’d bring s sweater.

While vacationing in Puerto Rico with my wife, we were excited to try out this place for our first dinner as it came highly recommended by many people (as well as reviews here). Disappointed to say it did not live up to the hype and here is why:
The only saving grace (and the one star) goes to the bartender who was personable, attentive and made some awesome drinks!
Now to the bad:
The service is HORRIBLE. Frankly some of the worst I’ve ever had. Sat and waited an hour for our entrée with no explanation and pussy-​footing around the issue. In the service industry at least come out with it and say the kitchen is jammed and either offer some sort of recourse.
Nothing though, barely refilled our water, ran out of salad and no bread. We confirmed this after we had to ask multiple times if they had either of these items.
We finally got our food an hour later, I ordered the red snapper filet with lobster mofongo and my wife ordered the mahi mahi with mofongo. I watched the kitchen as they plated the warm dishes of only mofongo and then let them sit there for 15 minutes until they finished topping them with fish. Low and behold the fish was warm but the other parts were ice cold. Yes btw I would’ve complained if not for the fact that our waitress disappeared for 25 minutes after we were served.
Visit Old San Juan but don’t go here. Worst meal I’ve had in a long time and paid in protest.

The ceviche was fresh and tasty as well as the paella. Friendly staff and great service. Food came out quickly:

Unique!
Lovely ambiance! Very serene. They serve gourmet food; delicious! Drinks are yummy! A bit pricey, but worth it for a great and unique experience. Would try again.

Oh boy. No bueno. People are really nice, BUT SERVICE IS SLOW as hell. I think it’s the cook and the wait service. I got my Melojito drink fine, it’s awesome by the way! Manager tried to recover the bad service, but too late. Waited 25 – 30 minutes for an appetizers. Deliberately did not give the prix fix special menu, for some reason. Had to ask for it specifically. Customers that came after me received their food first? That’s weird.
The free bread by the way is stale.
Real disappointed since I heard good stuff about the food.
Maybe next time will come back when the place is totally empty. By the way, this incident, the place wasn’t packed.
In conclusion, walked out with the manager aware with a 0.00 $ balance. Hope they learn from this experience because the employee so we’re nice. They need to organize better. Boo! Walked out hungry!

A great «Foodie Find»!
Their menu is on the high end side, but well worth the experience for really good food.
Three of us shared two main entrees, cerviche and saved room for desserts too.
Their whole fried red snapper with lobster infused mofongo entrée… this was by far the best dish throughout our trip here in P.R. The other dish was a mahi mahi entrée. It was really good, but not over the top like their whole red snapper dish.
So if you want to splurge on a good meal, this is the place to do it.

Excellent service, great drinks and appetizers.
We started with the bunuelos, which were creamy cod fish fritters. Awesome!
The coconut shrimp appetizer was one of the best coconut shrimp dishes I’ve ever had. The fragrance and flavor of the coconut was so nicely present in the dish and it was accentuated by the ginger and plum dipping sauce. That sauce is delicious!
My boyfriend had the jumbo shrimp entrée and the watermelon sangria and loved it.
Led by the reviews, I ordered the red snapper filet mofongo and I was sort of disappointed. I found the mofongo to be dry and flavorless. I know mofongo can tend to be dry but I’ve definitely had better. The red snapper filet was great (but how hard is it to make a delicious fried fish filet when you’re starting with a beautiful fresh product?). I thought the dish overall could’ve benefitted from some type of sauce over the mofongo to add some more moisture and flavor.
I would definitely come here again and I recommend it heartily. I would just try a different entrée next time.

Out best meal in PR, and we had lots of memorable food. The ceviche is off the charts. Tried the six ceviche sampler. All were great.
The bronzini (had the whole fish) was delicious as well.
Creative drinks. Great service. Hip crowd. Who could ask for more!